Wikipedia:Introduction (historical)

The Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins including Tropical Diseases, ISSN 1678-9199, is an official electronic publication (four times a year) of the Center for the Study of Venoms and Venomous Animals (CEVAP) of the Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), Botucatu, São Paulo State, Brazil.

It is an interdisciplinary publication in English on CD-ROM (ISSN 1678-9180) and online (ISSN 1678-9199) devoted to research on different aspects of toxins, venomous animals, their products and derivatives, and Tropical Diseases.

Launched in 1995 in Botucatu, the place where Vital Brazil was first exposed to serious venomous snakebite problems, The Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins was one of the first Brazilian publications on diskettes (ISSN 0104-7930). It has become a forum for the discussion of a subject that is usually dispersed in different journals dealing with a variety of unrelated matters.

The articles published in the Journal cover from the systematics and morphology of venomous animals to the biochemistry, pharmacology and immunology of venoms; epidemiology of envenoming by different animals, insects, algae, bacteria, fungi, and plant products; molecular biology of venoms; physiology of venom actions; treatment of their effects; preparation and evaluation of vaccines, etc. Since January 2002, it has included subjects related to Tropical Diseases.

The important field of bacterial, animal, and plant toxins is growing fast, but scientists from one field are frequently not aware of what is happening in other areas. The Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins including Tropical Diseases has opened the possibility of bringing together all this information.

In the first issues, there was a prevalence of Brazilian authors, but now increasing numbers of articles are authored by specialists from several other countries, a demonstration of the journal international acceptance.

One of the Journal's relevant features is the publication of thesis abstracts about venoms, envenomings and tropical diseases. This information is very hard to obtain since theses are not necessarily published and lay unread in University libraries; their results, however, may be of value for specialists.

In the same vein, the Journal publishes abstracts of papers presented in scientific meetings, another important source of information that is usually scattered in annals of meetings dealing with the already referred variety of unrelated subjects.

The Journal's abbreviated title is J. Venom. Anim. Toxins incl. Trop. Dis., which should be used in reference services, footnotes, and bibliographical references.