McWane utilizes LUNA for scientific publications

Institutions receiving public funds are mandated to make their research transparent and for Jun Ebersole’s field of Vertebrate Paleontology  both ongoing research, and depth of research, quickly voids the usefulness of print publications as illustrated by Freshwater Mussels – at 960 pages published in 2008. Eager to explore publication alternatives, Jun utilized LUNA to deliver McWane’s Fossil Fishes of Alabama. With this representation, each entry is a PDF that is linked from an index on McWane’s website.

With the LUNA platform for delivery, Jun is able to update and add new content as it becomes available while sharing links with the ResearchGate portal, with SharkReferences, and Google Scholar without having to commit to a print publication that might require thousands of pages.

In order to be recognized within the research community as a unique serial publication, it was necessary for Fossil Fishes of Alabama to be registered with the Library of Congress where a book would receive an ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) number. For McWane Science Center, each individual entry within the Fossil Fishes of Alabama portal then received a unique DOI number as a means to increase the searchability and citability.  

Interest in Fossil Fishes is growing and Jun has been receiving an enthusiastic response from researchers near and far who discovered the Fossil Fishes publication. Each PDF (over 100) is available for download.

The team at Luna Imaging is impressed by Jun’s creativity and pleased that LUNA provides the flexibility to support his outreach to the scientific community. We look forward to working with the McWane Science Center to add enhancements that will lead to more projects.