System
Dynamics Review
1. My apologies,
pressures of time have prevented me compiling a full report for this meeting,
and from attending the conference this year.
2. Article backlog. At the present time the backlog of accepted articles is quite healthy. Issue 17:3 – the special issue on Consulting and Practice is in press. Three articles have been accepted for 17:4, and assuming there will be a paper from the 2001 JW Forrester prize winner, then this issue is complete. Without having all the data to hand, the flow of papers in the pipeline also looks quite healthy. The fast-track refereeing exercise at last year’s conference did boost the situation, although a couple of authors reneged on submitting a final version after referees’ reports were received. I would like to thank the authors and referees who responded to this situation.
3. Consulting and
Practice special issue. This issue proved to be a major headache. The guest editor attracted a number of
submissions, but apparent work and other pressures meant he was then very slow
in progressing them into the refereeing cycle, and contact was actually lost
for some time. Eventually the EE had to
take over this issue and trace back through the system, only to find that a
number of people originally named as referees had not actually received anything
to review. Thanks again to additional referees
prepared to do a full review in double-quick time, the situation was retrieved
and a full issue was eventually submitted to the publisher in good time.
4. Special Issue
2002. Carmine Bianchi is guest
editing a special issue in 2002 on Applications
in SMEs and other Smaller Organisations.
Paper flow has been modest to date, and support and exhortations to
potential authors to submit would be greatly welcomed. Carmine would also welcome offers from
people with experience/interest in this topic to act as referees.
5. Further special
issues. Proposals/ideas for future
specials have been on Environmental and Resource Modelling (Bob Cavana and Andy Ford) and Information Systems (Dbembe Williams and
Geoff Coyle). Both proposals are
potentially very interesting issues, and include experienced editors in the
guest editing team. However, I have
deferred a decision on these to my successor.
6. Page Extent. At the present time, the page extent for Volume
17 appears to be on course to be close to the annual maximum budget, which was
increased to 448pp (4x112) from
Volume 16 onwards. (Note, this includes
all pages, not just the page numbered
contents.)
7. Valediction. Being Executive Editor of the Review has
been a very interesting, and for the most part enjoyable experience. However, without the outstanding support
received from Andy, Jac, Yaman, and Erich, as the major section editors, and
others it would have been neither. I
would like this last report again to formally record my thanks to them, also to
the News and Reviews editors, and to all the unnamed referees, and ask that
they continue to support my successor to the same extent. Wileys have also been
excellent publishers, and Diane Taylor and their various production people have
been very supportive and understanding of SDR’s needs and limitations. Many
thanks.