1 We are now into our third year as coeditors of Geoscience Canada and this constitutes our annual report to you, the readers of the journal. Since this time last year, there have been some new developments that we would like to bring to your attention.
2 First of all, there are some changes on the masthead (inside front cover). Graham Williams, the 2006 winner of the J. Willis Ambrose Medal, has joined the team of associate editors and will be responsible for articles addressing geoscience education and outreach, among others. In mid-year Craig Hart had to step down as co-editor (with Dave Lentz) of the Economic Geology Models series due to the demands of his new job on the faculty at the University of Western Australia. A new series, Great Mining Camps of Canada, was added (more about this below) and the Environmental Marine Geoscience series ended with the December issue. We would like to thank all series and associate editors for their work on behalf of the journal.
3 We would also like to acknowledge the hard work of the people involved in the production of the journal, whose names are listed on the inside front cover of each issue. It is due to their largely volunteer efforts that the copy editing, layout/typesetting, translation and illustration reach consistently high standards.
4 The new series, entitled Great Mining Camps of Canada (GMCC), is championed by Bob Cathro, who set the standard for others to follow with the first paper on the Keno Hill Silver Camp in Yukon (v.33, no.3). Bob already has commitments from authors for manuscripts on the following mining camps: Buchans in Newfoundland, Bathurst in New Brunswick, Cobalt and Geraldton in Ontario, Caribou, Anyox, and Britannia in British Columbia, and he is looking for more. He outlined the purpose of the GMCC series in the June issue (v.33, no.2) but in 20 words or less it is "to describe how the history of a mine/mining camp is influenced by the geology, general economic conditions, and metal prices." More specifically, it is to show why a mining camp is or was important to the economic and social development of Canada. If you wish to contribute to this series, we are certain that Bob would like to hear from you (e-mail: bobcat62@telus.net).
5 The Geoscience Canada web page [http://www.gac.ca/JOURNALS/geocan.html] has been updated, including the Instructions to Authors and the Procedures and Standards for Associate Editors and Reviewers. Readers are reminded that recent issues are available in digital (PDF) format under "View Journal" then "Full Articles" on the web page. In fact, the digital version normally appears before the printed version thanks to the efforts of Marg Brazil, who looks after the GAC web site. Incidentally, members of the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geology can now subscribe to the digital version of Geoscience Canada.
6 On a related matter, the GAC has awarded a contract to the Electronic Text Centre at the University of New Brunswick for digitizing the back catalogue (30 volumes) of Geoscience Canada. Articles will be searchable in full text and made ready for online presentation in PDF format. This work is expected to be completed later this year. GAC members will have free access to all articles as a member benefit but access options need to be worked out for non-members. One of the possible models is to provide free access to search for authors, keywords and abstracts (summaries) but require payment or subscription for downloading of full articles. Another option is to restrict access to the most recent issues but make the back catalogue available to all for free. In the near future, GAC Council will be deciding what model to adopt and whether or not to continue offering hardcopy subscriptions to the journal. If you have an opinion, advice or want to propose other options, please get in touch with us or your GAC Council member.
7 We welcome your comments and suggestions at any time.