The journals are the lifeblood of our society. They chronicle events and changes in the natural history of Suffolk over more than 70 years providing a rich mine of information about life cycles, frequency and distribution of the flora and fauna and other aspects.

The first journal was published as ‘The Transactions of the Suffolk Naturalists Society’ (TSNS), renamed Suffolk Natural History (SNH) and was later joined by a newsletter that became the White Admiral (WA). In this article SNH generally refers to the journal since its inception, i.e. including TSNS, and deals mainly with the last 50 years of publication.

Suffolk Natural History

The journal was founded as the TSNS, the first part of volume 1 appearing in 1929. Since then is has evolved; first issued in a plain blue cover with the name and the Society’s motto “Experto crede” (Believe one who speaks from experience). The motto was dropped after volume 11, 1961 and the name was changed to Suffolk Natural History in 1969 with a cover featuring a drawing of bearded tits. Another change was made in 1977 when an otter featured on the front cover for one volume to be replaced by a photo-montage and then, since 1988 by a different photograph each year, ranging from, in the beginning, general landscape views to recent editions some of which have macro photographs of insects or spiders, perhaps reflecting the advances in lens and camera technology during this period.

It was originally published in from three to six parts per volume, each volume appearing over about three years. From 1983 (Volume 19) it has appeared annually as a single part volume.

Since its inception the contents have been organised in three sections: Proceedings, Transactions and Notes and Observations. Proceedings has information about the Chairman’s and Secretary’s reports, the Treasurer’s report and accounts, information about new members, changes of addresses, obituaries, and the Society’s constitution. Major papers about life cycles, ecology and distribution of plants and animals appear in Transactions, while shorter, but nonetheless important, notes are grouped into Notes and Observations.

Editors

Since 1954 these changes have been overseen by five editors (Table), serving from one to seven years, except for Dr G.D. Heathcote who served the Society for 22 years.

At the beginning the editor was assisted by an editorial committee and also by section editors. The editorial committee ceased to exist in 1986 when Dr L. Harrison-Matthews died, having been on the committee for 18 years, a very hard act to follow. A few years later the section editors were no longer involved and since 1996 the editor has taken sole responsibility for the journal.

Table

Number of papers

The number of papers per volume in Transactions (excluding conference papers). is shown in Fig. 1 (LH axis). In the period from 1954 to 1982 (volumes 9 to 18) the average number of papers per volume was 54, from 1982 (single annual volumes) onwards to 13 papers per year. During this latter period there has been a downward trend in the number of papers published and over the last four years to less than 10 per year.
Since 1983, when individual page numbers were given, making analysis easier, Notes And Observations has contained an average of nine items per year, but with big variation from year to year (fig 1 RH axis).

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Fig. 1. Number of papers published in SNH (LH axis Transactions; RH axis , Notes and Observations)

Authors

The quality of the transactions papers has depended heavily on a rather few authors (Table). Papers in Notes and Observations are not included in this analysis, as authorship was not given in the Contents until Vol. 37, 2001. Of these, the Baron de Worms and F.W. Simpson both contributed over 50 papers each. Special mention should also be made of Dr G.D. Heathcote who in addition to editing the journal contributed almost a paper a year from 1968 to 1993. In all, 10 authors contributed over 20 papers each, a total of 321 papers, more than one third of the total since 1954.

The journal as an archive

What can SNH tell us? Recently, in WA, the editor raised a question about attitudes to an introduced species, the grey squirrel. This with the coypu and the mink are unwelcome immigrants to Suffolk, ousting the native red squirrel, causing serious damage to agricultural crops, or threatening the existence of the water vole, respectively. Searching the records of both Transactions and Notes and Observations reveals that their progress was monitored by various contributors (Fig. 2). Squirrels have attracted most attention with a total 34 papers, followed by coypu with 14 papers and mink with four. The coypu was very much in the Society’s eye during the period 1960-65 but attention declined as intensive trapping took effect, eventually eradicating the animal. Interest in the interaction between red and grey squirrels increased until 1970-75 and then declined, presumably as the red was displaced and populations stabilised as the grey squirrel moved in. For anyone researching the impact of introduced species on Suffolk natural history an efficient search of SNH is clearly essential.

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Fig 2. The number of papers about introduced species.

Database

The above analysis was taken as an example of the potential of SNH as a research tool and could have been compiled easily, but taking a long time, by browsing through the individual volumes and/or indexes. Likewise the statistics about editors, authors and so on could also have been compiled from the contents list. They were, however, extracted from SNH and summarized in just a few minutes, using the Microsoft Access database program, filtering for author names, species names, etc.

If you would like to try it out, it will be available to anyone interested, either on the web (www.downloads.white-admiral.co.uk) or on CD (see address below). The database offered will be available in a number of formats for use on word processors and spreadsheets as well as databases. There will also be an explanatory note about the files and how they may be used.
(You can try Michael's database out immediately by clicking on the link to 'Index to Suffolk Natural History' in the 'Archives' tab of the floating menu above. ~ Ed.)

Other developments

The database based on the Contents list is somewhat restricting in that it can only be searched for words appearing in the title and not for individual species or genus names mentioned in the body of the article. Similar databases will be made, based on the journal indexes. This will take more time because of changes in format and other problems and they will probably be offered, at first, for individual volumes.

The White Admiral

WA, although originally conceived as a newsletter, has now evolved into a valuable adjunct of SNH, publishing substantial and authoritative papers on natural history as well as announcements of meetings etc. Many of the papers could equally well be published in SNH. It is issued in numbered parts, three times a year, which gives its contributions an added immediacy compared to annual publication in the case of SNH. The division of material between the two journals is in some ways unsatisfactory as it may separate, for example, related topics that should appear in the same publication. If it continues to develop and expand as another major journal of the Society it should also be carefully archived and indexed.

Where to find the journals

Several libraries hold full, or long runs of SNH. A full list of organisations that have copies of SNH and WA, together with details of their holdings will be included in the ‘explanatory note’ mentioned above.

The County Record Offices at Ipswich has a full set of both journals and has good parking and photocopying facilities. The offices at Bury St Edmunds and Lowestoft also have substantial runs. Up to date information is available at www.suffolkcc.gov.uk/libraries_and_heritage/sro.

Ipswich Museum has two complete sets of SNH and a complete set of WA (The Museum, High Street, Ipswich. IP1 3QH.).

This brief history of the Society’s journals may have convinced you, if you needed convincing, of the invaluable archive that we have accumulated. Their continuing good health, however, depends on members continuing to record their observations and research as contributions to Transactions or in the case of shorter notes, in Notes and Observations in SNH, or in WA.

Acknowledgments

I am much indebted to Mr R. Fisk for lending me his full set of SNH (lucky man).

Michael. Kirby,
The Studio, Blythburgh Road, Westleton, Saxmundham, IP17 3AS

E-mail: e_j_m_kirby@btinternet.com

Footnote from Martin Sanford, Editor of Suffolk Natural History:-

The figure of 54 papers 1954-1982 refers to the average per volume and not per year. The averages per year are 19.5 papers for the period 1954-1982 and 15.3 papers for 1983-2003.

The scatter graph below shows numbers of papers and notes published in each year extracted from Michael's database. One of the reasons for this change is due to a reclassification - many of the short papers in the early volumes would now be classed as notes.

The rolling average trend lines show the number of notes increasing despite the effect of White Admiral

We have a number of members who wish to fill gaps in their runs of Transactions. Although we have good quantities of most back numbers from the past 40 years we are completely out of Volume 33 (1997). If any member has a copy they do not want please could they pass it on to us at the Museum. We are always happy to take unwanted parts of the journals and can usually find new homes for them.

Martin Sanford,
c/o IpswichMuseum, High Street, Ipswich, IP1 3QH  01473-433550

© 2004   Suffolk Naturalists' Society

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