Hi-
Since it seems like noone else is going to take this up, here goes:
If you're primarily interested in herpetology, there are 3 national organizations that have scientific journals. Those are the American Society for Ichthyology and Herpetology(they publish the journal Copeia), the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles (they publish Herpetological Review and the Journal of Herpetology), and the Herpetolgists
League (which publishes Herpetologica). All have annual membetrship rates that start at around $50, maybe less for students. They also all have webpages, listed here:
http://www.asih.org/index.html
http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/cbd/HL/HL.html
http://www.ssarherps.org/
Those webpages will have additional information. For your first membership, I would suggest SSAR. For the membership fee you get 2 academic journals, one of which (Herpetological Review) features short articles, news briefs, techniques papers, and other like items; the other one is more "hard science," and contains only longer scientific papers. You'll be able to get a broad overview of herpetology between the two of them. I would join the others later, as money permits.
Regarding other ecology/zoology oriented journals, there are literally hundreds, and I won't bother listing them here. However, if you do a google search for "zoology journal," "ecology journal," etc., you should get a good idea as to what is out there. Your best bet at this point would be to visit a local university and search the journals there. Don't be afraid to ask for help from librarian. That's what they're there for, and they usually go out of their way to help people find what they're looking for. I hope this helps, and good luck!
Eric
