The quarterly, on-line Journal of Cotton Science (JCS) now has been available at http://journal.cotton.org, for nine years. Published as Adobe Acrobat (PDF) files for optimum versatility and access ease, JCS offers ready access to multidisciplinary cotton research in areas ranging from agronomy to textile technology. Offering scientists a rapid outlet for their findings, JCS has received and placed into peer review some 300 manuscripts. Published manuscripts contain an abstract that explains the research’s value in layman’s terms.

JCS, which is copyrighted, was the first all-electronic journal to be indexed in AGRICOLA, the database of the National Agricultural Library. Patrick D. Colyer, Louisiana State University, serves as editor-in-chief.

The NCC’s web site, www.cotton.org, which was redesigned and launched in February, is a cost-effective method of communicating and helping the organization handle increased information demands. It also supports sites for the Beltwide Cotton Conferences, the National Cotton Ginners Association and The Cotton Foundation, including several Foundation special projects.

New server hardware enabled the site to handle increased NCC member log-in demands – now more than 1,200, and its distribution of 1,000 emails daily of Cotton eNews and 1,500-plus emails of the Cotton’s Week newsletter. The site also was equipped to handle credit card transactions for Beltwide Cotton Conferences’ and Annual Meeting registrations.

Through this project, the site will continue to be upgraded with the addition of content management, application server and web site statistics reporting software along with server hardware.

The 4^th World Cotton Research Conference, to be hosted by the United States in 2007, will provide extraordinary opportunities for 1) interested U.S. personnel to obtain information from international researchers and 2) showcasing the U.S. cotton industry’s leadership in research, quality and efficiency.

This project will support the efforts of the International Organizing Committee which is making  arrangements for the four-day event in Lubbock, TX. Following the Conference, proceedings will be published and provided to registered attendees.