Report from Editorial Board meeting

✍ Scribed by C. Jager

• Book ID: 104645328
• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1974
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 52 KB
• Volume: 34
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0038-0938
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00153664

✦ Synopsis

At the occasion of the IAU General Assembly in Sydney, a meeting of the Editorial Board of Solar Physics was held on Saturday, August 25, 1973. The meeting was chaired by Dr Gordon Newkirk, Jr., and was attended by 18 members of the Editorial Board. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss ways to improve the quality of the publications and to reduce the costs.

With regard to the cost reduction, several proposals made previously, such as changing the paper type, or deletion of the 'Abstracts of Papers from Other Journals' and 'Abstracts of Forthcoming Papers' would yield only a marginal reduction in cost.

Substantial improvement would be obtained by requesting page charges. A page charge of U.S. $ 45 per page would reduce the subscription price of the journal to about one half of the present, However, it was realized that such a page charge would make the journal completely inaccessible for papers from countries with non-convertible currency and practically also for most of the papers from Western Europe. Therefore, regretfully, no solution was found to substantially decrease costs of the Journal.

The quality of the Journal could be improved by more strict refereeing. It was interesting to note that, following a circular letter by Dr Newkirk earlier this year, the percentage of refused papers rose rather sharply from 12% to about 30%. The members of the Editorial Board present were of the opinion that as a general guideline a refusal rate of 12% seems on the low side, while 25% seems more normal practice. In order to arrive at a stricter style of refereeing, referees of future papers will be asked to consider more than previously: the newness of the paper, its conciseness, its physical coherence.

Finally, it was thought useful to rejuvenate the Editorial Board regularly by introducing the system of rotating membership. It was decided that, starting with the end of 1974 each year, 20% of the Board members should retire (re-election being possible).