Worm Breeder's Gazette 14(2): 7 (February 1, 1996)
These abstracts should not be cited in bibliographies. Material contained herein should be treated as personal communication and should be cited as such only with the consent of the author.
Another book of the worm, tentatively titled C. elegans II, is now scheduled for publication by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press in 1996. The four of us have put together a plan for a 30 chapter, 700-800 page book involving more than 50 contributors. It is a sign of health in the research community that not all people who have been making substantial contributions to knowledge about the worm are contributing chapters to this volume. There are too many of you! Very few people involved in the 1988 book edited by Bill Wood are writing chapters for C. elegans II, although many are serving faithfully as peer reviewers.
We editors have divided the editorial work among us with each person handling seven or eight chapters. The project is well underway, with 24 of the 30 chapters already reviewed or currently in review. Each chapter is being peer reviewed by one person in the C. elegans field, and one person outside the field. Unfortunately, we still have a few tardy authors as of December, but these folks have promised to get their manuscripts done without further delay. The authors have been challenged to cover their material to the satisfaction of the C. elegans cognoscente, and also appeal to the larger audience of biological researchers who want to know how new knowledge about C. elegans relates to their field. This book is not a second edition of the 1988 book, but represents a new approach that reflects the current status of the field. There will be more chapters on more narrowly defined topics. We do not intend to duplicate the material in the recent book edited by Epstein and Shakes, or in the 1988 book. Instead, we plan to accompany the new hard cover monograph with a digital version (e.g., a searchable CD-ROM with text, figures and other C. elegans data) that will be together with a digital version of the 1988 book, and we will be working together with Bill Wood on this. The pair of electronic books turns out to be a big project that is complicated by rapid changes in technology, and we cannot yet project a release date. We want to produce the highest quality product possible. We can say we are actively working on it together with Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, and they are definitely interested in some form of electronic publication. We will keep you posted on our progress. *************** Don Riddle Molecular Biology Program 311 Tucker Hall, University of Missouri Columbia, MO 65211 TEL: 314/882-2816 FAX: 314/884=9676 INTERNET: riddle@biosci.mbp.missouri.edu