The final issue of Gulf of Mexico Science (GOMS) will be published in 2018. Last year I was contacted by Mark S. Peterson and Nancy J. Brown-Peterson, co-editors of the newly redesigned and upgraded journal Gulf and Caribbean Research (GCR), about the possibility of combining GOMS with GCR to build a single, strong journal that focused on research conducted in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. After much deliberation and discussion with John Valentine, Executive Director of the Marine Environmental Science Consortium (more commonly known as the Dauphin Island Sea Lab), and the awareness that Carolyn Wood, our managing editor was soon to retire, and that I would myself soon transition to Emeritus status, the decision was made to work with the Petersons and incorporate GOMS into GCR.
As many of you will know, GOMS was preceded by Northeast Gulf Science (NEGS), a journal founded in 1977 by Bob Shipp who subsequently served for 20 years as its editor. NEGS transitioned to GOMS in 1997 when Will Schroeder became editor of the journal and the scope was expanded to include all aspects of marine science in the Gulf of Mexico. Will served as editor of GOMS for 10 years, after which time Monty Graham became editor. Monty served for 2 years until I became editor of GOMS in 2009. During most of the this time Carolyn Wood has been Managing Editor of GOMS and the journal has benefitted immensely from her editorial and production skills, and could not have succeeded without her. During these years GOMS published several well-received special issues, such as the two on coral reefs of the Flower Gardens (Volumes 16(2), 1998 and 23(1), 2005), an issue describing the marine labs of the Gulf (Volume 28(1&2), 2010) and the recent special issue on Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles (Volume 33(2), 2016), along with many strong articles on the biology, ecology and oceanography of the northern Gulf of Mexico. From 1977 to the present, NEGS and GOMS published many papers that have substantially improved our understanding of the ecology of the Gulf of Mexico.
Many authors, reviewers and members of the editorial staff have cheerfully donated their time and efforts to bring into print the hundreds of papers that appeared in NEGS and GOMS. They all deserve sincere thanks for their unselfish efforts. Finally, it is very important to all of us associated with Gulf of Mexico Science that all the papers published by NEGS and GOMS will now and in the future be freely available on the Gulf and Caribbean Research (GCR) web site (https://aquila.usm.edu/gcr/). I encourage all former GOMS subscribers and authors to visit the GCR website and publish your research there.
Ken Heck
Editor, Gulf of Mexico Science
Dauphin Island Sea Lab
May 2018
NOTE: All published papers from Northeast Gulf Science and Gulf of Mexico Science are freely available from this site.