II. Collective Publication of Linkages

Some of the linkage data presented in this News Letter would seem suitable material for a general linkage paper to be published. (see News Letters of March 6 and November 30, 1935, and March 4, 1936).

If the authors of these data will signify their desire to have it published as presented in this News Letter or will rewrite it in the form they prefer, we will attempt to make arrangements for havng it published this summer. If others of you with similar data will send it to the Co-op not later than April 10, we shall be glad to include it in this publication.

In the News Letter of March 4, 1936, Dr. Emerson gave some very good suggestions regarding the manner of arranging the linkage data: "Manuscripts should be typed and ready for publication without change. When new genes are involved, a short, concise description of the characters differentiated by them might well be included. Well-known genes should not require such treatment. Tables should be presented in summary form. Different cultures involving the same kind of data should not be listed separately unless that is essential in order to demonstrate significant differences between them. Of course F₂ and backcross data for coupling and repulsion must be entered separately in the tables. A single frequency distribution may often be displayed in the text to better advantage than in a table. Tables of data should be accompanied by such discussion only as is essential to make clear any points not obvious from an examination of the tabular data themselves, or as is necessary to indicate the relation of the unreported observations to other linkage tests, etc. The tabular arrangement and headings used in the Linkage Summary are convenient and I, naturally, think them good. No limit can be set now to the length of the individual contributions, but, unless a very considerable amount of data are presented, individual papers might well be kept to not over one or two pages of printed matter, and it is my hope that some may be not more than half that long".