[Sigmet-officers] Fwd: Special issue of the Bulletin

[Stasa Milojevic]

  Hi all-

Here are the details regarding a special issue of the Bulletin. How many 
of you are interested in contributing? If we have enough interest 
internally, we can still send a call to the members of SIG Metrics 
and/or targeted individuals soliciting contributions, but we will not 
rely on call for papers solely for filling the issue.

Thanks,
Stasa

-------- Original Message --------

	

	

	

	

Hi, Stasa.

I'm very pleased that SIG Metrics is interested in doing something with the
Bulletin with a 75th anniversary theme; however, I think it will take some
careful planning and perhaps some adjustment of your agenda to produce
material that is suitable for the Bulletin.

As I read your description, it sounds like you would be putting out a call
within the SIG for original research that documented ASIST history and
notable researchers through bibliometric and other formal approaches. On its
surface, that sounds like material for the Journal, not the Bulletin --
although I realize that the Journal no longer publishes special issues and
that the turnaround time is not nearly sufficient to produce one, if it did.
On the other hand, we don't publish mathematical material or original
research, nor do we encourage anyone to put out a call for material,
although one SIG is doing it now. I've got my fingers crossed about that one
-- I don't recommend it. If I were you, I might consider having a forum of
some sort at the Annual Meeting or as a pre-or-post session and having the
SIG or ASIS&T publish the papers. Based on what you said in your email, that
might be a better route for you than the Bulletin, and I should think it
would be very well received.  Just a suggestion.

Nonetheless, if you want to do an issue for us then

1) You should identify an editor, who would articulate a theme and select
authors to write on various aspects of it. The editor would also write the
overview--introduction. Usually it would be about 6 authors for a total of
around 18,000 words. We just had a bit of a catastrophe in that department
with a section running very long. Since some of the staff work on a per
issue basis, it's particularly unfair to them if things get out of hand, and
I'm feeling very sensitive about that at the moment.
2) Your authors can do what research they like, but for the Bulletin the
write up needs to be informal, no formulas, preferably no references--done
for the general IS reader. I don't want a research paper format - ideally no
literature reviews, no hypotheses, no methodology sections - just what they
found and why it matters. We might relax our practitioner-orientation focus
a bit because of the general interest of the material to ASIS&T members, but
still, the articles should NOT be written primarily for your fellow
researchers.

You can see why I'm a bit concerned that we might not be your best venue.
That said, however, if you are good with the guidelines above, then I'd be
happy to work with you. The first opening I have for an issue is
August-September, which would be excellent for the 75th anniversary theme.
In spite of my caveats above, I'd be delighted to have material suitable to
that occasion. The deadline for the issue would be June 15, which means that
papers should be coming into the issue editor around June 1. I would be
happy to discuss the guest editor's responsibilities with anyone who is
likely to take on that job, including ways to keep it from being
particularly onerous. And that certainly includes not setting oneself up to
have to re-write academic papers so that they are suitable for the Bulletin.

Hope this answers your immediate questions. I do appreciate your wanting to
publish in the Bulletin, and I hope we can come up with a solution that is
mutually satisfactory.

Best regards,

__Irene Travis


Irene L. Travis, Ph.D.
Editor, ASIS&T Bulletin
6003 Highland Hills Dr.
Austin, Texas 78731
Voice: 512.419.9834
E-mail: itravis at austin.rr.com


Best regards,


_Irene Travis






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