INTRODUCTION

Parasitology has had a long and constructive association with the British Society for Parasitology (BSP). The BSP was formed in April 1962 with a policy to hold two meetings a year, an open residential meeting in the Spring and a symposium on a specialist topic in the Autumn. From its very beginning it was the intention of the BSP to publish the proceedings of its Autumn meeting and the first 18 symposia (1962–1979) were published by Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford. These proceedings were originally edited by Angela Taylor who was joined in 1969–70 by Ralph Muller as co-editor. In 1980 it was decided to break with Blackwells and to publish the proceedings in Parasitology: a bold move instigated and supported by the editors, David Crompton and Bruce Newton. Another significant departure from tradition initiated at this time was that symposia organisers themselves became guest editors and were responsible for producing the final edited copy of the proceedings, assisted initially by Taylor and Muller. The 19th Symposium, held in October 1981 at the Zoological Society of London, became the first of such proceedings to be published in Parasitology as a Supplement to part 4 of volume 84 (1982). As it was published in the CUP/Parasitology house style it was readily distinguishable from the earlier Blackwell editions. By 1982 Parasitology was publishing two volumes each year and from 1982 to 1985 the Autumn Symposia were published as Part 4 of volumes 84, 86, 88 and 90 of Parasitology. The new-look Supplements thus became an integral part of every other volume within which they were paginated but they could also be purchased separately. In 1985, the Editors of Parasitology, Frank Cox and Phil Whitfield, became concerned that the late arrival of copy from the symposia was in danger of delaying the publication of subsequent parts of Parasitology and decided that the BSP Symposia should be published as Supplements with separate pagination. This decision made it possible to publish more than one supplement each year and in 1989 the first supplement of this kind, identified as a Special Issue, was published following a very successful BSP Symposium in association with the Linnean Society on Research and Developments in the Study of Parasitic Infections. Apart from this one-off Supplement and a selection of the proceedings of the EMOP meeting held in Cambridge in 1980, the proceedings of the Autumn Symposia of BSP were the only Supplements produced between 1982 and 1992. In 1992, Parasitology began to publish two Supplements each year; the first being the proceedings of the Autumn Symposium in about the June following the actual meeting and a Special Issue in about December. Both Supplements had separate and distinctive covers to distinguish them from the regular issues of Parasitology and could, as before, be purchased separately. These Special Issues were commissioned by the journal editors, Chris Arme and Frank Cox, in conjunction with the Editorial Board and were not normally associated with a scientific meeting, but were collections of invited review papers on selected ‘cutting-edge’ topics. Thus both volumes of the journal now included a Supplement, distinguishable from the regular issues by the use of a prefix S for the page numbers of each paper. Not everyone regarded this prefix S, which first appeared in 1986, as a valuable asset and some felt it might even be interpreted as pejorative, diminishing the perceived status of the review papers.

The latest changes to the Supplements were effected as recently as 2007 when, under the editorship of Stephen Phillips, Robin Gasser and myself, the journal moved to a run of 12 monthly issues in a single volume plus 2 inclusive Supplements. The latter are now paginated continuously within each volume, the S page prefix has been dispensed with and they are referred to as ‘Special Issues’ to distinguish them from the previous ‘Supplements’. The new Special Issues still feature the proceedings of the BSP Autumn Symposium and a specially commissioned issue of topical interest. Both Special Issues are populated largely with review papers, although the occasional original research paper has been included. The prime objective of the Special Issues is to produce a timely review series of practical value to active researchers and as an introduction to key areas of the discipline for taught undergraduate and post-graduate students. Throughout the history of the Supplements, the concept of ‘parasite’ has been extended from time to time to include papers on bacteria, viruses and fungi; this somewhat liberal interpretation of the term ‘parasite’ continues in the new Special Issues. The tick biology Supplement (Volume 129, 2004) has perhaps set a precedent by being published as a book by CUP in 2008, and this leads to the possibility that some of our future Special Issues may well serve the broader scientific community as textbooks as well as part of the journal with its more restrictive readership.

Below is the complete list of Supplements and Special Issues of Parasitology from 1982 to the present day. Special Issues that are currently in preparation or in the development stage include, cultivation of helminths, cellular interactions in trypanosomiasis, schistosome control strategies, drug discovery and parasite systematics. Furthermore, Parasitology is very pleased to continue its long association with the BSP by publishing the proceedings of future Autumn and possibly other symposia. The editors of Parasitology are convinced that these Supplements/Special Issues add considerably to the depth and breadth of the journal and as such they are committed to encouraging leading parasitologists to become involved in producing and/or contributing to future review-based editions.

I first became involved with the Supplements in 1987 when it was decided to relieve Liz Painter from the added burden of handling the 12 regular issues per year as well as the additional two supplementary issues. I agreed to take this editorial role on for a short period, but that was over 20 years ago and some 41 Supplements and Special Issues later. I have had the privilege of working alongside a great many eminent colleagues as guest editors and authors, and it remains my fervent hope that members of the parasitology community have found and will continue to find a real use for these parts of the journal both in their teaching and in their research.