Cave & Karst Science

Call for Papers: Cave Technology Special Issue

Cave & Karst Science is BCRA's science journal, published three times a year, with a circulation that includes caving clubs and science libraries throughout the world. C&KS is published in print and online at bcra.org.uk/candks. The Cave Radio & Electronics Group has been invited to guest edit an issue of C&KS, focussing on 'Cave Technology' - radio, surveying, data-logging, and so on.

Obviously, the content of a Technology issue of C&KS may be slightly different in presentation to traditional 'cave science' topics and so potential authors should not feel constrained by the format of C&KS or that of CREG journals. The salient point is that this is an excellent opportunity to report your work to a world-wide community of cave scientists that has very little overlap with the circulation of the CREG journal.

We have not yet finalised the publishing arrangements, but we envisage that either the material will be published in the CREG journal and C&KS simultaneously, or else we will arrange for the issue of C&KS to be mailed, free of charge, to CREG subscribers. So this is also an opportunity for you to write that article for CREG - or indeed CSG - that you kept meaning to get around to doing.

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Review Articles. Material for this special issue of C&KS does not have to be in the form of original 'scientific papers'. C&KS often publishes 'review articles' and if you would like to review developments in cave surveying or problems of using data loggers in caves, perhaps adding your own opinions and interpretations, this is exactly the sort of material we are looking for.

Practical Experiments. Reports of practical experiments will be most welcome. This does not have to be new and unreported work - the point is to bring important and significant work to the attention of people who will not have seen it before. Possible topics could include... the accuracy of compasses during magnetic storms; the electrical conductivity of different rocks; using a data-logger to measure water temperature during flood events; the strength of rock anchors; CO2 measurements; and so on.

Theoretical Papers. Moving on to the more theoretical content we would, of course, like to see this material too, whether it is a discussion of radio waves in rock or the statistical errors inherent in cave surveying or any other topic that broadly fits our bill. And even if it doesnt, please ask just in case!

What might be off-topic? We're not asking for completed 'seminal' works but, if your work is still ongoing, it will need some means of setting it in context. If your contribution is entitled Our seventeenth experiment with radios in railway tunnels then this might be a bit too detailed. Similarly, although we are looking for reports of practical experimental work, it is the experiments that are significant, not the building of the equipment. By all means report on the use of your specially-designed data-logger, but the place for detailed circuit diagrams is in the CREG journal not C&KS. Or if you have built an LED lamp, a report of its performance (with experimental procedures) is of interest, but not the detail of how to build it.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact David Gibson d.gibson[at]bcra... to discuss your contribution. This is an excellent opportunity for CREG and BCRA's other Special Interest Groups to advertise their work to a wider audience. Plus, of course, it will give us some material for the CREG journal. There is no firm deadline for submissions, but we need to have a good idea of the content of this special issue of C&KS by the end of November 2008.