From: C.O. Qualset, Congress Secretariat and Chairman of the Congress Organizing Committee

Re: Publication of Congress presentation manuscripts

Thank you very much for participating in the International Congress on Ecosystem Health held in Sacramento, California, August 15-20, 1999.

We have received more than 70 manuscripts, nearly one-half of those expected. We thank those of you who have sent your papers and urge the remaining of you to send your paper by September 30, 1999 as noted below. Due to the outstanding nature of all the presentations and discussions, the Congress was an overall success. Currently, we are working on an ambitious publication plan, which we believe will be a high quality and a lasting product of the Congress.

We look forward to working with you to complete the publication of your papers. The following notes should help clarify the publication process for the papers that were presented.

1. ABSTRACTS OF TECHNICAL SESSION PAPERS AND POSTER PRESENTATIONS:
The Abstracts were published and distributed during the Congress and no further publication is anticipated. The Abstract book was issued as Report Number 24 in the UC Genetic Resources Conservation Program Report Series for citation purposes. A note is being placed on the web site to indicate that the Abstract book is available upon request from the Congress Secretariatís office (see below).

2. ORAL PRESENTATIONS:
Authors of all plenary and technical session speakers were requested to prepare a manuscript and submit it to the Congress Secretariat during the Congress. Guidelines for manuscript preparation were sent to authors and published on the Congress Web site. If you have not already submitted your paper, we request that you send it as hard copy and diskette or by attached file via EMAIL (ehc@ucdavis.edu or coqualset@ucdavis), to the Congress Secretariat not later than September 30, 1999.
Please mail diskettes and hard copies to the following address:

International Ecosystem Health Congress
Secretariat--Genetic Resources Conservation Program
University of California
One Shields Avenue
Davis, CA 95616 USA
Telephone: 530-754-8507 or 530-754-8502
Fax: 530-754-8505

3. REVIEW PROCESS:
We are asking each Technical Session Chair to review the manuscripts for all of the papers presented in their session. Additionally, the Chair will invite one additional reviewer outside the technical session participants to review session manuscripts. The manuscripts and reviews will be sent to the Secretariat for evaluation by an editorial committee and will be forwarded to additional reviewers if necessary. The authors and Session Chairs will be notified of the decision about whether the paper is acceptable for publication. Reviews of Plenary lectures will be arranged through the Secretariat.

4. GLOBAL ISSUES IN ECOSYSTEM HEALTH-DISCUSSION FORA:
Eleven discussion groups presented oral summaries at the closing session of the Congress. The Leaders and Rapporteurs are preparing summaries that present the highlights of the discussion with recommendations or suggestions for further research, changes in policy, and other matters found to be important in the topic under discussion. These reports should be no longer than 10 manuscript pages, but may be considerably shorter. These reports should be submitted to the Congress Secretariat as soon as possible, but not later than September 15, 1999. The Discussion Fora Reports will be listed as authored/recorded by the Forum Leader and Rapporteur. All of the summaries will be edited into a common format and presented as a group for publication.

4. MODE OF PUBLICATION:
We are preparing a prospectus for publication of the papers in theme based volumes through a commercial publisher. All papers judged to be acceptable in the review process will be included in these volumes. These volumes will include some additional sections or summaries that will be written to make each volume coherent and contemporary. We expect to complete this process during November and December of 1999. Several of the major donors are expecting to receive published volumes as a product of the Congress and evidence that their contributions were effectively used. It has been suggested that the published books also be prepared for CD-ROM medium. This will allow wide distribution at low cost.

5. NOTIFICATION OF PROCEEDINGS:
The Congress Secretariat plans to maintain this website (http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/centers/iseh/ecosystemhealth.html) for an extended period and will use the site as a means to communicate the publication process to authors and those interested in receiving the Proceedings. Please check periodically on the website for updates.