Editor's viewpoint

THE JOURNAL OF VENOMOUS ANIMALS AND TOXINS: A SPECIALIZED BRAZILIAN PUBLICATION THAT HAS RAPIDLY SUCCEEDED

Appearing in 1995, in Botucatu, the place where Vital Brazil was first exposed to the serious problem of venomous snake bites, The Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins, one of the first Brazilian publications on diskettes, is now in the fourth volume. In four years it became a forum for the discussion of a subject that is usually dispersed in different journals dealing with a variety of unrelated matters.

The articles published in The Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins cover from the systematics and morphology of venomous animals to the biochemistry, pharmacology and immunology of venoms, the epidemiology of envenomation by different animals, insects, algae, bacteria, fungi, and plant products; besides dealing with the molecular biology of venoms, as well as the physiology of their actions, treatment of their effects, preparation and evaluation of vaccines, etc. The important field of bacterial, animal, and plant toxins is growing fast, but scientists from one field are frequently not aware of what is happening in other areas. The Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins has opened the possibility of bringing together all this information.

In the first issues there was a preponderance of Brazilian authors, but now increasing numbers of articles are authored by specialists from several other countries, a demonstration of the international acceptance of this Journal.

One of the Journal's relevant features is the publication of abstracts of theses in the area of venoms and envenomations. This information is very hard to obtain since theses are not necessarily published and lay unread in University libraries; their results, however, may be of value for specialists. In the same vein, the Journal publishes abstracts of papers presented in scientific meetings in Brazil, another important source of information that is usually scattered in annals of meetings dealing with the already referred variety of unrelated subjects.

The abstracts of the papers published in the Journal can be read by assessing the home page of the "Center for the Study of Venoms and Venomous Animals" http://www.botunet.com.br/cevap

Mário Rubens Guimarães Montenegro

Professor Emeritus

School of Medicine of Botucatu

São Paulo State University

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  26 Nov 1998
• Date of issue
  1998