A Biologist's Guide to Internet Resources Version 1.5, 13 July 1993 Una Smith Department of Biology smith-una@yale.edu Yale University New Haven, Connecticut 06511 -*- 2. Networking The Internet has become an excellent place in which to look for academic and professional job announcements, conference announcements and calls for papers, and important notices about recent events in many fields of biology. Generally, notices of all forms appear on the Internet well in advance of traditional journals and newsletters. Scientific interest groups, both formal and informal ones, maintain electronic discussion groups, directories, digests and newsletters. These resources are distributed in three principal ways: via Usenet newsgroups, (automated) listserver mailing lists, and mailing lists administered by real people. Increasingly, the two forms of mailing list have "gateways" connecting them with Usenet newsgroups. -*- 2.1. Some Mind-Boggling Statistics Recently, approximately 370 thousand articles per week were distributed worldwide through Usenet (Anonymous 1993). This traffic constituted roughly 50 megabytes per day of announcements, questions and answers, advice and bits of program code, references, heated debates, and data in various formats. There are now nearly a million registered computers on the Internet, and thus tens of millions of people; an estimated 7 million people have accounts on 65 thousand computers carrying Usenet, and nearly 2 million people read Usenet news at least occasionally (Reid 1993b). There are several thousand world-wide Usenet newsgroups, several thousand listserver mailing lists, and several thousand other, generally small mailing lists. It appears that there are on the order of 10 thousand people who read biology-related Usenet newsgroups (Reid 1993a), and there may be that many using mailing lists for topics in biology. All together, there are a hundred or so newsgroups and mailing lists (most via listservers) that may be of particular interest to biologists. They are listed below. -*- 2.2. Netiquette The professionally-oriented newsgroups and mailing lists follow certain conventions of etiquette. These are none other than those used by most people at public events such as academic conferences. In fact, most of the science-related newsgroups (and mailing lists) are very much like mid-sized meetings of any professional society, except that they never end. The participants come and go as they please, but the discussions and exchange of ideas and information continue as though they had a life of their own. Submitted articles tend to be of the following types: - Discussions on topics of general interest. Discussions on specific topics, techniques, or organisms are also frequent. - Announcements of upcoming conferences or other events, calls for papers or grant proposal deadlines. In Usenet, announcements can be set to expire (and thus disappear from the list of current articles), and may be limited in their distribution so that they are seen only by readers in the appropriate organization or geographical area (Beware, this feature is often leaky; see section 2.3, Usenet). - Academic and professional job announcements, including many graduate fellowships. These are generally posted in newsgroups/mailing lists reserved for such notices, often in advance of publication elsewhere. - Reports or comments on new books, papers, methods or software. Full citation of sources is always appropriate and appreciated. Requests for references or comments are also welcome and, when posed as specific questions of general interest, often lead to interesting discussions. Unacceptable articles include: - Commercial advertizements, political lobbying messages, and anything not pertaining directly to the topic or purview of the newsgroup or mailing list. Discussions about some commercial products, especially books and software, are generally allowed as long as they do not constitute advertisements. - Requests by students for explicit answers to homework and exam or essay questions are generally not welcome. Requests for help understanding problems in biology are welcome, but the requester should demonstrate at least a basic understanding of the question. Some helpful suggestions: - Read before you post (look before you leap) Before posting an article for the first time, read the discussions for a week or so. Look for a "FAQ" document that covers frequently asked questions, before you make the mistake of asking one yourself. - Always include your full name and e-mail address Put these at the end of your message, with your usual signature. You might want to use a .signature file (standard on most Unix systems, also implemented for Usenet and e-mail readers under VM/CMS) to make this automatic. This is necessary because strange things often happen to headers in e-mail or Usenet articles sent from one network to another. - Send private replies whenever appropriate Answers to very esoteric questions are often best sent directly to the person who asked for help, rather than to the newsgroup; the choice of whether to post a (public) reply or send (private) e-mail is a personal decision. If you send a reply by e-mail, and would prefer that it be kept private, you should say so in your note, because otherwise the other person may share your comments with others. If the original poster promises to post a summary at the outset, then all replies should be sent by e-mail, unless they constitute an important re-direction of the original question. - Summarize the replies to your article Whenever a question or request for information results in many replies, it is expected that the person who posted the original article will compile and post a summary of the responses. - Use care when writing summaries - The "best" answers should come first. - All answers should be separated clearly, and nicely formatted. - Redundant, irrelevant or verbose comments, and errors of fact or spelling should be edited out. It is appropriate to use square brackets and dots to indicate editing [...]. - Exercise discretion and tact, to ensure a fair and accurate summary. - Unless they asked that their names be withheld, the contributors of each answer should be named and thanked, individually or as a group. - Avoid starting nasty arguments or "flame wars" - Be generous when interpreting the arguments of others. - Avoid jargon; write as though addressing an educated lay audience. - Remember, the exercise will be good for you. If something you read angers you, save it for a few hours while you do something else (don't reply on an empty stomach). Go back to it when you are calm and relaxed (and you have thought of a good rebuttal!). If you simply must say something highly critical, consider sending it via personal e-mail, rather than posting or mailing to the group. - Be careful about quotations, citations and copyrights The Internet has grown to the point where it has become reasonable to cite documents that exist officially only in an electronic version on the Internet. And the issue of authenticity and version control has become extremely important. Thus, it has become appropriate to express copyrights, and to specify within documents how they may or may not be used, both within the Internet and in print. Please respect these restrictions, which are often very generous, and send the author e-mail if you have any doubts about the intended use of any Internet document. As a rule of thumb, you may freely cite or quote anything posted to a newsgroup or mailing list in that forum *only*. For citations or quotes elsewhere, it is hoped, even expected, that you will first request express permission from the author, which is easy, given the author's e-mail address. Although there has been a trend to cite specific articles posted in Usenet, it is generally satisfactory to use the "personal communication" formula, but for this reason you should request a specific, personal statement from the author that is directly relevant to and given in the context of the issue that you wish to address. -*- 2.3. Usenet Usenet is a convention, in every sense of the word. Usenet is a system of organized "newsgroups" sharing many features with traditional newsletters, mailing lists and focused scientific societies. Usenet is Internet-based (although before the Internet existed it was distributed via UUCP), and strongly developed so that end users need know only how to interact with the particular Usenet "reader" program on their computers. Features of Usenet that make it far superior to the two types of mailing lists generally include the sorting or "threading" of all articles on a related topic, control of the distribution of posted articles to hierarchical levels (e.g., the author's university, state, country, or continent--but this feature may "leak"), the ability to cancel an article even after it has been distributed, and automatic expiration of dated articles. To test any of these features, especially the distribution control, try posting an article to misc.test; your article will receive "echoes" from other sites that receive it. Usenet is "free", but not cheap; because it requires a lot of computer disk space, and a certain amount of installation and regular maintenance work by a system administrator, not all computer systems carry Usenet. If Usenet is carried locally, it may still be necessary to prod the local Usenet administrator to add the bionet and bit.listserv newsgroups to the local "feed". Usenet was created by two Duke University graduate students in 1979: see Spafford (1993) for the definitive history of Usenet and a list of Usenet software for virtually every type of computer. To paraphrase Spafford and Salzenberg (1992): Usenet is *not* a network. Usenet is an anarchy, with no laws and no one in charge. No one has any real control outside of their own site. Computer system administrators who distribute Usenet "feeds" to other sites gain some authority by virtue of being "upstream"; that is, they have some say over what newsgroups their "downstream" neighbors can receive. Usenet feeds are stored at each site in "spools"; it is common for universities to have Usenet spools on one or two computers, and to allow everyone at the university to read Usenet news via "client" programs that connect to the remote "news server". The particular configuration of the Usenet feed to your university or organization determines whether the distribution control feature of most Usenet posting programs will work properly for you. For example, the mailing lists for the bionet.* newsgroups are gated on the west coast of North America, and you might think that it is safe to post local items in a bionet.* newsgroup if you live elsewhere. But many sites get their feed of bionet.* groups directly from the machine that runs the mailing lists, which is definitely outside your geographic area. So your article will be distributed at your site, but will not be propagated from your site to any other site in your area if it must pass out of your region and then return through a separate feed to a university in the next city. Furthermore, it is a more efficient use of network resources to get as much Usenet traffic as possible from the nearest site available. It is important, therefore, to do a little research on Usenet feeds in your area before asking your Usenet administrator to add one of the newsgroup hierarchies listed in section 2.3.2, Special Usenet Hierarchies and Gated Mailing Lists. Usenet etiquette: - New users should read the Usenet FAQs posted in news.announce.newusers. - Use the misc.test newsgroup for posting test articles. Be sure to test the distribution feature here. Do not post test articles to other newsgroups. - Use the expiration feature for job and conference announcments. - When posting to more than one newsgroup, use the cross-posting feature so only one copy of your article goes out, but is seen by many people. - Post (and cross-post) sparingly to groups that have associated mailing lists, to give a break to people who must read the groups via e-mail. The cross-posting of articles to more than one gated newsgroup is strongly discouraged, since the e-mail subscribers will get multiple copies of any cross-posted articles. Usenet readers should be aware of proper etiquette for mailing lists when posting to gated newsgroups. -*- 2.3.1. Newsgroups of Special Interest An "F" after the newsgroup name indicates an FAQ is available. "M" means that the newsgroup is moderated. "G" means that the newsgroup has a gateway to a parallel mailing list: see section 2.3.2, Special Usenet Hierarchies and Gated Mailing Lists for details. alt.bbs.internet F Announcements of new Internet services alt.cyb-sys Cybernetics and Systems alt.info-theory Information theory a la Shannon alt.internet.access.wanted F Help getting full Internet access alt.internet.services F Announcements of new Internet resources alt.lang.sas SAS discussion alt.native Indigenous peoples alt.sci.* [6 groups] alt.sustainable.agriculture alt.agriculture.* [2 groups] bionet.agroforestry G Agroforestry research bionet.announce FGM Announcements bionet.biology.computational GM Comp. and math. applications in biology bionet.biology.n2-fixation G Biological nitrogen fixation bionet.biology.tropical G Tropical biology and ecology bionet.chlamydomonas G Chlamydomonas discussion bionet.cellbio G Cell biology discussion bionet.general FG General discussion bionet.genome.* G [3 groups: Arabidopsis and chromosomes] bionet.immunology G Research in immunology bionet.info-theory FG Information theory applied to biology bionet.jobs G Job opportunities in biology bionet.journals.contents GM Biological journal TOCs bionet.journals.note G Publication issues in biology bionet.molbio.ageing G Cellular and organismal ageing bionet.molbio.bio-matrix G Computer searches of biological databases bionet.molbio.embldatabank G Info about the EMBL Nucleic acid database bionet.molbio.evolution G Evolution, especially molecular bionet.molbio.gdb G The GDB database bionet.molbio.genbank G The GenBank nucleic acid database bionet.molbio.gene-linkage G Genetic linkage analysis. bionet.molbio.genome-program G Human Genome Program issues bionet.molbio.methds-reagnts G Tips on lab techniques and materials bionet.molbio.hiv G The molecular biology of HIV bionet.molbio.proteins G Proteins and protein database searches bionet.molbio.rapd G Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA bionet.molbio.yeast G Yeast researchers' discussion bionet.neuroscience G Research issues in the neurosciences bionet.photosynthesis G Photosynthesis research bionet.plants G Plant biology, inc. genetics and ecology bionet.population-bio G Population biology, especially theory bionet.sci-resources GM Information about funding agencies, etc. bionet.software G Software for biology, esp. free/shareware bionet.software.* G [3 groups: acedb, gcg, and sources] bionet.users.addresses G Help locating biologists who use e-mail bionet.virology G Research in virology bionet.women-in-bio G Discussion by and about women in biology bionet.xtallography G Protein crystallography bit.listserv.biosph-l G Biosphere, ecology, Discussion List bit.listserv.devel-l G Tech. Transfer in Internat. Development bit.listserv.ecolog-l G Ecological Society of America bit.listserv.edstat-l G Journal of Statistics Education List bit.listserv.ethology G Ethology List bit.listserv.medforum MG Medical Students Discussion bit.listserv.sas-l G SAS Discussion bit.listserv.scifraud G Discussion of Fraud in Science bit.listserv.spssx-l G SPSSX Statistical Discussion bit.listserv.stat-l G Statistical consulting bit.listserv.uigis-l G User Interface for GIS bit.listserv.vpiej-l G Electronic Publishing Discussion List bit.org.peace-corps G International Volunteers Discussion Group comp.infosystems.gis FG Geograpical Information Systems comp.infosystems.gopher F The Internet gopher access tool comp.infosystems.wais F The Internet WAIS access tool comp.infosystems.www The Internet WWW access tool comp.text.tex F TeX, LaTeX and related text format systems comp.theory.cell-automata G Cellular automata research comp.theory.dynamic-sys G Ergodic theory and dynamic systems comp.theory.self-org-sys G Topics related to self-organization embnet.news.admin G EMBnet news helpline for administrators embnet.general G General discussion embnet.net-dev Network development discussion embnet.rpc Technical discussion of data transfers info.grass.programmer GM GRASS GIS programmer issues info.grass.user GM GRASS GIS user issues math.stat.math Mathematical statistics news.announce.important FM Important notices about Usenet news.announce.newusers F FAQs for new users of Usenet news.answers FM All FAQ documents news.lists FM Statistics and data about Usenet sci.answers GFM FAQs pertaining to science sci.anthropology Anthropology discussion sci.archaeology Archaeology discussion sci.bio F General biology discussion sci.bio.technology G Any topic relating to biotechnology sci.environment Discussion of environmental issues sci.geo.* [3 groups] sci.image.processing F Scientific image processing sci.nonlinear Nonlinear dynamical systems sci.research.careers Discussion of research careers in science sci.* [60 other newsgroups] -*- 2.3.2. Special Usenet Hierarchies and Gated Mailing Lists There has been a growing trend in the past few years to link mailing lists and newsgroups, and to create Usenet newsgroup hierarchies that are outside the "main stream". Both being new, these two trends often go together. Some main-stream groups (e.g., sci.answers, sci.bio.technology and comp.infosystems.gis) are gated to (usually listserver) mailing lists, but most are not. None of the Usenet newsgroup hierarchies mentioned below are main-stream ones; that is, they do not conform to all Usenet conventions, and consequently are carried by no more than 30-50% of Usenet sites. This is not necessarily a bad thing, since few or no readers at most sites are biologists, and e-mail subscriptions are available for many groups. If your site carries Usenet, but not these hierarcies, a simple request to your Usenet administrator might be all that's needed to get them too. But see the first part of section 2.3, Usenet for details about what to ask for. bionet.* For an e-mail subscription to any bionet newsgroup, send e-mail to biosci@daresbury.ac.uk if you live in Europe, or to biosci@net.bio.net otherwise, naming the groups that you want. Brief descriptions of some of these groups are given in the BIOSCI FAQ, posted in bionet.announce and available via gopher or anonymous FTP from net.bio.net in the directory pub/BIOSCI/ or by e-mail on request from biosci@net.bio.net. bit.listserv.* As their names imply, the bit.listserv newsgroups started out as (and remain) listserver mailing lists. Most of these mailing lists became so successful that gateways to Usenet were added by popular demand. The appendix includes 100 or so other listserver mailing lists of interest to biologists; those with Usenet gateways are listed in section 2.4.3, Gateways to Usenet. Charters for each of these groups can be obtained from the listserver that administers each one. See sections 2.4, Listserver Mailing Lists and 2.4.1, Commands for details about e-mail subscriptions and commands for interacting with listserver programs. comp.theory.* Send e-mail to Erik Fair, fair@ucbarpa.berkeley.edu, or see the list of mailing lists posted regularly in news.answers for details about e-mail subscriptions. embnet.* The European Molecular Biology Network (EMBnet) runs a group of Usenet newsgroups that are distributed in Europe. E-mail subscriptions are available from nethelp@embl-heidelberg.de, and these newsgroups can be read and searched via gopher and WAIS on bioftp.unibas.ch. Send general e-mail queries to embnet@comp.bioz.unibas.ch. info.* These groups are mailing lists with gateways to Usenet at the University of Illinois. See section 2.5, Other Mailing Lists for e-mail subscription information, or ask your local Usenet administrator to get these groups. lter.* The Long Term Ecological Research Network (LTERnet) has a setup similar to that of EMBnet. Ask helper@lternet.edu about e-mail subscriptions, or see the gopher on lternet.edu. -*- 2.3.3. Usenet FAQs about Usenet You are strongly encouraged to read the following introductory and etiquette FAQs before posting any messages to any newsgroup. They are what might be considered the "mandatory course" for new users, and are posted frequently in the Usenet newsgroup news.newusers.announce. See section 5, Useful and Important FAQs for a list of additional FAQs of general use or interest to biologists, section 5.1, What's an FAQ and where can I get one? and section 3.6.2, Anonymous FTP for instructions on how to get copies by anonymous FTP or e-mail if you don't have access to a Usenet reader. Title Archive filename -------------------------------------------------------------------- Introductory information What is Usenet? what-is-usenet/part1 Answers to Frequently Asked Questions usenet-faq/part1 about Usenet Introduction to news.announce news-announce-intro/part1 Etiquette issues A Primer on How to Work With the usenet-primer/part1 Usenet Community Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions emily-postnews/part1 on Netiquette Hints on writing style for Usenet usenet-writing-style/part1 Rules for posting to Usenet posting-rules/part1 Technical issues How to Create a New Usenet Newsgroup creating-newsgroups/part1 USENET Software: History and Sources usenet-software/part1 How to become a USENET site site-setup NetNews/Listserv Gateway Policy bit/policy UNIX BBS Software FAQ with Answers unix-faq/bbs-software Introduction to the news.answers news-answers/introduction newsgroup Instructions for posting to news.answers news-answers/guidelines -*- 2.4. Listserver Mailing Lists It is very important that you keep a list of all mailing lists to which you are subscribed, along with the address of the list administrator and the address you used when you subscribed, if you have more than one. This is because you will need to unsubscribe yourself if you go away on vacation or your address changes. Otherwise any mail sent to you from the list may bounce or cause other, sometimes severe problems. And it's easier to check the address etc. when you want to tell friends how they can subscribe too. The appendix at the end of this guide includes most listserver mailing lists of particular interest or use to biologists. Internet addresses are given whenever possible, and all addresses are in standard Internet format, with the exception that portions of the Internet node names that reflect original Bitnet node names are given in uppercase, for the convenience of readers on Bitnet nodes. Listservers were developed first many years ago on Bitnet, when Eric Thomas wrote a computer program named "LISTSERV" that could act like a regular computer user: receiving and sending out e-mail, and keeping files. LISTSERV is now used on hundreds of computers around the world, and a number of copy-cat programs with similar features are used at many other sites. Whichever program is used, these listservers are given the task of maintaining multiple electronic mailing lists, handling all membership requests (subscriptions and cancellation of subscriptions, and so on). Many list owners collect monthly logs of all messages sent to the list, and some also provide files of other information. Eric Thomas's LISTSERV program does this automatically, and listservers running this program can send "back issue" logs and other files on request. Anastasios Kotsikonas has written a similar listserver program for use on Unix computers, named "listserv", and the name of a listserver running his program is always listserv@<computer address>. This has become a very popular listserver program outside of Bitnet. The basic subscription functions use commands identical to the LISTSERV program, so these are not distinguished from true Bitnet LISTSERV listservers. Mailing lists run by listservers with slightly different command protocols are listed in section 2.5, Other Mailing Lists, together with mailing lists run by hand. Other listservers include "mailbase" and "MAILSERV", both written for Bitnet nodes in Europe. For documents about using mailbase, send e-mail to mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk with the text send mailbase user-guide for the lengthly User's Guide send mailbase user-card for a short version of the Guide You can get an extensive topical directory of academic mailing lists, compiled by Diane Kovacs, dkovacs@KENTVM.kent.edu: send e-mail to listserv@KENTVM.kent.edu with the text get acadlist readme Charles Bailey posts a directory, Library-Oriented Lists and Electronic Serials, to the newsgroup bit.listserv.pacs-l on a regular basis. Mailing list etiquette: - Whenever possible, Bitnet users should use the Bitnet address of a list and its listserver; Internet users should use the Internet address. - Keep a record of your subscriptions, and a copy of any instructions that you receive with your subscription. - Remember to unsubscribe or otherwise turn off your subscriptions before your e-mail address changes or you go away on vacation. - Avoid sending articles to more than one mailing list. - Be concise or, if your article is more than a few hundred lines long, warn your readers in the Subject line. A note for users on JANET nodes (in the United Kingdom): you may be able to get subscriptions to Bitnet listserver mailing lists via listserv@earn-relay.ac.uk. Send e-mail to that address with the text info ? for more information. This saves electronic transmission costs by having a single subscription propagated across the Atlantic Ocean, and then re-distributing it to multiple subscribers in the U.K. and elsewhere in Europe. -*- 2.4.1. Commands Being computer programs, with nothing else to do, listservers just sit and wait for e-mail to arrive, read it, and perform the appropriate task, usually immediately. They respond only to a small set of commands. A summary (Thomas 1993) of these commands can be retrieved by sending the message "send listserv refcard" to any listserver. The main listserver is listserv@BITNIC.educom.edu, but there are many listservers around the world. Specificially, there is one on each computer for which a mailing list is mentioned in the appendix. Most listservers maintain more than one mailing list. To subscribe to any of these mailing lists, send e-mail to the listserver at the same address. For example, subscriptions to the Smithsonian Institution's biological conservation list, CONSLINK, may be obtained by sending the message subscribe conslink <Your Name> to listserv@SIVM.si.edu. To turn off mail from a list temporarily (e.g., while you are away on vacation), send the message set <listname> nomail and to unsubscribe permanently (e.g., because your e-mail address is about to change), send the message unsubscribe <listname> Send subscription and other administrative requests to the listserver, not the list; e-mail messages sent directly to the mailing list will (generally) be sent to all the list subscribers. Only the listserver can process subscription requests, and the listserver only knows about requests that it receives directly. LISTSERV programs of version 1.7f and higher have a very useful feature that lets you receive a daily digest (actually a concatenation, with a table of contents) instead of many individual articles. Send e-mail to the apropriate listserver with the message: set <listname> digest -*- 2.4.2. Archives In addition to handling the membership requests for particular mailing lists, most listservers also archive all messages sent to each list in monthly log files. These files, along with other items contributed by list subscribers, are archived by the listserver and can be retrieved by e-mail. Listserv@SIVM.si.edu keeps an archive of various lists of conservation organizations and field stations, several newsletters, and a large collection of bibliographic references relating to biological conservation. Listserv@UMDD.umd.edu keeps an archive of job openings and conference announcements submitted to the Ecological Society of America. Commands for retrieving files from listserver archives are described in the listserver command reference guide (Thomas 1993), and include: help to get generally useful information review <listname> to get the list of subscribers index <listname> to get the list of archived files get listserv refcard to get a short summary of commands get listfaq memo to get an FAQ about listservers Sending the message "info" to a listserver will result in a list of information guides including: REFcard (LISTSERV REFCARD) Command reference card FAQ (LISTFAQ MEMO ) Frequently Asked Questions PResent (LISTPRES MEMO ) Presentation of LISTSERV for new users GENintro (LISTSERV MEMO ) General information about Revised LISTSERV KEYwords (LISTKEYW MEMO ) Description of list header keywords AFD (LISTAFD MEMO ) Description of Automatic File Distribution FILEs (LISTFILE MEMO ) Description of the file-server functions LPunch (LISTLPUN MEMO ) Description of the LISTSERV-Punch file fmt. JOB (LISTJOB MEMO ) Description of the Command Jobs feature DISTribute (LISTDIST MEMO ) Description of Relayed File Distribution COORDinat (LISTCOOR MEMO ) Information about Listserv Coordination FILEOwner (LISTFOWN MEMO ) Information guide for file owners DATABASE (LISTDB MEMO ) Description of the database functions UDD (LISTUDD MEMO ) User Directory Database User's Guide UDDADMIN (LISTUDDA MEMO ) UDD Administrator's Guide To get any one of these, send the message "info <keyword>" where <keyword> is, for instance, "REFcard" or "FAQ". Only the portion in capitals is required. -*- 2.4.3. Gateways to Usenet Some of the listserver mailing lists in the appendix below are also Usenet newsgroups: biosph-l@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu is bit.listserv.biosph-l biotech@UMDD.umd.edu is sci.bio.technology devel-l@AUVM.american.edu is bit.listserv.devel-l ecolog-l@UMDD.umd.edu is bit.listserv.ecolog-l edstat-l@jse.stat.ncsu.edu is bit.listserv.edstat-l ethology@FINHUTC.hut.fi is bit.listserv.ethology gis-l@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu is comp.infosystems.gis info-tex@ is comp.text.tex (gate is list-->group only) medforum@ARIZVM1.ccit.arizona.edu is bit.listserv.medforum (custom gate) sas-l@UGA.cc.uga.edu is bit.listserv.sas-l scifaq-l@YALEVM.cis.yale.edu is sci.answers (gate is group-->list only) spssx-l@UGA.cc.uga.edu is bit.listserv.spssx-l stat-l@vm1.mcgill.ca is bit.listserv.stat-l uigis-l@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu is bit.listserv.uigis-l vpiej-l@VTVM1.cc.vt.edu is bit.listserv.vpiej-l American University has established itself as the clearing house and semi-official keeper of automated gateways between listserver mailing lists and Usenet newsgroups. Questions about the procedure for establishing a gateway for any mailing list or newsgroup may be posted to the Usenet newsgroup bit.admin or sent to news-admin@AUVM.american.edu. A FAQ on this topic appears regularly in the bit.admin newsgroup. -*- 2.5. Other Mailing Lists Remember to save any instructions you receive about unsubscribing from a mailing list. Mailing lists that do not use listserv-style commands for subscribing and unsubscribing include: Topic or name Mailing list address Subscription instructions ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Arabidopsis thal. database announcements aatdb-info@weeds.mgh.harvard.edu Contact Mike Cherry, curator@weeds.mgh.harvard.edu. Artificial life digest alife@cognet.ucla.edu Send all subscription requests to alife-request@cognet.ucla.edu. Biological Anthropology, Primatology humbio@acc.fau.edu Send "subscribe humbio <Your Name>" to mailserv@acc.fau.edu. Biological timing and circadian rhythms cbt-general@virginia.edu cbt-general-request@@virginia.edu Biologia y Evolucion (in Spanish) biologia@athena.mit.edu biologia-request@athena.mit.edu Biology information systems biogopher@comp.bioz.unibas.ch Contact Reinhard Doelz, doelz@urz.unibas.ch. Bulletin for bryologists bryonet@uni-duisburg.de Send e-mail to the owner, Jan-Peter Frahm, hh216fr@uni-duisburg.de. Cytometry discussion cytometry@flowcyt.cyto.purdue.edu cyto-request@flowcyt.cyto.purdue.edu Dendrome forest tree genome mapping digest Send all subscription requests and submissions to the editor, dendrome@s27w007.pswfs.gov. Dinosaurs and other archosaurs dinosaur@donald.wichitaks.ncr.com Send e-mail to dinosaur-request@donald.wichitaks.ncr.com. Discover Insight Biosym Users' Group dibug@comp.bioz.unibas.ch Send e-mail to dibug-request@comp.bioz.unibas.ch. Ecologia (in Spanish) ecologia@athena.mit.edu Send e-mail to ecologia-request@athena.mit.edu Entomology discussion ent-list@um.cc.umich.edu Send e-mail to the owner, Mark O'Brien, hcfb@um.cc.umich.edu. Environmentalists digest env-link@andrew.cmu.edu Send e-mail to the owner, Josh Knaur, env-link+forms@andrew.cmu.edu. Fish and Wildlife Biology wildnet@access.usask.ca Send e-mail to wildnet-request@access.usask.ca Forestry discussion forest@lists.funet.fi Send e-mail to forest-request@lists.funet.fi Genstat statistics package discussion genstat@ib.rl.ac.uk Send "subscribe genstat <Your Name>" to listral@ib.rl.ac.uk. GIS digest Send all subscription requests and submissions to the editor, rrl@leicester.ac.uk. GIS Users in the United Kingdom geocal@leicester.ac.uk Send "subscribe geocal <Your Name>" to vmsserv@leicester.ac.uk. Killifish, Cyprinodontidae killie@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us Send e-mail to killie-request@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us Neotropical birds discussion avifauna@rcp.pe Contact phillips@cipa.ec (Roberto Phillips) Neural networks digest neuron-request@cattel.psych.upenn.edu Send requests and all submissions to the above address. Back issues of the digest are available via anonymous FTP on cattell.psych.upenn.edu. Orchids orchids@scuacc.SCU.edu Send "subscribe orchids <Your Name>" to mailserv@scuacc.SCU.edu. Plant Taxonomy plant-taxonomy@mailbase.ac.uk Send "join plant-taxonomy <Your Name>" to mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk. Primate discussion primate-talk@primate.wisc.edu Send e-mail to the owner, primate-talk-request@primate.wisc.edu. Prion Research Digest [unknown] Send e-mail to prion-request@stolaf.edu. The S statistics package s-news@utstat.toronto.edu Send e-mail to s-news-request@utstat.toronto.edu. SANET-MG Sustainable Agriculture Network sanet-mg@twosocks.ces.ncsu.edu Send e-mail with the text "subscribe sanet-mg" or "send guide" or "send catalog" to almanac@twosocks.ces.ncsu.edu. Young Scientists' Network ysn@zoyd.ee.washington.edu Send e-mail to ysn-request@zoyd.ee.washington.edu with the Subject (not text) "subscribe" or "send info". Volcano list Send all subscription requests and submissions to the editor, Jon Fink, aijhf@ASUACAD (via Bitnet) or aijhf@asuvm.inre.asu.edu. Note, any mailing lists you may discover at net.bio.net or daresbury.ac.uk that are not explicitly mentioned in this FAQ are not mentioned *because* they are actually gated lists for the bionet.* newsgroups. See section 2.3.2, Special Usenet Hierarchies and Gated Mailing Lists for instructions about subscribing to any bionet.* newsgroup via e-mail. There is a 4-part FAQ in news.answers (da Silva 1993) that includes brief descriptions of the charter of each mailing list. This FAQ is stored in FAQ archives in the directory /mailing-lists/. A very long (1.2 megabytes) list of lists is available via anonymous FTP from ftp.nisc.sri.com in netinfo/interest-groups or (in compressed form) netinfo/interest-groups.Z. It can also be obtained via e-mail by sending the message "send netinfo/interest-groups" to mail-server@nisc.sri.com. There is a printed, indexed version, titled "Internet: Mailing Lists", that can be purchased from Prentice Hall. However, this list is up-dated through submissions, and thus is incomplete and not very correct. -*- 2.6. Newsletters Many of the mailing lists mentioned in the above section are actually digests, where readers' queries and comments are condensed into a single large document that is distributed periodically. Yet another variation on this theme is electronic newsletters. Those not listed elsewhere in this guide include: * Animal Behavior Society Newsletter. Editor James C. Ha, jcha@u.washington.edu. * Boissiera. Editor ? <burdet@cjb.unige.ch> * Candollea. Editor ? <burdet@cjb.unige.ch> * Flora Online. A journal for collections-oriented botanists published by the Clinton Herbarium, Buffalo Museum of Science, New York USA. Editor Richard H. Zander, visbms@UBVMS.bitnet. Available via gopher and anonymous FTP from huh.harvard.edu. * Bean Bag: Leguminosae Research Newsletter, edited by Charles R. Gunn and Joseph H. Kirkbride, Jr., jkirkbride@asrr.arsusda.gov. Available via gopher and anonymous FTP from huh.harvard.edu. * Botanical Electronic News (BEN), edited by Adolf Ceska, Canada. Available via gopher and anonymous FTP from huh.harvard.edu, and the wildnet mailing list. * Environmental Resources Information Network (ERIN) Newsletter, Australia Available via gopher and anonymous FTP from huh.harvard.edu, and via the ERIN gopher on kaos.erin.gov.au. * LTER Data Management Bulletin (DATABITS). Available via gopher on lternet.edu. * Climate/Ecosystem Dynamics (CED). E-mail subscriptions are available from Daniel Pommert, daniel@lternet.washington.edu, gopher access available via lternet.edu. * The Chlamydomonas Newsletter. E-mail subscriptions are available from Mike Adams, adams@ecsuc.ctstateu.edu. You can also get this newsletter via gopher from gopher.duke.edu and via anonymous FTP from acpub.duke.edu in pub/chlamy/. The paper journal The Scientist is available in an online version via anonymous FTP on ds.internic.net, in pub/the-scientist, courtesy of the Institute for Scientific Information and the NSF Network Service Center. Michael Strangelove, 441495@acadvm1.UOTTAWA.ca has compiled a directory of electronic serials. To retrieve it, send e-mail with the text get ejournl1 directry get ejournl2 directry to listserv@acadvm1.UOTTAWA.ca.