Introduction

Madagascar Conservation & Development is an Open Access journal published by Missouri Botanical Garden, Madagascar Research and Conservation Program and Institute and Museum of Anthropology, University of Zurich. This OA journal welcomes the results of original research, field surveys, advances in field and laboratory techniques, book reviews, and informal status reports from research, conservation, development and management programs and in-field projects in Madagascar. In addition, notes on changes in the legal status of any species (IUCN, CITES) or land (Protected Areas) existing in Madagascar, public awareness programs, the availability of new educational materials (include the name and address of distributor and cost, if applicable), job announcements (paid or volunteer), and notification of newly published scientific papers, technical reports and academic theses are all appropriate contributions. The journal is indexed in DOAJ, ROAD and AJOL.

The journal has signed the Budapest Open Access Initiative – a major declaration in support of Open Access.

The Directory of Open Access Scholarly Resources (ROAD) also lists Indian Ocean review of science and technology which is a recently launched (2013) OA journal published in Madagascar.

Researchers from Madagascar publish articles in international Open Access journals, for example, in 2013, 58 articles have been published with BioMed Central – an STM (Science, Technology and Medicine) publisher which has pioneered the Open Access publishing model – and among them there are highly accessed articles by researchers from the Centre National d'Application des Recherches Pharmaceutiques, Conservation International Madagascar, Field Museum of Natural History, Hôpital Joseph Raseta Befelatanana, IMRA, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Institut Pasteur de Madagascar, Ministère de la Santé, du Planning Familial et de la Protection Sociale, Service de Santé de District de Moramanga, UNICEF, Université d'Antananarivo and WHO.

61 articles have been published in Public Library of Science (PLoS) international Open Access journals: PLoS ONE, PLoS Genetics, PLoS Medicine, PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, as well as in PLoS Currents by researchers from the Département Biologie Animale, Ecole Normale Supérieure and Museum of Art and Archaeology, Université d'Antananarivo; Département de Recherches Forestières et Piscicoles; DRP Forêt et Biodiversité; Epidemiology Unit, IPM; FOFIFA-DRZV; Institut Pasteur de Madagascar; Laboratoire de Pharmacognosie Appliquée aux Maladies Infectieuses, Institut Malgache de Recherches Appliquées; Parc Botanique et Zoologique de Tsimbazaza; and Wildlife Conservation Society-Madagascar Country Program.

There is currently no OA policy registered in ROARMAP.

Key Organizations

Madagascar Conservation & Development: Lucienne Wilmé, Missouri Botanical Garden, Editor-in-Chief, info(at)journalmcd.net.

Events and Programs

Madagascar Conservation & Development is an Open Access peer-reviewed, multi-disciplinary journal published by Missouri Botanical Garden, Madagascar Research and Conservation Program and Institute and Museum of Anthropology, University of Zurich. The journal is devoted to the swift dissemination of current research in and on Madagascar and the Western Indian Ocean islands. Manuscript submission, peer review, and publication are all handled on the internet. Software developed for the journal automates all clerical steps during peer review, facilitates a double-blind peer review process, and allows authors and editors to follow the progress of peer review on the internet. As articles are accepted, they are published in an "Issue in Progress." At six month intervals (e.g., June and December) the Issue-in-Progress is declared a New Issue, and journal subscribers receive the Table of Contents of the issue via email. Madagascar Conservation & Development’s turn-around time (from first submission to publication) averages around 200 days.

Madagascar Conservation & Development welcomes the results of original research based on field surveys, advances in field and laboratory techniques, book reviews, and informal status reports from research, conservation, development and management programs and in-field projects, both terrestrial and marine, in Madagascar and surrounding islands (including Mascarenes, Comoros, Seychelles). In addition, notes on changes in the legal status of any species (e.g., IUCN, CITES) or area (e.g. protected areas) in the region are welcomed. Readers are also encouraged to alert Madagascar Conservation & Development to pertinent letter-writing campaigns and other activities, which may need the support of the Madagascar Conservation & Development community.

Madagascar Conservation & Development also encourages authors to make use of the unique opportunities of an electronic journal: color illustrations, animated model output, downloadable models and data sets, use of the "Response" option for interactive discussion, and other novel inventions to encourage reader interaction.

Madagascar Conservation & Development provides open access to all of its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. Such access is associated with increased readership and increased citation of an author's work. This journal is signatory of the Budapest Open Access initiative.

Madagascar Conservation & Development uses Open Journal Systems 2.2.2.0, an open source journal management and publishing software developed, supported, and freely distributed by the Public Knowledge Project under the GNU General Public License.