''Le Naturaliste Canadien'' is a Canadian

French-language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...

peer-reviewed Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...

scientific journal In academic publishing, a scientific journal is a periodical publication intended to further the progress of science, usually by reporting new research. Content Articles in scientific journals are mostly written by active scientists such as s ...

published semiannually by the Société Léon-Provancher d'Histoire Naturelle du Canada. The journal publishes articles on all topics of

natural science Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

s with a specific focus on

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

and

conservation biology Conservation biology is the study of the conservation of nature and of Earth's biodiversity with the aim of protecting species, their habitats, and ecosystems from excessive rates of extinction and the erosion of biotic interactions. It is an int ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

. The journal also acts as the official publication of the society. The journal is the oldest scientific publication in French in North America and one of the oldest scientific journals still in publication in Canada.

Foundation by Provancher

The ''Naturaliste Canadien'' was launched in 1868 by

Léon Abel Provancher Léon Abel Provancher (born 10 March 1820, in the parish of Bécancour, Nicolet County, Quebec; d. at Cap-Rouge, Quebec, 23 March 1892) was a Canadian Catholic parish priest and naturalist. He is called the "Father of Natural History in Canada" ...

, an important figure in

's scientific history. It was aimed to be an organ for the diffusion of scientific findings and popularization: For all his life, Provancher would remain the owner and editor of the journal, as well as its main contributor, although a number of other prominent naturalists of the time also published in it:

Dominique-Napoléon Saint-Cyr Dominique-Napoléon Saint-Cyr (August 4, 1826 – March 3, 1899) was a politician in Quebec, Canada, and a two-term member of the Legislative Assembly of Quebec (MLA). Early life He was born on August 4, 1826, in Nicolet, Centre-du-Québec, ...

Charles-Eusèbe Dionne Charles-Eusèbe Dionne (20 July 1846 – 25 January 1925), also known as Charles Eusebe or C. E. Dionne, was a French Canadian naturalist and taxidermist. He is considered the first professional French Canadian ornithologist. Dionne was a sel ...

(who also for a time edited a concurrent journal),

François-Xavier Bélanger François-Xavier Bélanger (1833 – 19 January 1882) was a French-Canadian naturalist and museum curator. An autodidact like many naturalists of the time, he specialized in the study of Microlepidoptera. Thanks to the influence of Léon Abe ...

, Joseph-Alexandre Crevier, James MacPherson Le Moine and

Jean-Baptiste Meilleur Jean-Baptiste Meilleur (May 8, 1796 – December 6, 1878) was a doctor, educator and political figure in Lower Canada, Canada East, and Quebec. He was born at Petite-Côte in Saint-Laurent, Lower Canada on the Island of Montreal in 1796, the s ...

amongst others. Their combined contribution amount to less than a hundred pages; Provancher providing the vast majority of the journal's content, over 6,000 pages' worth. While many articles treated scientific topics, Provancher also wrote essays on related topics such as public education, the establishment of museums, and a

botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...

project in

Quebec City Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Communauté métrop ...

. Soon after it was launched, having reached 500 subscription (a rather high rate when 50% of the population couldn't sign their name), it received a government grant to help with publication. During this whole period, Provancher maintained an overall anti-

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

ist (particularly anti-Lamarckian) stance; for example, he published several virulent attack on evolution from François-Xavier Burque. However, the naturalist still got into disagreements with the more extreme elements of Quebec ultramontanes over some theological points. A polemist at heart, he had a particularly violent dispute with journalist

Jules-Paul Tardivel Jules-Paul Tardivel (2 September 1851 – 24 April 1905) was an American– Québécois writer and a significant promoter of Quebec nationalism. Tardivel was born in Covington, Kentucky, and sent to Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, for his class ...

, in which he was defended by Burque, and his University and

Archdiocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

. In another instance, he called Lamarckism a theory "serving the self-pride of

materialist Materialism is a form of philosophical monism which holds matter to be the fundamental substance in nature, and all things, including mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. According to philosophical materialis ...

French politicians,

Bert Bert or BERT may refer to: Persons, characters, or animals known as Bert *Bert (name), commonly an abbreviated forename and sometimes a surname *Bert, a character in the poem "Bert the Wombat" by The Wiggles; from their 1992 album Here Comes a Son ...

, Hugo robably referring to both Victor_Hugo.html" ;"title="robably referring to both Victor Hugo">robably referring to both Victor Hugo and his sons Jules Ferry">Ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...

Huard's continuation

Charles Boucher de Boucherville

entomology Entomology () is the science, scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such ...

ichthyology Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish ( Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 33,400 species of fish had been described as of Octob ...

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ear ...

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having its ...

microbiology Microbiology () is the scientific study of microorganisms, those being unicellular (single cell), multicellular (cell colony), or acellular (lacking cells). Microbiology encompasses numerous sub-disciplines including virology, bacteriology, prot ...

Laval University Laval means ''The Valley'' in old French and is the name of: People * House of Laval, a French noble family originating from the town of Laval, Mayenne * Laval (surname) Places Belgium * Laval, a village in the municipality of Sainte-Ode, Luxemb ...

Laval and modern incarnations

The University took over the journal and its publication (which was also for a time the official publication of the newly founded Linnean Society of Quebec) from 1930 onward, making it the official publications of the department of biology. The format and editorial policies—only original material—were revised, attracting criticism from both its original public and the scientific community as the editorial committee attempted to satisfy both. As early as 1931 it was one of the most circulated French-Canadian publications, its 600 copies going to individuals and institutions in 18 countries, but changes in leadership and editorial problems left the journal wobbly until the 60s. With the subtitle "''revue d'écology et de systématique''" ("journal of ecology and systematics"), a clearer policy and a proper peer review system, the magazine acquired an unprecedented circulation, and was published in French with abstracts in both English and French. It remained a monthly until 1942, when it became a bimonthly, then became a quarterly publication in 1976. By 1991 dwindling numbers of submissions, increasing difficulties with respecting deadlines—several of the later issues were published with a year of delay—, new governmental policies for grants and other factors such as the increasing specialization of publications made discontinuation the obvious outcome. Issue 1 of volume 118 was the last of this run. In 1994 a new departmental journal, ''

Écoscience ''Écoscience'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal originally published by Université Laval (1994–2014), and by Taylor & Francis since 2015. It was founded by Serge Payette and it covers all aspects of ecology Ecology () is ...

'' was launched, edited by mostly the same team that had edited the previous journal. The University announced it would be willing to give out the ''Naturaliste'' if its original goals were to be perpetuated. The Société Léon-Provancher d'Histoire Naturelle du Canada and the university came to an agreement where the society would take over publication, the magazine replacing the Society's previous ''Euskarien''. Although the combined volumes have a single collation, Provancher, Huard's and Laval's runs are often treated as first, second and third series respectively, with Huard's and Laval's series having collations of their own. This additional collation was abandoned at Laval in 1942. The journal now publishes papers and observations on

and

in Quebec, as well as the Society's own news, notably about Basque history in the province—the Society owns and manages the

Île aux Basques Île aux Basques is a Canadian island located in the lower estuary of the St. Lawrence River, about north of Trois-Pistoles, in Les Basques Regional County Municipality of the Bas-Saint-Laurent region of Quebec. The island is part of the munici ...

archeological site and bird sanctuary. It is a semiannual publication and as of 2007 was indexed by Repères, Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, and

The Zoological Record ''The Zoological Record'' (''ZR'') is an electronic index of zoological literature that also serves as the unofficial register of scientific names in zoology. It was started as a print publication in 1864 by the Zoological Society of London, a ...

. The journal has an unusual policy on reprinting: much like the

Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...

attribution license, articles may be reprinted in all or part as long as the source is mentioned.

Notes

References

* * * *
Bibliographic data
Library of Congress Online Catalog]. Accessed 2008-07-04.

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Naturaliste Canadien Ecology journals French-language journals Publications established in 1868