RES Insect Identification Handbooks – expanding our reach
Expanded scope
Fungus Gnats – RES Identification HandbookThe RES Handbooks are an established, well-respected series of insect identification guides which have been published since 1949. We have recently partnered with CABI as our publisher, and we have some exciting plans for the future of the series. We are keen to ensure that the handbooks continue to serve our community and all insect taxonomists.
Our handbooks have always offered authoritative identification keys across insect taxa, but have traditionally been restricted to groups found in the UK, hence the name RES Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects. After discussion with our Editorial Board and the RES Publications Committee we have decided to remove the geographic restriction on the series, and have therefore renamed the series RES Insect Identification Handbooks. We will continue to publish a broad range of UK taxa and will focus on non-UK groups of societal importance.
Call for proposals
We welcome proposals for new handbooks (or updates of old ones, as needed). We’re keen to see some more international proposals, particularly for medically, economically or agriculturally important groups. You can submit a proposal via the proposal form on our website.
Editorial Board
Our longstanding Series Editor Andrew Polaszek has recently stepped down. Andy has been instrumental in moving the series forward over the years, including expanding the scope as detailed above, and on behalf of the RES we would like to thank him hugely for all his hard work. Beulah Garner has stepped in as interim Series Editor, and we are currently advertising for a new Editor. Once the new Editor is in post we will be looking to expand our editorial board to cover more of the UK and, for the first time, to welcome taxonomists from around the world.
CABI Partnership
Our partnership with CABI means that the majority of our recently published handbooks are now for sale via their website. This has many advantages. As a small organisation the RES is not well placed to conduct large scale international sales. Holding stock was becoming unmanageable and shipping, particularly internationally, was becoming more and more difficult. Working with CABI means we can use their large international distribution network, which is very reliable. We also benefit from CABI’s international sales team and dedicated marketing staff, which should increase our reach.
CABI have also supported us to give new homes to a lot of excess handbook stock that was no longer selling, via a books charity. This has freed up a huge amount of space at the RES offices, and will provide an income we would not otherwise have realised.
CABI have digitised many of our recent titles at no cost to the RES and these are now available as eBooks. What’s more, all future handbooks will be available as both print and eBooks, making them more accessible than ever.
All RES books and eBooks for sale via CABI are available to RES members with a 50% discount. 30% discounts are also available for members of AES and BENHS.
In the pipeline
We have several great books in the works and are in discussion with many more potential authors. All future books will be published by CABI. The first edition will always be a hardback, available to all but marketed primarily to libraries around the world. For this reason first editions will generally be more expensive than handbooks have been previously. However, importantly there will always be a second, paperback edition, published 6 months after the first edition, priced at 50% of the first hardback edition. The RES Member and Fellow discount will also apply to all editions of the book.
“I am excited about the future direction of the RES Handbooks. The addition of fully searchable eBooks will be very useful for many of our users and a global scope will allow us to support researchers around the world with insect identification”.
– Beulah Garner – Interim handbooks editor
