A significant number of the scientific articles I’ve published are short notes and natural history observations about insects and other arthropods. It’s a habit I picked up in grad school and, as a general rule, I encourage grad students and others to publish similar articles for a number of reasons outlined below (though please note that my perspective was shaped by grad school and a staff-turned-faculty position at R-1 land grant institutions, so if your career goals are different, your mileage may vary).

For grad students, short notes are good practice for finding citations (best make sure your observation isn’t already known!), using the library/interlibrary loan system, learning how to write a scientific paper (I found it easier mentally to incorporate my advisors’ edits on short manuscripts, a 2 page paper can only be marked up so much), and the publishing process (which isn’t always intuitive).  They’re also a good way to demonstrate that you are capable of publishing and fill in time gaps on your CV between larger, more involved publications (e.g., thesis or dissertation chapters). Ideally, they shouldn’t take a lot of investment in time or resources so shouldn’t distract too much from higher priority tasks related to thesis/dissertation research.  One criticism I’ve heard is that such publications make a CV look scattered and show a search committee that you can’t focus on one topic.  As long as a CV also has major publications related to your research, I don’t think this is necessarily true. But don’t only publish short notes on disparate topics and nothing else and definitely discuss any non-thesis/dissertation-related papers with your advisor first.

For post-grads that have a demonstrated publishing record, the benefits are a bit more abstract. Personally, I find writing and publishing enjoyable, so it’s nice to have a steady stream of papers coming out. Additionally, I abide by the “if I’m hit by a bus” rule for writing and data management – that is, if I’m hit by a bus today, will this information be lost with me and will collaborators be able to pick up the projects where I left off and understand the organization of my data. So if I don’t publish certain natural history notes, that knowledge will be lost if I don’t publish it. Finally, natural history notes have been some of my most-cited publications, which helps with things like h-index (the utility of which is the topic for another day, but it’s something administrators and promotion and tenure committees might care about).

One question I’ve been asked a number of times is where I publish/how to find journals that will publish natural history notes. Entomologists are lucky that there are a plethora journals that are willing to take such manuscripts, some of which I’ve listed below (I’ve heard anecdotally that other disciplines, such as ornithology, are not keen on such papers and they can be difficult to near impossible to publish, so again, if you’re in another life science discipline, your experience may be different). Please note that I created the list below based on my personal experience. It is likely incomplete, so if you have journals to add, please link them in the comments. Additionally, inclusion on the list also does not equal endorsement by myself or Penn State.

The information is current as of the publication of this post. I’ll try to remember to update it occasionally, but be aware that things like page charges may change. Last updated December 2022.

Journals that accept articles on broad entomological topics

Bonn Zoological Journal

Turkish Journal of Zoology