EDITORIAL ANNUAL REPORT 1970
New appointments to the J C D Advisory Board are: Dr. R. B. Fox, Naval Research Lab., Washington. D. C., for 1971-3. inclusive. Dr. S. J. Tauber, National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, Md., for 1971-3, inclusive. Mr. C. E. Granito, Institute for Scientific Information, Philadelphia, Pa., for 1971.
Dr. Tauber, who has been a member of the Advisory Board for the past two years, is appointed to a new three-year term by virtue of having been elected Chairman-Elect of the Division of Chemical Literature. At the last Advisory Board Meeting, September 15, 1970, during the ACS National Meeting in Chicago, it was decided to appoint the Program Chairman of the Division of Chemical Literature to the Advisory Board on a yearly basis-consequently, Mr. Granito’s appointment to the Board continues as long as he is Program Chairman. Retiring members of the Board, t o whom I express my sincere appreciation, are: Dr. C. M. Bowman Dr. K. L. Loening Mr. W. H. Longenecker
Table I is a summary of my records of the papers received and processed in 1970 and in 1969. Although the number of papers received is slightly down from 1969, the papers processed reached a new high in 1970. The word “rejected” has a harsh connotation t o me, but I do not know what other word to use. “Rejected” in Table I does not mean that 57 papers were rejected by the reviewers in 1970. The review process allows the reviewer to accept a paper as received, to recommend publication with minor revisions or with major revisions, Table I. Papers Processed, 1970 and 1969 1969
19iO
Received At Printers, January 1 In Process, January 1 Published At Printers, December 31 In Process, December 31 Rejected Totals
116 20 22
158
121 12 17 59 8 34 57 -
63 20 22 45
150
158
150
Table II. Employment and National Origin of Papers Published Origin
Employment Industry University Government American Chemical Society Institute for Scientific Information Others Nation United States England Germany Belgium Kew Zealand 2
Paper?
Authors
NO
NO
20 15 10 5 3 6
30 25 16
53 2 2
86
1 1
Journal of Chemical Documentation, Vol. 11, No. 1, 1971
n
i
10 8
or t o reject the paper for a variety of reasons which the reviewer must state. The majority of the papers reviewed are accepted with recommendations for minor or major revisions. Should an author be unwilling or unable to revise the paper as recommended by the r e \Tiewers. ’ he has the option to withhold publication, and eventually I categorize the paper as rejected. Of the 158 papers processed in 1970, about 1 5 5 (22) were rejected and about 2 5 5 (35) were not returned by the authors for one reason or another, thus accounting for the 57 papers (or 3 7 5 ) categorized as rejected. S o t all of the papers categorized as rejected were received in 1970, some were received in 1969, but processed in 1970 by the reviewers. In general, most reviewers have been reasonably prompt. usually returning papers to me within two months. Authors, on the other hand, have not been very prompt in revising their papers as recommended by the reviewers. Of the 59 papers published in 1970, 34 (58%) had been presented before the Division of Chemical Literature31 at the two 1969 meetings and three at the Toronto, 1970, meeting. Nine papers (157) had been presented at the Middle Atlantic Regional Meetings (three in 1969 and six in 1970); 16 papers (27%) were not associated with a prior presentation. The J C D Advisory Board was puzzled by the time lag between the presentation of a paper and its submittal to this Journal for possible publication and by the failure of some authors to prepare a publication version of their presented papers. I t recommended as a possible solution the appointment of the Division’s Program Chairman to the Board with the responsibility of encouraging the submittal of papers by the time of the meeting. The recommendation, as noted above. was put into effect, and results of the action should be apparent from the forthcoming meeting in Los Angeles. Because of my involvement with the Middle Atlantic Regional Meetings over the past six years in the Chemical Documentation sessions, which have enjoyed a particularly high attendance, I have encouraged the Division of Chemical Literature to promote similar sessions a t other ACS Regional Meetings [see my editorial, “Annual Report 1969,” in J . Chem. D o c , 10, 2 (197011. I am happy to report that the forthcoming Central Regional Meeting, June 7-8.1971, will have sessions on Chemical Documentation under the chairmanship of Dr. Anthony E. Petrarca, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. The 59 papers published had 96 authors, an average of 1.6 authors per paper; 37 papers had a single author, 13 papers two authors, six papers three, and three had four or more. Papers from the chemical industry continue to dominate, with 20 papers by 30 authors. As shown in Table 11. there were 15 papers by 25 authors from the academic community and ten papers by 16 authors employed in a governmental agency. Of the five papers from the ACS, three came from the Washington, D. C.. office and two from Chemical Abstracts Service. I n response to a request for a ten-year author and subject index. the Advisory Board recommended that a cumulative index for Volumes 1-10, inclusive, be prepared for sale as a separate reprint. I would like, however, some expression from the subscribers as t o their need and willingness to pay some nominal amount for the cumulative index, as it will take me some time t o do the indexing. I am willing to give the time if the need is real.
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1
HERMAN SKOLNIK
