EDITORIAL
ANNUAL REPORT 1969
New appointments to the Editor’s Advisory Board, three-year terms beginning with 1970, are: Dr. H. K. Livingston, Wayne State University Mr. Alan Gelberg, Food and Drug Administration Dr. R. E. Maizell, Olin Mathieson Chemical Corp. (Chairman-elect,Division of Chemical Literature)
Retiring members, to whom the Editor expresses his appreciation, are: Dr. F. R. Benson Dr. J . H. Clark Dr. Harold Oatfield
There was a high degree of cooperation and mutual involvement between the Editor and officers and program committee of the Division of Chemical Literature. This relationship is engendered and maintained by the Editor and the Division through the appointment of the Chairman-elect to a three-year term to the Advisory Board and by the Editor being a member of the Division’s Executive and Program Committees. A luncheon-meeting of the Advisory Board was held during the New York ACS National Meeting. Table I summarizes the processing of papers for 1969 and 1968. Both the number of papers received and the total processed reached a new high in 1969. By the end of 1969, the number of papers a t the printers and in process were more than enough to fill the February and May issues for 1970. If the 1969 receipt of papers continues throughout 1970, the page budget will need to be increased by at least 20%. The number of papers rejected by the reviewers also reached a new high, a total of 45 or 37% of those received us. 35 or 33% in 1968. Of the 63 papers published in 1969, 32 (51%) had been presented before the Division of Chemical Literature29 at 1968 and three a t 1969 meetings. Six papers (10%) on polymer nomenclature had been presented before the Division of Polymer Chemistry in 1h8. Fifteen papers (24%) had been presented a t the Middle Atlantic Regional Meetings (MARM) (14 a t the 1969 and one a t the 1968 MARM meetings). Ten papers (16%) of the 63 were not associated with a prior presentation. Because this Journal is the major publication medium for the Division of Chemical Literature, it is interesting to note that of the 30 papers presented before the Division a t the Minneapolis meeting, 16 were submitted for possible publication. Of the 30 papers presented before the Division a t the New York meeting, 12 were submitted for possible publication. Past experience is that some of these papers will be submitted in 1970.
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Of the 26 papers presented in the chemical documentation sessions of the 4th MARM, 20 were submitted for possible publication: 13 were published in 1969, one is slated for publication in 1970, two are being rewritten by the authors, and four were rejected. So far, only the Middle Atlantic ACS Region has had chemical documentation sessions, and, it is interesting to note, these sessions for the past two meetings have had the highest attendance of all the groups. Apparently chemical documentation is a fertile field for other ACS Regional Meetings which can be realized through leadership of members of the Division of Chemical Literature in the respective regions. Technical information scientists in the chemical industry continue to dominate the authorship of papers in chemical documentation. A total of 105 different authors were associated with the 63 papers published, for an average of 1.7 authors per paper: 36 papers had a single author, 14 had two authors, 9 had three authors, and 4 had five authors; 38% of the authors were industrial, 2 0 5 academic, 23% governmental, 7% from Chemical Abstracts Service, and 8% from other areas, such as associations and consultants. The author and subject indexes to the 1969 issues were computer-prepared by A. E. Petrarca and W. M. Lay, Department of Computer and Information Science, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. The subject index was produced by a modified version of the Double-KWIC Coordinate Index the authors described in their paper [J. CHEM.Doc. 9, 256-61 (1969)l. The original method was modified at the suggestion of the Editor to keep the index within a reasonable size and to avoid entries under relatively trivial headings which are characteristic of KWIC indexes. The Editor hopes that other opportunities arise in which the Journal not only publishes a paper on a new indexing method but provides the authors with an opportunity to test the method in the production of an annual index to a current volume. Table I. Papers Processed, 1969 and 1968 1968
1969
Received At Printers, January 1 In Process, January 1 Published At Printers, December 31 In Process, December 31 Rejected Totals
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL DOCUMENTATION, VOL. 10, No. 1, FEBRUARY 1970
121 12 17
107 0 16
-
63 20 22 45 -
-
50 12 26 35 -
150
150
123
123
HERMAN SKOLNIK
