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This is a temporary page for use by the Editorial Board of the Space Weather Journal and Space Weather Quarterly. See Dan Baker and Barbara Giles for further information.
Toll Free Number: 866-757-4161
Toll Number for International: 1-517-968-4405
Participant passcode: 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.
Background: What precipitated this interaction: New publications lead at AGU; wants to bring his experience at Science to the journals at AGU. Space Weather has some of the same challenges as EOS. It is one of the most expensive journals and so wants to look closely at this. Also Louis indicated he might want to step down at end of December. Wants to use new opportunities at the Wiley platform to further Lou's vision for Space Weather. There are two different productions paths for the Space Weather and for the Quarterly so this is something AGU wants to look at.
Want to emphasize at AGU wants to promote Space Weather and bring more readers to it. AGU supports it and wants to continue it. Do want to understand the overlap between JGR-space physics, Radio Science, and Space Weather. Need input how to take such ideas forward.
Regarding potential overlap between journals. Space Weather covers a much broader range than Radio Science. However it is thought that there were as many as 10 papers in the past year that could have gone into Radio Science and it is thought the same in reverse could be true. Suggestion: Could we re-vector Space Weather Quarterly more like the IEEE magazines and not just looking at the Space Weather Journal itself but also at the Radio Science Articles and JGR papers. Perhaps more tutorial types of things? The Space Weather Journal provides a home for articles that would not appear or be appropriate for the Science Journals. The editors choice went away for a while but has now been re-instituted for Space Weather. This mechanism can be used for the purpose of bringing attention to relevant content that appears across these journals. AGU wants to find ways to help authors better vector their submissions.
There is a partnership between Space Weather Quarterly and International Space Environment Center. We want to explore that partnership more and how we can utilize that partnership further.
There are a variety of other underlying issues that we need to take up, including how to keep the distribution list for the quarterly.
Total yearly cost for the quarterly is about $100k for ~1400 subscribers.
Suggestion: Examine more efficient ways to re-compose and re-layout content of the journal for the quarterly.
Is it core that the Quarterly must be printed? The quarterly was underwritten by the agencies (NSF actually) for half of its life. Ended when the five-year grant expired. A new grant has not been submitted but could be in the future. Quarterly was instituted as a hardcopy compendium to be distributed to those that are not likely to be access our information in other ways.
Top-Level Points for Discussion / Is there agreement that:
- There is a need for both a Space Weather Journal (SWJ) and a Space Weather Quarterly (SWQ). Quarterly has a very important purpose. It is easily dropped in a bag and read on the train. We want to look at innovative ways to deliver it. For policy makers, is it the print version or the electronic version that is more effective. For some key audience, the print version is probably the better although that can change with time as more folks turn to e-readers. A quarterly distribution may not be the only way we want to deliver the information; we may be able to distribute information on other time scales as well.
- How about advertisers for the Quarterly? How much effort has there been to get advertisers. AGU's and Wiley's experience that for the size of the print run, it isn't traditionally thought to be cost effective. A long term sponsorship relationship, that includes advertisements, may work. It was mentioned that a proposal to the funding agencies might be well received at those agencies. First, we will want to settle some of these production issues so as to write the most effective proposal.
- There is a suggestion that the Quarterly can expand its boundaries to highlight content beyond the boundaries of being a reflection of the SWJ and beyond what Howard Singer has done with the Editor's Choice. Would that be an acceptable idea? Why not?
- Will AGU accept in their business plan, that because the journal serves AGU, its members, and society in policy areas as well as contributing to science research, that at least temporarily, both the SWJ and the SWQ will continue while changes are evaluated (establishing a proper editorial transition process, possible new publishing formats, level of support from AGU staff, etc.). Is this something we want to recommend? How long to allow for this process?
- Regarding immediate issues, what happens on January 1? Can we entice Lou to stay on to keep the journal/quarterly progressing smoothly during this period? What do the advisory committees recommend? What is the AGU planning? How do we work together?
- It is important for Lou to stay on during this time of transition. We need an interim period where we continue what we have for now. Brooks confirmed we need a nice logical plan and smooth transition. Don't want to put a specific timeframe. Some of the issues that space weather is facing concerning distribution will only fester with time and need to be addressed. This is no criticism of the editors of Space Weather but AGU needs to correct some things that transpired before Brooks came on board. This is a high priority for Brooks. We have good momentum and ideas.
- Regarding the new possibilities with Wiley (e.g. special collections etc.), what do we need to do to understand these better and perhaps see demos from comparable products to see how they would serve SWJ subscribers. Do the new Wiley capabilities really solve the key issues related to the SWJ and SWQ? It will be essential to have an iterative development process between the developers and the consumers.
- What are the most important issues to focus on first? What should we be including in our next discussions?
For agenda next time.
Plan seems to be very opened ended. What requirements are being imposed on us from AGU? We need this so we can make concrete plans as soon as possible.
Impact factor of 1.37 seems to be on the lower end. Will that be part
Look at possibiliity of agency funding more.
Should we be discussing the competing journals? Should we understand the position of that journal? To make sure we understand what they are doing so that we can better inform our strategy.
To prepare for the telecon, you may want to review/add to the information already in circulation
- see meeting and other notes to the right -->
- see the attempt to summarize the notes, emails, etc. below
- Distribution list for the Quarterly (not quite 1500 folks)
- Relevant opinion article by Dan Baker on the role of Professional Societies
Space Weather appears in the news:
http://www.scienceworldreport.com/articles/11009/20131119/deep-space-radiation-hazards-quantified-future-mars-exploration.htm
- Values/directions voiced as wanting to preserve? (feel free to add/edit the list)
- further establish SWJ/SWQ as the premier policy magazine for the space weather-related research disciplines
- continually increase the number and citation rate of high quality research papers in the journal
- continually increase visibility inside and outside the research community
- printed version of quarterly to funding/policy stakeholders
- broad circulation of quarterly in some form as broad communication tool
- Initiatives suggested through the flurry of emails (feel free to add/edit the list):
- Overall:
- work w/ AGU and SPA leadership to institutionalize SWJ/SWQ as a flagship science policy publication for AGU
- increase visibility of journal and quarterly beyond its current readership
- explore what a partnership with AMS and/or other societies would mean, what aspects would be enhanced or diluted.
- renewed visibility on ISIS website
- Access/Citation Rate:
- increase the number of reviews among the journal papers
- continue/expand the Editor's Choice column
- series of articles on the operational models
- work with other editors to encourage redirection of appropriate research papers to SWJ
- work with other editors for greater cross-referencing of relevant papers via new WWW site capabilities
- Address Editorial Management Burdens / Production Costs
- pursue "sponsored" support for professional editing and hardcopy printing costs for Quarterly
- examine whether the production methods for the quarterly can economically leverage the Wiley "special collections" features to enable iPad/ebook versions and print-on-demand
- establish subscription rules for print versus electronic versions of the Quarterly and processes for continued maintenance of the distribution list
- carefully assess the government-mandated open access journal model, the responses to that mandate across the relevant publishers, and the potential benefit/liability to the range of journal and quarterly business cases that could be suggested.
- Overall:
- Value to Community as identified in emails/telecon notes:
- important policy magazine for the Union and for a broad segment of membership
- premier journal for space weather
- the journal is the only society sponsored publication for operational space weather research
- quarterly is key for communicating ideas to people with limited science background
- Primary Challenges as identified in emails/telecon notes:
- access statistics appear low; one of least accessed AGU journals
- cost, including the quarterly, is high relative to other journals
- Contributing Challenges identified in emails/telecon notes:
- scientists in the field perhaps either do not have the time to publish the applications of their research or it's not a priority?
- the quarterly somewhat over-shadows the journal? a casual poll reveals that some scientists aren't aware there are two distinct, but linked publications
- increasing the visibility of the journal can result in increased subscriptions to the Quarterly, which increases costs.
- authors of non-technical articles may not continue to write for the journal/quarterly if their writings will no longer reach the decision makers and policy folks that the quarterly has reached in the past.
- AGU/Wiley assets about to be in place that can be leveraged:
- iPad App soon available for SWJ. Once synced with institutional account, downloads and reading can happen anywhere for 3 months. The app provides an HTML view of the content and can be organized by special section. One can browse by issue or by just released articles. Note that the quarterly is currently produced in a manner which limits the ability to participate in this rollout of journal aps.
- Wiley is working on redesign for journal WWW sites including flexible "widgets" that can be used to increase cross-referencing between journals and/or special collections. One new feature will be a "special collections" feature than can pull and organize content across journals and include options for a cover, TOC, and introduction. These can have guest editors and should be able to be released as individual aps or ebooks. These can also be printed on-demand.
- Questions (summarized from emails and meeting notes):
- What should the business model for the Space Weather Journal be? Should move to open access with author fee? How can the commentary pieces be supported under that model?
- Is there a need for editorial scope change? How can we better enforce the distinctions to the science research journals such as Radio Science and JGR Space Physics?
- How should the Quarterly evolve? Should the content expand to highlight related content published in other journals?
- Is a separate composition/production stream necessary for the Quarterly? Can we use the production stream created for the new virtual journals to streamline production and enable electronic access?
- How to best balance the business model for the quarterly? What should be the proportion of print versus electronic access? Should we renew sponsored development and printing? How do the necessary writing professionals get their support?
- During this time of transition, how can we best support a continuous stream of the highest quality space weather research papers AND the important news that our stakeholders need to have presented to them? Can we put some attention on the journal/quarterly to better aid the editors in meeting the current production schedule and to smoothly transition into a new production environment?
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Space Weather Journal:
Proposed update for the website: Space Weather: The International Journal of Research and Applications is an online publication devoted to the field of space weather and its impact on the design and operations of technical and engineered systems, including telecommunications, electric power, and satellite navigation. The journal's readers include engineers, system operators, systems designers, space weather forecasters, space weather modelers, as well as the research community.
Since the era of development of the initial electrical telegraph systems in the early 19th century, the solar-terrestrial environment has influenced the design and operations of ever-increasing and sophisticated technical systems. James Van Allen reported in 1958 that the space environment around the Earth was not benign, but rather composed of high-intensity radiation. Engineers and scientists immediately recognized from this discovery that technical systems such as the communications satellites envisioned by Arthur Clark and John Pierce would require design and operations procedures (and therefore costs) that had not been otherwise anticipated. Space Weather addresses these and all engineered systems that are affected by solar-produced processes, from ground currents in electrical grids, communication cables, and pipelines, to GPS navigation to HF radio propagation.
Space Weather is a research resource that also provides news and information for space weather professionals. Space Weather publishes:
- peer-reviewed articles presenting the latest engineering and science research in the field, including studies of the response of technical systems to specific space weather events, predictions of detrimental space weather impacts, and effects of natural radiation on aerospace systems;
- feature articles that describe specialized topics in space weather, from history to new developments to national activities to interviews with space weather professionals. Feature Articles are 2000 words in length and can contain three figures;
- news articles and book reviews. News articles provide up-to-date coverage of government agency initiatives worldwide and space weather activities of the commercial sector. These articles can be 500 to 1000 words and can contain one figure;
- letters and opinion articles offering an exchange of ideas; these articles are 500 words or less;
- editorial comments on current issues facing the community.
From the First Issue: The primary goal of Space Weather: The International Journal of Research and Applications is to promote communication among scientists, engineers, technicians, science administrators, and space weather policy makers in a way that leads to continuous improvement in the nation's ability to mitigate space environment hazards to technical systems on the ground and in space.
Currently on the website: Space Weather: The International Journal of Research and Applications is an online publication devoted to the emerging field of space weather and its impact on technical systems, including telecommunications, electric power, and satellite navigation.
Space Weather is a research resource that also provides news and information for space weather professionals. Space Weather publishes:
- peer-reviewed articles presenting the latest engineering and science research in the field, including studies of the response of technical systems to specific space weather events,predictions of detrimental space weather impacts, and effects of natural radiation on aerospace systems;
- news and feature articles providing up-to-date coverage of government agency initiatives worldwide and space weather activities of the commercial sector;
- letters and opinion articles offering an exchange of ideas; and
- editorial comments on current issues facing the community.
Space Weather is published by the American Geophysical Union and is co-sponsored by the International Space Environment Service (ISES). A digest of the online publication, Space Weather Quarterly (ISSN 1539-4964), is distributed four times a year free of charge.
Space Weather Quarterly:
From the first Issue: Space Weather Quarterly is a digest of selected articles published online in Space Weather: The International Journal of Research and Applications.
A copy (or derivative) of the original press release (can't find the original).
Currently on the website: Space Weather Quarterly is a free, subscription-based print publication devoted to the impacts of space weather on technical systems, including telecommunications, electric power, radiation effects on space electronics, and satellite navigation. Space Weather Quarterly is a digest published by the American Geophysical Union that supports the journal, Space Weather: The International Journal of Research and Applications, which addresses the applications of space research findings and results to practical problems that face numerous government and industry entities that design and operate technical systems that are known to be influenced and affected by processes in the solar-terrestrial environment. Space Weather also publishes models of various solar system processes, as well as more integrated models, that are addressed to predictions and forecasts of solar and geomagnetic disturbances that impact technical systems.
The Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate (SWSC) is an international multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary peer-reviewed open access journal which publishes papers on all aspects of space weather and space climate from a broad range of scientific and technical fields including solar physics, space plasma physics, aeronomy, planetology, radio science, geophysics, biology, medicine, astronautics, aeronautics, electrical engineering, meteorology, climatology, mathematics, economy, informatics. An online, open access electronic journal published by EDP Sciences, Les Ulis Cedex, France. Five paper and an editorial were published in 2011; 22 papers were published in 2012; and 30 papers and an editorial have been published thus far in 2013.
One person suggested that if the Space Weather Journal was no longer available or combined so as to diffuse its identity, then JSWSC would become their journal of choice for operational space weather articles.