The New Journals review supplement is intended as a service to potential subscribers (especially librarians), authors and publishers who may welcome comment on their infant journals. Criteria for journals to be considered for review in this issue were circulated to publishers earlier this year, and were also published in Nature. They are that:

(1) the first number appeared during or after June 1995, with four separate numbers available by the end of May 1997 (although journals not covered in last year's review issue were also considered)*;

(2) the journal is published at least three times a year;

(3) the main language is English; and

(4) where possible at least four issues should be made available for review, including the first and the most recent numbers.

The time criteria ensure that a reasonable sample of issues is available for judgement at the time of commissioning reviews. A spread of four different issues is taken as the usual minimum on which a reviewer's comments can be based.

Exceptions and omissions

Exceptions have been made to these rules if a journal covers subject matter of unusual interest or it complements another one reviewed in these pages.

Several journals known to satisfy the criteria were not submitted for review or arrived too late for inclusion. And those publishers that sent in four identical issues of, say, Vol. 1, No. 1 are less likely to find their journal reviewed here.

Disappointed editors should note, however, that it proved difficult to find reviewers for some doubtless worthy journals, while some titles were considered to be of marginal interest to Nature's audience. Journals covering any aspect of science are eligible although those dealing with clinical medicine and pure mathematics are excluded, as are abstracts publications and newsletters. A list of submitted titles eligible for review but not covered appears below.

Reviewers' brief

The brief given to the reviewers was to limit themselves to comments on the publications sent to them, and to avoid discussion of general questions of periodical publishing. Opinions expressed in the reviews are based on a sample of issues. As in previous years, the preponderance of journals in the biological sciences, and in particular neuroscience, reflects the bias of the material submitted.

Prices

Details of editors, frequency of publication and subscription rates appearing at the top of each review are given in most instances for 1998. This information is not complete in all cases, and readers interested in subscribing to a journal should check the rate with the publisher.

Journals also submitted for review

Accreditation and Quality Assurance (Springer); Apoptosis (Rapid Science); Biomarkers (Taylor and Francis); Chemistry: A European Journal (VCH); Cognitive Neuropsychiatry (Psychology Press); Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory (Kluwer); Empirical Software Engineering (Kluwer); Enantiomer: A Journal of Stereochemistry(Gordon and Breach); Environment and Nutritional Interactions (Taylor and Francis); Field Analytical Chemistry and Technology (Wiley); Foundations of Science (Oficyna Akademicka); Haemophilia (Blackwell Science); Journal of Health Psychology (Sage); Journal of Heuristics (Kluwer); Molecular Diversity (ESCOM); Multiple Sclerosis (Stockton); Neurobiology of Disease (Academic); Terra Nova: Nature and Culture (MIT Press).

*See Nature 371, 439 (1994); (1995); and (1996).