Publication Identification

Field	Information
Country	United Kingdom
Publisher	C-View Media
Publisher address	Pending research update
Magazine title	Ophidia Review
Publication status	Not independently established; historical issue documented
Publication run	Begins with No. 1, Autumn 2000.  Final issue and total run not verified
Editor	Tom Burgess
Printer	Pending research update
ISSN	1464-7397
Language	English
Publication focus	Specialist reptile and amphibian publishing, with this title focused on snakes and snake keeping
Publication frequency	Pending research update

Preservation Significance

This issue has particularly strong preservation significance because it is the first issue of Ophidia Review and preserves the publication at the moment of its launch.  The interior introduction explicitly identifies it as the first edition and explains the publisher’s decision to create a new series of specialised reptile and amphibian publications rather than expand an existing general publication.  That statement gives the issue value beyond its individual articles because it records the publisher’s original editorial purpose and its view that reptile keeping was becoming increasingly specialised.

The issue also preserves a distinct snapshot of snake related publishing at the beginning of the 2000s.  Its contents combine field and natural history material, captive breeding, taxonomic revision, news, and classified advertising.  The inaugural contents include the Tyrolean Tree Viper, a revision of the Australasian pythons, captive breeding of Crotalus cerastes, snakes in the news, and classified advertisements.  Preserving the physical issue retains not only those articles but also the launch statement, pricing, subscription structure, advertising contacts, editorial information, and design of a short lived specialist publication.

The first issue is additionally important because later bibliographic references continue to cite material published in Ophidia Review No. 1.  The ISSN record confirms Ophidia Review as a United Kingdom print periodical, and later herpetological references cite the Australasian python revision as originally published in this inaugural issue.  For a publication that is now difficult to encounter in ordinary circulation, retaining the original issue provides direct physical evidence of material that otherwise survives mainly through scattered citations and archived references.