Monthly publication
Next year the International Journal of Man-Machine Studies goes over to monthly publication with two volumes, each of six issues, a year. To go to monthly publication is a major landmark for any journal and it is a mark of the growth of significance of work on man-computer systems that the volume of material in this field is now such as to require such frequent publication. In 1969, when we first commenced publication, it was a major act of faith for both the Editorial Board and the Publishers that the field of man-machine studies actually existed. The only related journals were in areas such as ergonomics, with a very broad spectrum of coverage, and to select the interaction between people and computers as a sufficient topic in its own right to justify a major professional publication was not necessarily the sign of profound sanity that it has become today.
To give a feel for the time-scales involved, the journal Artificial Intelligence commenced publication the following year (in 1970) and the IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics was formed through a merger of Human Factors in Electronics and System Science and Cybernetics in 1971. Through the 1970s the three journals