Foreword*
Remarkable evolution in cetacean studies in recent decades owes much to major journals that have madesigniﬁcant contribution to the development of modern cetology: Discovery Reports, published by theNational Institute of Oceanography in the United Kingdom, and Norwegian Whaling Gazette in Norway,
as well as The Scientiﬁc Reports of the Whales Research Institute in Japan.
The Scientiﬁc Reports of the Whales Research Institute was ﬁrst published in 1948, a year after theWhales Research Institute was established. Aiming to share valuable research ﬁndings and scientiﬁcknowledge worldwide, the publication was formatted in English since its beginning, quite an ambitious
attempt in Japan still recovering from the devastation of World War II.
Since its ﬁrst publication, a total of 246 scientists contributed 419 scientiﬁc papers to The Scientiﬁc
Reports of the Whales Research Institute. It is widely acknowledged and appreciated that these scientiﬁcpapers were the foundation for the development of cetacean studies worldwide, and in today’s terms, it
was a research journal that had a signiﬁcant impact factor, or high number of citations. Regrettably, however, The Scientiﬁc Reports of the Whales Research Institute was discontinued in 1988 with the 39th
volume after the institute was reorganized into the Institute of Cetacean Research.
In the 30 years since then, various types of journals on cetacean studies have been published globally,each oﬀering diﬀerent perspectives on scientiﬁc research outcomes. As for Japan, no research journal
matching The Scientiﬁc Reports of the Whales Research Institute in its quality has been published. It is
probably because many domestic cetologists have sought to publish their papers in international research
journals based outside Japan.
As the global environment surrounding the issue of whaling became increasingly complex, we haveobserved a shift in publishing policies among these journals, rejecting papers whose ﬁndings are based on
speciﬁc research methods such as lethal sampling. Because of this, no small numbers of papers submitted by biological scientists using samples collected through lethal surveys, even just for some parts, havebeen denied proper reviews. While we agree that animal ethics should be given high priority when writinga research paper, if a paper, the research method of which is allowed under domestic and internationalrules, is rejected, it is a decision made beyond scientiﬁc judgment.
Our new journal for cetacean population studies intends to follow the scientiﬁc policy of The Scientiﬁc
Reports of the Whales Research Institute, that is, to contribute to global development of cetacean studies.
As long as submitted papers conform to scientiﬁcally-accepted animal ethics, we do not make distinctions
based on research methods. At the same time, to maintain the journal’s neutrality in the complex globalenvironment surrounding whaling issues, the journal will be published from a newly organized committee,
rather than as a bulletin type scientiﬁc report from a speciﬁc research institute. The title of the new journal will be Cetacean Population Studies to be abbreviated CPOPS, and we aim to keep our door wide-open
for researchers worldwide, contribute to the scientiﬁc development of resource studies for marine mammals especially focusing on cetaceans, and nurture many aspiring scientists.

December 31, 2018

Seiji Ohsumi, Ph. D.
Chairman
Publication Committee for the Cetacean Population Studies*Introductory declaration by the former Chairman of the Cetacean Population Studies Publication Committee on the occasion of the launching of this journal.

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