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Telecon March 17 Agenda:Date: Monday, March 17 at 11am Bgcolor |
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Telecon Agenda |
December 2, 2pm Eastern
Toll Free Number: 866-757-4161
Toll Number for International: 1-517-968-4405
Participant passcodePasscode: 5807653 If you are outside the US, you may want to refer to this pdf for specific country information re accessing these telecon lines.
Purpose of the Telecon: Discussion where all can voice opinions that help identify key issues and form a consensus view on how to move forward.
1. The Space Weather Journal app is released. See announcement about to be submitted to SPA News, Solar News, and PEN. Please edit and submit to additional newsletters as is appropriate (copy to Louis, Howard, and Brooks please!).
2. Current Editorial Focus for the Journal and Quarterly:
- Space Weather "Annual Report" prepared by AGU
- Updates to text on the web site for the Space Weather Journal; will be passed by the publications committee for approval as soon as our input is complete.
- Q4 2013 SW Quarterly: Lou ready to work on this, status at AGU/Wiley?
- special section, nearly completed, devoted to the CRATeR mission and the radiation environment around the Moon
- 10th year anniversary
- assistance needed from editorial board or AGU?
Notes from the meeting.
All need to take a look at the Annual Report in anticipation of our AGU lunch meeting. Louis noted several encouraging statistics. Average times to acceptance and median times to acceptance are as good as other journals; this is an especially strong statistic in light of the nature of the writing style required. The Citation statistic is not as good as we would like to see. Louis and others have started to address this via normal, good editorial practices and we should expect to see the effects in the coming year. For example, there has been more examination of the references cited in the papers to ensure appropriate referencing of papers that may have been as readily available to the community . The number of submissions are increasing, citations are increasing as well.
Re the Q4 2013 SW Quarterly: Lou and AGU are ready to move it along. Brooks noted that AGU is ready to go forward with this Q4 quarterly "as we have always done". Lou and Brooks have the action to connect the appropriate parties to make progress on this.
This quarterly was, at one time, going to be the 10th anniversary edition. This could also be framed as the beginning of the next decade.
There was a suggestion that we instead do a 11-year solar cycle anniversary edition, as this would be the most appropriate anniversary cycle for space weather research. This suggestion seemed to resonant well with the telecon participants and so may well be what happens.
Re the updated text for the website: The text could also be included in the iPad app? All on the telecon were invited to send any last comments for the updated text. Brooks will do the final editing incorporating this input, circulate back to all on the telecon and to the AGU publications committee for approval.
3. Publication issues to address:
- Near term:
- Establish distribution priorities for Quarterly (print vs electronic), update distribution list. In the past a few individuals did this manually via a phone call. AGU can update the committee people, need more work on the strategy for this.
- Prototype layout of Quarterly via standard/custom Wiley Special Section templates. Barbara visited with Brooks last week to view early "wireframes" and screenshots of the web interface that can be used to create "Special Sections" from/for the AGU journals. With some custom templates, this mechanism may solve our problem of having two parallel layout processes for the journal and the quarterly. More information to come on this in December so that all can assess whether this suggestion is a concept or can be a real possibility.
- Proposal to NSF and NASA re distribution of Quarterly and Writer Support. No news on this today. This is a concept with broad support among telecon participants; we need only move this forward as an action?
- Form Editorial Search Committee, write Terms of Reference for Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Board
Notes from the telecon: Will want to define roles for editorial board members. To be listed on the masthead, AGU requires editors have a specific role, as opposed to simply an advisory role. Lou: the editorial board was selected to a cover the wide range of topics that Space Weather covers, it was used not to handle papers but rather to give ideas for the papers, serve as expert reviewers, and solicit non-technical articles. Question: How do boards operate on other journals? Brooks: one issue is to balance the recognition value versus the depth of role played -- across all AGU journals. It was noted that the current board does include world-wide participation to ensure the broadest reach possible, there are plans to continue this in the future. We understand that AGU wants to place SWJ in the context of the other journals, we also need understanding that this journal is different and needs a lot of different kinds of input, from an editorial board with members from across the world.
Some folks may think this journal is more limited in scope than it is. We have a much broader audience than is known and need to ensure our board reflects this base and is able to bring focus toward all those areas. Bob Robinson, Howard Singer, and Bob McCoy will start by writing a draft Terms of Reference for the SWJ/SWQ editorial organization. One suggestion is to ensure the board has quarterly telecons in the future. Assuming we are able to write a TOR acceptable to all parties involved, this would serve as a initial SOW for future editors, editorial board members, and/or any advisory board members. The TOR should contain a clause that it be re-examined and updated at the beginning of each editor-in-chief's term.
Many of our readers are not contributors or practitioners in space weather research; these folks may not access the journal web site directly or cite the articles in a manner that can be "counted". Assessing that "impact" will be important as the journal moves forward.
- Mid term:
- Address factors behind access/citation rate. No time for full discussion of this item.
- Formulate plan for broader electronic access of journal/quarterly. No time for full discussion of this item.
- Capture history of the journal and quarterly in accessible place. Bob Robinson found additional materials to add; please take a look and see what you have to contribute to the history page.
- Longer term:
- Explore/expand partnerships: AMS, AIAA. Bob McCoy will start this discussion at the AGU luncheon. We will post a summary of that, and any other materials to this site for those unable to attend that lunch.
- Added an item: How to assess the full "impact" of the journal, when the access/citation stats don't tell the full story.
4. Topics for the AGU meeting of the editorial board:
- Suggestions for further App improvements to make it even more useful for readers and subscribers and users.
- Suggestions for SW Journal and SW Quarterly articles, features, etc.
- McCoy: Relationship between AMS and AGU re Space Weather and application to the Space Weather Journal/Quarterly (5-10 min). Collaboration? Link to the AMS Policy Statement on Space Weather. There may be a policy statement on Space Weather by AGU? Klimchuk can share that process (website with form?). What group can lead that?
- Lunchtime entertainment talk on capabilities for production of the Quarterly. Brooks will send slides ahead of time (<15 min)
- Potentially will have some information on Terms of Reference for Editor/Editorial Board
- Some may wish to stay in the room past the nominal luncheon time for extended discussion, if our meeting obligations allow.
END OF TELECON
We need to cover this and end in one hour. Please help with the discussions to accomplish this and afterwards by emailing additional thoughts, suggestions, and materials to the group.Notes from the telecon are in blue. Beg pardon for typos, poor grammar, incomplete sentences, missed comments, etc.
Agenda:
- Louis Lanzerotti: Editorial Report on continued production of SWJ and SWQ. Last issue of Quarter for 2013 has been finished and distributed. First issue of Quarterly is being prepped now. A few articles are still in prep and we are waiting for the quarter to close to finish off and distribute. Some internal AGU staff is changing but looks to be smooth and will not interrupt. Nancy asked if Mohi Kumar, an AGU staff member, has been able to contribute to the journal as she is enthusiastic about the Quarterly and has had many good ideas. Brooks would need to talk with her about contributions in the future and, of course, this will be part of the current broader discussions about use of staffing and how all scientific fields would be covered via EOS or other publications. The kinds of things that used to be in Quarterly have suffered as a result of staffing changes and all of this is being discussed as part of the higher level review. Several folks on the telecon seconded and endorsed Mohi Kumar's contributions and we hope in the future that Mohi's leadership could be brought to bear in the future.
- Distribution list for quarterly was given "some" scrubbing. Thanks to Lexi and other staff at AGU for updating the list for staff members and aids!
- Thanks to Nancy Crooker! Article in EOS In the next year or two, we will all want to think of ways to bring attention to the Journal/Quarterly as a help to the new editor. Excellent example of "what to do"!
- additional thanks to Barbara Richman and Mohi Kumar, both of whom are Space Weather supporters from the past.
- Thanks to Delores Knipp! Working the Journal/Quarterly into the classroom. Hopefully this model could be written up as an idea for other universities to use in their courses. Excellent example of "what to do" as an editorial board member! This is a followup on her initiative to increase visibility and utilization: a SWJ version of Astrobites ("SWxbites"). Astrobites is a daily astrophysical literature journal written by graduate students in astronomy. Their goal is to present interesting papers in a brief format that are accessible to undergraduate students.
- AGU, AMS, and the Space Weather Journal/Quarterly. The door appears to be open for collaboration/cooperation. Dan Baker also connected with Bill Gates.
- Bob McCoy engaged Bill Gail, new president of AMS
- Bill Gail reached out to Lou Lanzerotti re jointly supporting the Quarterly with AGU
- Lou introduced Bill to Brooks.
- Bill's bottom line: "I speak only for myself at this point and my interest in seeing space weather well supported as an emerging discipline. I would have to speak with our publications team if there is any request for AMS support, but I would be glad to do so. The level of collaboration between AGU and AMS is growing. We are glad to explore any opportunities that strengthen that collaboration and ensure the health of communities like space weather. Please let me know what I can do."
- As an aside and included in the referenced email chain, here is a great picture of Lou and Don Carpenter at the recent Yosemite Conference. Don is apparently working on a "history of VLF" paper, which must be very interesting as Bill Gail's email to Lou is the third time I've heard it mentioned. Also, everyone loves the "Full Solar Cycle" theme for the Journal this Year.
- Search for the next Editor in Chief has begun. The search committee has met a couple of times.
- when does the nomination period close? End of this month, or into April. Our group is encouraged to speak to candidates and/or apply ourselves. Folks have looked very carefully into whether there may be issues, legal or otherwise, with the EIC being a civil servant. The conclusion is that there should not be a concern with that, given appropriate care on the part of the editor in question and appropriate support from AGU and government agency general counsel.
- timeline for when new editor can reasonably be expected to begin their work? Early to mid summer? Could be earlier?
- Recommended Terms of Reference from the Editorial Board
- zeroth order draft circulated from our subgroup
- markups from Louis to consider and work in.
- Comments made at telecon: Lou's markups are helpful. AGU's name is ... role of EIC has been more advocacy, this appears to more passive, written in receive mode or transmit mode. Tirelessly advocate for SWJ/SWQ. Want to ensure we give lots of latitude to the new editor. Job announcement doesn't capture the full breadth of the job. Hope this document can be used by the search committee to help inform editor candidates. Brooks thinks this can be helpful to search committee; agrees with comment about constructing an editorial team will be helpful and having proactive editor is important, encouraging content to be submitted, writing editorials, etc. Also, advocacy means appropriate relationships between AGU, AMS, societies, engagement with other journals and societies. On page 3 or so, editorial roles and responsibilities, add a few sentences along these lines. CHANGE THE TITLE (TOR sounds like something that has a specific purpose or definition that you should be able to look up in a dictionary. Barbara apologizes profusely for NASA HQ jargon seeping into our work. Recommended Roadmap for the Future? Nancy had another suggestion but I didn't manage to capture the thought. Or was it Delores?). Number of the subeditors recommended is currently vague, being left to the new editor. AGU is trying to get at least two per journal as a minimum, good to have more than two. Brooks can see up to four for the amount of content. Growth of international content means we should have an international editor. Add more words in this area of the document to reflect growth of field, growth of content. Probably need more in general somewhere in the document regarding our international reach and process for further engagement (Hermann, Paul, you could help us there!). A concern was expressed on point four on page four, EAB members may be discontinued ... wording seems a bit harsh. SWJ has an editorial board at the discretion of Lou, AGU doesn't officially recognize these and so in general, they do serve at the discretion of the EIC. Should there be something more formal, we can propose that. Since the journal was different, content is broader, the editorial board has a special function. Don't know what the process would be within AGU to formalize. AGU has the structure of "focus groups" to make connections; how might this function in that form? Should we work in that manner? Brooks feels all Editors should have a process to get feedback from the community and get critique as to how the journal is going ... how to connect with the community. Question. What about the quarterly expanding through the use of electronic means; what does that sentence really mean/imply, can we rewrite that to make our thoughts clearer? These comments will be addressed in the next version of the document and be circulated by email. Please keep the helpful suggestions and comments flowing!
- Addition from Nancy Crooker: I have read through Lou's edited version of the document and do not have much to add. One minor addition in the spirit of Dan Baker's comment is to insert "soliciting" before "receiving, reviewing, and selecting articles for publication" in the list of EIC duties, line 4 of #1 on p. 3, in order to make that duty explicit up front, even though it is mentioned further down (where, for consistency, the verb should be "solicits" rather than "will solicit").
- SPECIAL THANKS to Bob Robinson, Howard Singer, and Bob McCoy for putting out this first draft. It's not an easy task to clearly and succinctly synthesize the many thoughts and opinions of what the Journal and Quarterly are and the road the publications and editorial process should take in the future.
- Are there any other actions we can take now to be helpful? We ran our of time before addressing this agenda item. We agreed to continue working by email for now and may well schedule another telecon if that is encouraged by the group.
- is it time to step back and prepare to support the new editor as that person may request?
- are there actions that would be supportive to make their transition smoother?
- something re the Full Solar Cycle theme? How about an article summarizing the first solar cycle of Journal/Quarterly?
- drafting of a proposal to the agencies that they could use/no use as deemed helpful?
- drafting of "Quarterly hardcopy mailing list" plan? including priorities for receipt of hardcopies, further work on email list, roll out plan for moderized e-copy version to expand access?
- draft a list of article/feature suggestions for Journal/Quarterly? including lists of suggested interview subjects, tutorials, reviews, special issues, etc.
Telecon January 29 Agenda:
Toll Free Number: 866-757-4161
Toll Number: 1-517-968-4405
Passcode: 5807653
Agenda:
- Louis Lanzerotti: Editorial Report on continued production of SWJ and SWQ.
- Nancy Crooker: Potential submission to EOS as followup to her suggestion at the AGU Luncheon.
- Discussion about AGU/AMS and other partnerships
- Brooks Hansen: Progress on work to define Terms of Reference / Editorial Search Committee
- Brooks Hanson/Barbara Giles: Progress on work to provide visual prototype of SWQ using new Wiley special section software features.
Telecon January 17 Agenda:
Toll Free Number: 866-757-4161
Toll Number: 1-517-968-4405
Passcode: 5807653
Agenda:
- Louis Lanzerotti: Editorial Report on continued production of SWJ and SWQ. Last issue of the Quarterly for 2013 is underway and is basically finished. Very nice editorial this month introducing the solar cycle anniversary concept. Louis reports that the editorial side of the work is going well. Continues to solicit and receive non-technical material. The citation index continues to increase and we believe it will continue to do so as we are all being more viligant with activities that affect the index.
- Delores Knipp: Followup on her initiative to increase visibility and utilization: a SWJ version of Astrobites ("SWxbites"). Astrobites is a daily astrophysical literature journal written by graduate students in astronomy. Their goal is to present interesting papers in a brief format that are accessible to undergraduate students. Delores is going to try this out on her students this semester! The class has 28 aerospace engineers enrolled. In addition to HW, they will review SW paper and try to write "astrobite" type of summaries. Four or five paragraph summary. Here is an example written by one of the more advanced students.
- Howard Singer/Dan Baker: Summary of Discussions at AGU Editorial Board Luncheon (cryptic notes taken during the meeting are here). WANT MORE INFORMATION ON THE SPECIAL SECTION WILEY FEATURES, were not able to cover that in sufficient detail. There is a difference between 'special issues' and 'special collections". We were not able to explore any potential links between this journal and AMS and any connections with IEEE Explorer.
- Nancy Crooker: Potential submission to EOS as followup to her suggestion at the AGU Luncheon. Barb will circulate Nancy's message; all will reply back with further suggestions and encouragements.
- Paul Cannon: Ensuring the "mission statements" or "scope statements" for Radio Science, Space Weather Journal, and JGR-Space Physics are consistent and clear. Paul encourages an ~100 word description, with the aim to ensure little to no cross-over as much as that is possible. This is the text that goes in the OVERVIEW area of the journal's website.
- Barbara Giles/Brooks Hansen: Progress on work to define Terms of Reference. A template has been created and our subcommittee of Bob, Bob, and Howard will proceed with a draft.
- Brooks Hanson/Barbara Giles: Progress on work to provide visual prototype of SWQ using new Wiley special section software features. Hope to have this for our telecons by April? May be able to have something earlier than April. All agree that more discussion is needed as we are all uncertain as to how this should proceed.
- Besides status on the various initiatives, what should be the focus for next telecon? Bob McCoy reporting on AGU/AMS partnership to support also partnerships with IEEE Explorer? More information on the "special collections" / "special issues" software and features, and how SWJ/SWQ could take advantage.
Re Distribution List: We need to scrub that. Louis will help with that, AGU has already taken a pass wrt congressional staff, Howard will help too.
AGU has started organizing the confidential search committee for a new Editor-in-Chief and hope to have the announcement out soon. Having this group involved will be very important. SEND suggestions for members of the search committee to Brooks. It is essential that everyone in this group be proactive in encouraging appropriate members of our community to apply.
In other news:
Starting to keep a list of suggestions for articles, interviews, tutorials , etc.
Peter Chi, editor of the SPA News, pointed to the Wiley online library subscription service specially noting the Space Weather Journal. Thanks for the "shout out" Peter! To ensure folks remain aware of the need to subscribe, we will add a "notes to the editor" page to remind future editors to post subscription information to the newsletters at least once/twice a year.
Bob Robinson has contributed to a "history" page . Please take a look and consider what history you may be able to add. We'll want this material for our "Space Weather Journal First Solar Cycle" celebration.
Article in the Politico re consequences of EMP and magnetic storms. Thanks Lou for the alert.
AGU home page featured the news release for the very interesting lunar dust and radiation paper that was recently published in Space Weather.
To prepare for the telecon, you may want to review/add to the information already in circulation
see previous meeting/telecon and other notes in the blue box to the right -->see the attempt to summarize the notes, emails, etc. below Space Weather appears in the news:
http://www.scienceworldreport.com/articles/11009/20131119/deep-space-radiation-hazards-quantified-future-mars-exploration.htm
http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/4982/20131119/scientists-collect-new-quantifiable-measurement-cosmic-radiation.htm