Indexes to some Cave Science Journals

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Several journals covering cave science have been published in Britain over the years. Indexes to some of these journals were compiled and published recently. A brief description of each of the journals catalogued is given below (see Journal Data). Versions of these indexes are available here pre-sorted either by author or by subject (see Subject Listing). The indexes to all these journals can now also be searched online - either by author, by subject or by title.

About the Journals

Following each description is a list of the libraries known to hold complete (or at least substantial) collections of the journal. Many UK caving clubs will also hold collections which their members can access. The compilers would be interested to hear of any other publically accessible collections, particularly those held overseas.

The British Cave Research Association was founded in 1973, by the amalgamation of two existing bodies, The Cave Research Group of Great Britain, and the British Speleological Association. From the outset the main aim of the Association has been the encouragement and promulgation of cave research, especially scientific but also encompassing, for example, technical and historical aspects. Its main tool in this has been the publication of its Transactions.

Transactions has been published since 1974, at the rate of one volume annually. It was initially produced as quarterly parts; but since Volume 13, in 1986, each volume has appeared as three parts. The title "Cave Science" was used from Volume 9, in 1982 until Volume 20.

From 1973 until his retirement in 1993 the Transactions editor was Trevor Ford, completing a remarkable twenty years in the post. In 1994 John Gunn and David Lowe were appointed as joint editors and the Transactions was retitled "Cave & Karst Science".

The subject matter of Transactions continues to reflect the interdisciplinary nature of cave and karst science; including aspects of Archaeology, Biology, Chemistry, Consevation, Ecology, Geology, Geomorphology, History, Hydrology, Physics, Resources and Technology.

ISSN 1356 - 191X : Cave and Karst Science, (1994-)
ISSN 0263 - 760X : Cave Science, (1982-1993)
ISSN 0305 - 859X : Transactions of the British Cave Research Association, (1974-1982)

An index to BCRA Transactions, Volumes 1 - 20 (Cave Science) is:

• Available on paper in Cave Science - Combined Indexes (Volume I)
• Available for searching online by Author, Subject or Title.
• Available here pre-sorted by Author or Subject.

An index to BCRA Transactions, 'Cave & Karst Science' is:

• Available for searching online by Author, Subject or Title.
• Available here pre-sorted by Author or Subject.

The following tables contain a list of libraries holding collections of BCRA Transactions.

Collections up to 1993 (Transactions and Cave Science)

Collections after 1993 (Cave & Karst Science)

The British Speleological Association was founded in 1935, the first time that a national association for cavers had been formed in this country. It remained in existence until 1973 when it merged with the Cave Research Group of Great Britain to form the British Cave Research Association. The Association produced several series of publications. In the post-war years their most important publication was the Journal, otherwise known as Cave Science. Six volumes, a total of 52 parts, were published between 1947 and 1973. Volumes 1-4 were published as quarterly parts, although with numerous irregularities and a complete lack of issues in some years. Volume 5 was published as six-monthly parts. Finally, with Volume 6 the title was changed to "The Journal of the BSA incorporating Cave Science". A keyword index was issued for each volume of the Journal from 1 to 5, but not for Volume 6.

Numerous other changes also occurred during the run of Volume 6; after no. 44 the pages were numbered in relation to the individual part, not to the volume; additionally nos. 45 and 46 were dually numbered as Proceedings 8 and 9 and no. 47 was given to the Speleo Abstracts for 1968 (published 1971). For the purposes of this index the Proceedings numbers are given priority and Journal no. 47 is not included.

Nine issues of the Proceedings were produced, from 1963 to 1971, consisting of papers presented at the Association's annual conference in each of those years. For the first four issues of the Proceedings a summary of the papers in French and German (German only in no. 2) was also appended.

The other series of publications produced were five issues of the pre-war glossy magazine Caves and Caving; two series of Bulletins which were published from 1946 until 1970 (Old Series) and 1970 to 1973 (New Series) and Speleo Abstracts covering the publications of the years 1962 to 1968. A small number of individual monographs were also published. Copies of some back issues of all series may still be available from BCRA Sales, although most are now out of print. A separate index to the pre-war magazine Caves and Caving has also been prepared.

A significant number of articles in the Journal, mainly quite short, have been listed as "Anon" in the subject index but have not been included in the Author Index. A few articles appeared under pseudonyms and these have been listed in the Author Index under "Psdm". The articles that appear in Volume 1 under "the Editor" can probably be attributed to C.M. Rawdin and E. Simpson. Miss Rawdin, the Association's secretary, was responsible for the production of the Journal from 1947 until 1965, initially under Simpson's guidance and after his death with the assistance of an editorial committee. From 1965 until 1970 the editorial work was carried out by a publications committee, of which P.W. Crabtree was the Secretary, and from 1966 to 1968 he was formally designated as Editor. From Volume 6, no. 48 (1971) onwards the Journal editor was A.C. Waltham.

Notes on the pre-war journal of the BSA
As part of the BSA's programme of achieving and maintaining a high public profile; the glossy magazine Caves and Caving, was launched in June 1937. However the economics of producing such a high quality publication at that time proved unsustainable and it ceased publication after the fifth issue in November 1938. The title was eventually re-adopted in 1978 by the Association's successor body, the British Cave Research Association, for its Bulletin. Although only five issues of Caves and Caving were produced, there were at this time very few publications covering speleology and consequently it is a valuable source of information on work carried out before the Second World War.

ISSN 0008 - 8617 : Journal of the British Speleological Association, (1967-1973)
ISSN 0068 - 256X : Proceedings of the British Speleological Association, (1963-1969)

An index to BSA Journal and Proceedings is:

• Available on paper in Cave Science - Combined Indexes (Volume II)
• Available for searching online by Author, Subject or Title.
• Available here pre-sorted by Author or Subject.

An index to the pre-war journal 'Caves & Caving' is:

• Available on paper in Cave Science - Combined Indexes (Volume II)
• Available for searching online by Author, Subject or Title.
• Available here pre-sorted by Author or Subject.

The following table contains a list of libraries holding a collection of the post-war BSA Journals.

The Cave Research Group of Great Britain was founded in 1947 and existed until 1973 when it merged with the British Speleological Association to form the British Cave Research Association. The Group produced several series of publications of which the most important was the Transactions. Fifteen volumes of these were produced, at first as annual, or biannual parts. From Volume 9, in 1967, to the final Volume 15 in 1973 they appeared as yearly volumes. There were four parts to Volume 1, two parts each to Volumes 2 to 8; three parts to Volumes 9 and 10 and four parts each to Volumes 11 to 15.

From Volume 1 in 1949 until Volume 7 in 1965 the Transactions was edited by Marjorie Railton. Volumes 8 to 15 were edited by Trevor Ford; who then continued in the same post for BCRA. Copies of some back issues are still available from BCRA Sales.

The other series of publications produced by the CRG were: Occasional Publications, Numbered Publications, Biological Records (Supplements) and Newsletters. An Author and Title index to all of these, except the Newsletters, was compiled by B.E. and R.G. Picknett and published in Transactions Vol. 10 (3), in 1966. Indexes to the Newsletters were produced by S.E. Craven in 1971, covering Nos 1 - 127 (1947-71), and 1973, covering Nos 128 - 134 (1972-3). A comprehensive index to the Biological Supplements and Records was compiled by Chris Howes and published in 1994 in the Proceedings of the University of Bristol Spelaeological Society, Vol. 20 (1).

This index does not include the 1965 issue of the Biological Records, which was subsequently given the designation Transactions Vol. 7 (3), but does include subsequent Biological Records which were published as parts of the Transactions series.

ISSN 0069 - 1305 : Transactions of the Cave Research Group of Great Britain, (1950-1974)

An index to CRG Transactions is:

• Available on paper in Cave Science - Combined Indexes (Volume I)
• Available for searching online by Author, Subject or Title.
• Available here pre-sorted by Author or Subject.

The following table contains a list of libraries holding collections of CRG Transactions.

The University of Bristol Spelaeological Society was founded in 1919. From its very beginning it has followed a policy of publishing its work and the first issue of its Proceedings was produced the following year. Each volume has three parts. These have normally been published annually, although publication was a little sporadic in the 1930's and during the war years. A key word index was produced with Vol. 4 (3) for the first four volumes and for all subsequent volumes except Vols. 12, 13 and 14 for which a combined index was produced. From Vol. 12 onwards, contents pages for each completed volume have also been produced.

In the pre-war years, editorial duties were normally carried out by the Secretary and no formal designation of editor occurred until 1952 when Martin A.C. Hinton and Dina P. Dobson-Hinton were appointed joint editors. They continued in this role until 1960 when an editorial committee chaired by the Society's then President, E.K. Tratman took over. Overall control remained in Tratman's hands, sometimes as chairman of an editorial committee and sometimes as editor with editorial advisors, until his death in 1978. From 1978 to 1991 these duties were carried out by editors who chaired an editorial committee: O.C. Lloyd (1978-85), T.R. Shaw (1986-1989) and P.L. Smart (1989-91). From 1992 the editor has been G.J. Mullan, advised by P.L Smart and A.M. ApSimon.

Other publications produced by the Society have been a monograph, Doolin-St. Catherine's Cave, Co. Clare (O.C. Lloyd, 1964) and the books The Caves of North-West Clare (ed. E.K. Tratman, 1968) and The Caves of County Clare (ed. C.A. Self, 1981). Copies of many back issues of Proceedings are still available from the Society's sales manager, c/o The Spelaeeological Society, Student's Union, Queens Road, Clifton, Bristol BS8 1LN.

ISSN 0373 - 7527 : Proceedings of the University of Bristol Speleological Soc., (1919-)

An index to UBSS Proceedings is:

• Available for searching online by Author, Subject or Title.
• Available here pre-sorted by Author or Subject.

An index to UBSS Proceedings is also maintained on the society's website: www.ubss.org.uk

Collections in the British Isles

Collections in the rest of the world

The William Pengelly Cave Studies Trust was founded in 1962, as the Association of the Pengelly Cave Research Centre. The Association came into being primarily to ensure the conservation of a number of caves in Devon and to create a cave studies centre at Buckfastleigh. As one of the extensions of its activities it was decided to produce a journal whose prime object was to encourage cave conservation by providing a link between those concerned on the one hand with the exploration of caves and, on the other, with related scientific studies. This has remained its purpose ever since and the current editorial policy is still to publish "articles, especially review articles, on cave-study and conservation and new methods and results of cave-research, written by specialists for serious non-specialist readers".

The early volumes of the journal "Studies in Speleology" were produced as part-works at an (intended) rate of one part per annum. Volume 1 had five parts (although parts 2-3 were combined). Volume 2 had eight parts (with 3-4 and 7-8 combined). Volume 3 had only 2 parts and thereafter each issue became a separate volume. Volume 10 was produced in 1995. Keyword indexes were produced for the first two volumes.

From Volume 1 to Volume 3 (1) the editor was A.J. Sutcliffe. Volume 3 (2) was brought out by David Jean, David Curry and Robert Cawthorne after Neil Utting was taken ill having done much of the preparatory work and for Volume 4 the editor was P.J. Boylan. Volumes 5 to 11 were edited by Roger Cooper, assisted at times by John Wilmut. Volume 12 was edited by R. Cawthorne; Volume 13 by David Jean and John Wilmut. The current editor is John Wilmut.

ISSN 0585 - 718X : Studies in Speleology, (1964-)

An index to 'Studies in Speleology' is:

• Available on paper in Cave Science - Combined Indexes (Volume II)
• Available for searching online by Author, Subject or Title.
• Available here pre-sorted by Author or Subject.

Further information about WPCST is available on the society's website: www.pengellytrust.org.uk

About the subjects

The journals are indexed here under one or more of the following subject headings:

• Regions: South West and Southern England; South Wales and North Wales; Peak District and Central England; Pennines and Northern England; Ireland and Northern Ireland; Scotland and the Hebrides; Great Britain - General
   
• Countries: The British Isles (All Regions); Europe (Excluding the British Isles); Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands; America and the Caribbean Islands; Asian Mainland and South East Asian Islands; Australasia and the Pacific Islands
   
• Science: Archaeology and Palaeontology; Geology and Geomorphology; Hydrology and Water Tracing; Chalk, Gypsum and Sandstone Caves; Glacial Ice and Lava Caves; Cave Biology, Flora and Fauna; Cave Chemistry and Water Analysis; Cave Physics and Air Sampling; Cave Minerals and Mineralogy; Cave Sediments; Palaeoclimatology; Conservation and Planning
   
• Techniques: Caving Equipment and Tackle; Cave Surveys and Magnetic Surveying; Inductive and Resistivity Surveying; Cave and Expedition Photography; Cave Diving and Diving Equipment; Medical Aspects of Caving; Cave Rescue Techniques; Cave Radio and Electronics Applications
   
• History: History of Caving; History of Mining; Industrial Archaeology; Cave Art and Human Society; Caving Bibliography and Reviews; Obituaries
   
• Miscellaneous: Expedition Logistics; Society Reports; Thesis Abstracts; Symposium Abstracts; Miscellaneous Topics
   

Version information: This page was last updated to version 8.6 on 28/09/2006. (info)
Minor updates 10-July-2014 indicated by a ° superscript