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The article discusses the importance of publishing a scientific paper. According to the author the purpose of a scientific paper is to convey ideas to the readers who may be differentiated into experts and novices. Concept mapping is a graphical tool that can be used to summarize complex ideas. Its value lies in the way in which the links between ideas are depicted explicitly to show the writer's beliefs and assumptions about the nature of knowledge integration in a particular context. For the text of a scientific paper to encourage meaningful learning by the student/reader, it must enable the student/reader to link the ideas presented with existing knowledge frameworks and support the construction of understanding. Increasing accessibility to published work is not about compromising quality or dumbing down, it is about increasing clarity and respecting the needs of the readership. Consideration of the readers when writing a paper may increase its readability and increase the likelihood of the paper being used at university as a tool to help students to engage in the discourse of the discipline.

Evidence from the Linnean Society’s ledger of papers received in 1858 points to 1 July as the date of submission of the Darwin–Wallace papers for the famous meeting of the same evening. It has been widely assumed, and repeatedly stated, that the submission was on 30 June. but this article shows that this seems to be a wrong assumption. Acceptance of this later submission date also provides an explanation of the ‘oddities’ in the letter of transmittal. In turn, this reading implies further details about the separate roles of Hooker and Lyell in the crucial 13 days before the meeting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A letter to the editor in response to the proposal of using concept-mapping approach for the construction of research papers.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the circumstances of publication of an unavailable name of chalcid wasps, and to make the name Balcha opaca Fusu sp. n. (Hymenoptera: Eupelmidae) available. www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:38F49D79-F5AA-4516-8E48-55CFFA61A71C [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]