The reasons for continuing with this section are contained in last year's Report (Section 2.6). I am pleased to announce that John Sterman has agreed to continue as Editor of the Archives section of the Review.
The VP(P) has now made the arrangements necessary for some information on Review articles to appear on the System Dynamics Bulletin Board (for restrictions on what Wiley will allow to be posted, see Section 2.2 of last year's Report). The Editor now takes over implementation.
(Section 2.7, last year's Report) The informal arrangements have now been firmed up. The Editor of IAOR has asked DCL to continue the job of choosing appropriate keywords and index citations for SDR articles and has created the formal IAOR role of 'Sub-Editor (System Dynamics)' from which this work will continue indefinitely.
The Editor has agreed various format changes to the Review which are aimed at bringing it in line with other journals in the Wiley stable.
The backlog continues to be low. The inclusion of a Special on Group Model Building has eased matters somewhat and the Editor and VP(P) feel that this is an appropriate mechanism to use in the future. Nevertheless, there is a broader discussion to be had at Policy Council regarding the low submission rate for SDR.
Confirmation would be welcome that, as agreed at the Tokyo Policy Council meeting in 1995, the proceedings of the 1997 conference will be searched and authors of high quality articles encouraged to submit to the Review.
The role of Associate Editors has been a matter of prolonged debate both between VP(P) and the Editor and at Policy Council. The VP(P) shares the view of Policy Council that asking Associate Editors to provide a minimum level of activity concerning the submission of papers is both appropriate and beneficial to the Review. However, the lack of volunteers, nominations and suggestions (see Section 2.4 last year) has stymied this activity. Since the appointment and management of Associate Editors is - constitutionally - in the hands of the Editor, he and the VP(P) propose that they use the Membership Directory to create a list of people to approach, asking if they will act as Associate Editors, given a tighter definition of that role's responsibilities. As acceptances are received, the list of Associate Members can slowly evolve.
The VP(P) has been asked by the Editors of the International Encyclopaedia of Business and Management to write the entry on 'J.W.Forrester'. Seeing this as an opportunity to spread knowledge of our field and its publications yet further, the VP(P) has accepted. Prof. Forrester has agreed to comment on a draft entry to ensure biographical accuracy.
In support of the welcome re-release of many system dynamics publications by Productivity Press, the VP(P) has approached Journal of the Operational Research Society with the offer to write a series of book reviews. The series will start off with a piece concerning Industrial Dynamics and eleven books will be the subject of further reviews. All of the reviews are now completed and the first is scheduled to appear before the end of 1997. Members of Policy Council might wish to note that both of the Editors of JORS involved in this project were very supportive of the VP(P)'s approach and were pleased to see information about system dynamics conveyed on the pages of their journal.
The Editor, the two Managing Editors and the editors of the various Review sections have all contributed to the publication record over the last 12 months. The VP(P) moves a Vote of Thanks for their efforts.
7/8/1996
D. C. Lane, London