Message from the Editor, Mark C. Belk

Continuing a tradition of over 65 years, the Western North American Naturalist offers meaningful insights, timely data, and useful research aids to those studying the fascinating and complex field of biological natural history. The geographic coverage of Western North American Naturalist, from northernmost Canada and Alaska to southern Mexico, and from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, encompasses land of incomparable diversity: hot deserts and cold deserts, lush valleys, towering mountains, rivers and streams, sandy beaches, frozen tundra, windswept ridges, alkali flats, tranquil forests, and seemingly endless space.

Over the years the journal, including its predecessor The Great Basin Naturalist, has firmly established itself as a forum for reporting peer-reviewed research, both descriptive and analytical, on natural history topics. Our goal is not only to continue but to expand this publishing tradition, to push back the frontiers of knowledge in natural history studies for this vast area of North America.

Scope

The Western North American Naturalist places neither restriction nor preference on manuscripts within the disciplines of the biological sciences. Ideally, each issue of the journal will feature articles, notes, and book reviews covering diverse topics: plants, vertebrates, invertebrates, insects, ecology, and genetics, for example.

What's New

• Great Basin Naturalist, Great Basin Naturalist Memoirs, and BYU Science Bulletin, Biological Series, now online at the Biodiversity Heritage Library.          More about GBN journal archive.                                                                                             More about GBN Memoirs archive.                                                                                          More about BYU Science Bulletin archive. 
  
• Donaciinae in Utah, Grand Canyon aquatic Heteroptera, and Mammals of Great Basin National Park Monograph #4 is now available (click here).
  
• All Monographs open access at BioOne and at WNAN Archives  The BioOne debut date is 6 January 2009.
  
• 2006-2008 issues available at BioOne  All material from 2006 forward is available to institutions subscribing to the BioOne.2 services. Articles from 1990 through 2005 are available at the BYU HBLL repository.
• Web-based manuscript tracking.  WNAN is now using Open Journal Systems software to manage manuscript submission and review. Please see the "Submissions" page or click on the following link:   https://ojs.lib.byu.edu/ojs/index.php/wnan/index
• Special topics. WNAN welcomes proposals for special issues of the journal that would focus attention on poorly known systems or taxa of the western North American region. Special issues could be done in conjunction with symposia at regional or national meetings or they may consist of a series of invited papers from experts in the field. All papers would be peer-reviewed and edited at the same level as regular submissions. Send proposals directly to the editor (mark_belk@byu.edu).

Publication

The Western North American Naturalist is published quarterly. The cost for subscribers in the United States and Canada is $35 for individuals and $65 for institutions. Individual subscriptions outside the U.S. and Canada are $40; institution subscriptions remain the same. Subscriptions begin with issue 1 and end with issue 4.