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PalAss Home > Publications > Palaeontology online - details of service
Palaeontology online - details of service


The Palaeontological Association has made issues of the journal Palaeontology from volume 1 (1957) to volume 41 (1998) available to the palaeontological community, without restriction or charge. Issues from volume 42 (1999) to the present time can be obtained though the Wiley Interscience portal where they are free to individual members of the Association and (for a higher subscription fee) to institutional members of the Association, and available for purchase by non-members and non-subscribing institutions on an individual basis (for Association membership details click here).


The following guidelines are to help you use this service:


All issues from Volume 1 to 41 are now available without restriction.

File format: All files are in Adobe Portable Document Format (.pdf); these can be viewed with the freely downloadable Adobe Reader software (version 6 and above).


File size: File size varies considerably, longer papers or those with more plates or photographic text-figures being larger than smaller documents without images. Typical file sizes range from 1 to 8 Mb. Users with low-bandwidth Internet connections, such as home users with modems, are advised that even relatively short papers may take many minutes to download; first try small documents with relatively few pages to assess download capability. Please note that the Palaeontological Association will not be making smaller files available for low bandwidth users as this has major implications for document quality. As technology improves we anticipate that the effect of file size will become less noticeable.


Status of online articles: The Palaeontological Association is providing this service to aid the dissemination of palaeontological literature in line with the Association’s charitable objectives. Online versions of Volumes 1-41 are not intended to replace printed copies where high quality reproduction is required; they are intended as a supplement rather than a replacement for the printed versions.


File quality: All pages have been scanned from printed pages rather than direct from any digital source files; within the file text is thus represented in raster format, and is hence not selectable or editable, and images cannot be extracted directly.


Image scale: Please note that the Association cannot guarantee that images within the online documents are produced at exactly the same magnification as in the printed version, although errors are likely to be small. It is also important for users to be aware that re-scaling images when printing (e.g. using ‘fit page size’ or similar options) will also change the printed scale of images. Users are advised to check the printed text of the article where precise measurements are required.


Search engine: An online search engine is provided which can locate online articles from data such as volume number, year of publication, words in title or author’s name. Abstracts are not currently included in the searchable dataset, and cannot be searched, but will be added in the near future. Wildcards (‘*’) are supported, as are Boolean searches for the title field using the symbols & for ‘and’, ‘+’ for ‘or’. A link to a brief tutorial on advanced search techniques is provided on the search engine page.


Citation format: Results returned from the search engine provide full citation details for articles, although a condensed format is available for searches likely to return many results. Each citation acts as a hyperlink; clicking it will open the full online version of the article. Citations for articles prior to 1999 that lack a link may represent errors in our data (i.e. unavailable files). Note that citations of articles published after 1998 will link to files hosted on Blackwell’s Synergy website, and can be accessed freely by members of the Palaeontological Association (including institutional members) or subscribing institutions, and otherwise can be individually purchased though Synergy.


User demand: The Palaeontological Association hopes that this system will be adopted as an important resource within palaeontology and related disciplines. However, as this system is provided free, without restriction, at times it may experience high user demand and work slowly; although we intend to assess demand and adjust the system accordingly, some congestion may prove unavoidable. If you have problems and are confident that speed problems are not the fault of your Internet connection, we recommend that you try again a different time of the day when usage levels may be lower. Report any problems with the service to the site administrator.


Supported browsers: The search engine and portal should be fully compatible with all web-browsing software. However, Internet Explorer users with text-size set to 'largest' may find that the spacing of the output is difficult to read. Reduce text-size to display correctly. Internet Explorer users may also find that they need to enable file downloads to access PDF files. Under Windows XP the relevant setting can be found by opening the Control Panel, then 'Internet Options', then clicking the 'Custom Level' button in the 'Security' tab. Aggressive pop-up blocking software can also disable downloads; if problems occur, Internet Explorer users should ensure that the 'Filter Level' of built in pop-up blocker is not set to 'High', and users of other browsers or third-party pop-up blocking software should check equivalent settings.


Copyright: The Palaeontological Association (Registered Charity) asserts copyright on all articles and images in its electronic and print publications unless otherwise stated. Articles or figures in the journal Palaeontology may be reproduced in print or electronic medium for teaching, and for non-profit educational and research purposes, without fees or further permissions, providing that acknowledgements to 'The Palaeontological Association' is given, and that the source of the reproduced material is quoted in full. The Association reserves the right to withdraw this permission without notice. Written permission is required by the Association for all other forms of capture, reproduction and/or distribution of any of its publications or items in its publications. Permission should be sought from the Executive Officer.


Acknowledgements: This project has been realised with the help of the Lapworth Museum of Geology at the University of Birmingham, including numerous volunteers and weekend workers scanning pages and making pdf files.




Created by Alan Spencer on the 2010-01-08. (Version 2.0)