Vol.1, No.2, 9-9 (2013) Advances in Entomology
http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ae.2013.12002
Letter to the Editor
Meera Srivastava
Department of Zoology, Government Dungar College, Bikaner, In dia; [e-mail]
Received 10 June 2013; revised 26 August 2013; accepted 1 September 2013
Copyright © 2013 Meera Srivastava. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Dear Editor
Open-access journals are scholarly journals that are
available online to the readers “without financial, legal,
or technical barriers other than those inseparable from
gaining access to the internet itself”. Today, there is muc h
discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of open
access journals amongst scholars and publishers. One may
argue against the OA but a few obvious advantages in-
clude the free access to scientific papers regardless of
affiliation with a subscribing library, lower costs for re-
search in academia and industry, in addition to improv ed
access for the general public and higher citation rates for
the author. Truly speaking, OA is compatible with copy-
right, peer review, revenue, print, preservation, quality,
indexing and many other features and supportive services
associated with conventional Journals. OA provides a
world wide platform for authors and readers within no
time. Besides, OA also increases the visibility and impact,
as data can be easily retrieved. It facilitates full-text s e a r c h -
ing, indexing, mining, summarizing, translating, query-
ing, linking, recommending, alerting, and other forms of
processing and analysis. Above all, OA puts rich and
poor on an equal footing.
Today, insects constitute the largest class not only of
the animal kingdom but also of the whole living world.
It’s hard to imagine, but 95 % of all the animal species on
the earth are insects! Millions of insects can exist in a
single acre of land! Over one million species have been
discovered by scientist, and they think that there might
be ten times that many have not been named yet! Over a
period of several hundred million years, insects as a class,
have acquired many distinctive structural, developmental,
physiological and behavioral perfections which have en-
abled them to occupy this dominant position. Man’s as-
sociation with insects has been right from their primitive
ancestors. Insects are incredibly adaptable creatures and
have evolved to live successfully in most environments
on earth, including deserts, and ev en the Antarctic. These
are directly useful to humans by producing honey, silk,
wax, and other products. They are also important as pol-
linators of crops, natural enemies of pests, scavengers
and food for other creatures. At the same time, insects
are major pests of humans and domesticated animals
because they destroy crops and carry diseases. Each and
every character of insect is very special: the wings, com-
pound eyes, types of mouth parts, tracheal respiration,
communication, types of metamorphosis and above all
the society and division of labour among social insects
showing a much advanced evolution at Arthropod level.
Man has been exploiting them as a research material
right through and, therefore, the launch of this new OA
journal “Advances in Entomology” at this juncture is of
great relevance and significance. The editorial board with
top academic profile will definitely monitor the quality
publishing in all spheres of publication. The researches
published in this Journal will pave the way for young
entomologists working in varied fields associated with
insects. Here they would not only get the latest informa-
tion but could also publish their significant findings! No
doubts a dual benefit and moreover within a click’s
time…!!!