I am happy to announce to members of editorial board of The Internet Journal of Biological Anthropology, contributing authors, and to all our readers that in early 2009, The Internet Journal of Biological Anthropology was selected for indexing and inclusion in SCOPUS - the largest abstract and citation database of quality peer-reviewed research literature in scientific, medical, Engineering and social sciences fields. According to the letter sent by Scopus, this was in recognition of the high quality and relevance to the scientific community of the journal.

Ever since the establishment of the journal in June 2007₁, we have been interesting in having our journal indexed in Scopus and have made every effort to make the journal an international publication of quality. In the later part of 2008, The Internet Journal of Biological Anthropology was evaluated by board of technical review committee for its quality, originality and importance in the field of Anthropology, and was adjudged to be worthy of inclusion. This will definitely lead to an increase in the number of submissions to the journal and also to an increase in the number of citations of the articles from the journal cited by authors in other publications. We believe that this indexing will serve as means for the further development of the journal receiving the kind of articles that stimulate and gratify the new developments in the field of biological anthropology.

I, along with the editorial board of the journal, would like to express sincere gratitude to our publisher Internet Scientific Publications for their support throughout. The availability of the full text on the website to all our readers is an added benefit for the growth of the journal and was helpful in obtaining the results we wanted. As you already know that inclusion in abstract & indexing (A&I) databases increases the visibility and awareness of full-text journals. The A&I databases will drive usage and traffic to the full-text platforms with sophisticated linking technologies, increasing journal brand awareness and subscription sales.

Indexing in Scopus and Elsevier Bibliographic databases will enable readers to search and retrieve all articles from past and current issues. While the full content of articles has always been immediately available online to readers worldwide at http://www.ispub.com at no charge, the Scopus will make titles, abstracts and references available to people conducting searches for academics, research and development.

Every journal editor attempts to ensure what is best for the journal for its survival and its well being such that not only do the number of readers increase but so that quality of the articles published is also enhanced. It is with this in mind since the last two years₂₃ when the journal came into existence, many attempts have been made to improve the quality of the journal. We, of course, welcome our readers to contribute to this effort by giving in their views. One result of these endeavors has been that in this brief period of time, Scopus has indexed the journal and it is hoped that in the near future all the articles that appeared in the journal will be abstracted by Scopus.

I am thankful to all the members of the editorial board and other outside experts who critically reviewed the manuscripts for this journal. Now we have just entered a new stage in the development of the journal. We should aim at further advancement in publishing good papers. We welcome all kind of articles that will satisfy our readers.

This new issue of the journal (2009, Vol. 3, No.1) publishes seventeen articles including fourteen original articles, two up to date reviews and one case report. The issue covers vide variety of articles from social to biological perspectives in almost all the field of biological anthropology. In this issue, the original articles cover every aspect of anthropology having a bearing on biological anthropology like variability of finger and dermatoglyphics ₄₅₆, sexual variation in foot dimensions₇, relationship of somatoscopic variations with age₈, anthropometry of foot with respect to various weight bearing conditions₉, hand grip and its association with some anthropometric parameters₁₀, nutritional status among children₁₁, development of DNA from ancient human skeletal remains₁₂, femoral anteversion and study of elongated styloid process₁₃₁₄, relationship of obesity with lumbar range of motion₁₅, role of adolescence in language development₁₆ and study of nasal parameters₁₇. One review article is the forth part of the series “Prehistory of the Chhotanagpur region₁₈. Another review article describes impact of gender bias on health and nutrition of the tribal women in relation to dynamics of development in India₁₉. A case report presents assessment and discussion of ancestral background from skulls belonging to Greece₂₀.

We hope you enjoy reading this issue of new discoveries and up-to-date reviews. We therefore, look forward to receiving your papers and we invite your suggestions and comments for the improvement of The Internet Journal of Biological Anthropology. Do e-mail us (gargkk@yahoo.com) your comments, questions, queries and pre-submission enquiries.

Kewal Krishan, PhD
Editor-in-Chief