EDITORIAL

Protist - A New Old International Journal of Protistology

When Fritz Schaudinn founded the Archiv für Protistenkunde in 1902, he noted that publications on protists (in his view including bacteria, but now restricted to unicellular eukaryotes) could be found only widely scattered in the publication outlets of diverse disciplines such as zoology, botany, cytology, physiology, anatomy, pathology, hygiene, etc. and that a scientific journal devoted exclusively to protists was lacking. Furthermore, autotrophic and heterotrophic protists ('protophytes' and 'protozoa' in his terminology), which he thought to be often closely related, were traditionally studied within the realms of strictly separate disciplines (botany and zoology) by botanists and zoologists, in different departments and using a different classification system, code of nomenclature and terminology.

And while the situation clearly changed upon the inauguration of the Archiv für Protistenkunde and its subsequent rival protistological journals (ably discussed by John O. Corliss in the accompanying editorial), almost 100 years after the foundation of the 'Archiv' the 'Protistan Perspective' has still not arrived in the contemporary Biological Sciences. The great majority of publications using protists -often from a general biological perspective the more interesting ones- are not published in protistological journals; the diversity of disciplines in which protists are used as experimental systems is not well represented in current protistological journals; all protistological journals (except perhaps the 'Archiv') are biased towards heterotrophic protists, whereas autotrophic protists are mostly confined to phycological journals thus perpetuating the old obsolete division of protistology between zoology and botany. This is why the editors of Protist (the successor of the Archiv für Protistenkunde) have chosen to (re)establish a new old international protistological journal based on Schaudinn´s far-sighted vision.

Protist aims to become the international forum for reporting substantial and novel findings in any area of research on protists. In addition to the more traditional areas of protist research we are particularly interested in publishing original research in areas such as molecular, cell and developmental biology and biochemistry of protists, research which is at present largely published in 'mainstream' biological journals. Integration of these rapidly developing biological disciplines with the more traditional areas of protist research (systematics and ecology) could be essential for the further development or even the very existence of protistology as a distinct discipline in the next century. Again following Schaudinn Protist will publish in addition to Original Papers a 'News and Views' section (Protist News) to keep readers abreast of the latest developments in all fields of protist research. A third section (From the Archives) builds on the long tradition of the Archiv für Protistenkunde and will provide short historical perspectives about important research on protists published decades ago in the pages of the 'Archiv'.

The transformation of the Archiv für Protistenkunde to Protist gives us the opportunity to thank S. Jost Casper and his team of Editors and Advisors for their excellent job in editing for many years the oldest protistological journal in the world and in keeping Schaudinn´s legacy alive.

January 1998

Michael Melkonian, Editor
Cologne

Bernd Rolle, Publisher
Jena