Deborah Lines Andersen
Assistant Professor of Information Science and Policy
University at Albany
Albany, NY 12222
dla@albany.edu
518-442-5122
Deborah Lines Andersen assumed the role of acting Vice President for Publications on February 9, 2004 at the SDS Policy Council meeting in Cambridge, MA. She replaced John Morecroft who resigned from this position to take on other society responsibilities.
Since February 2004, the major publication issue for the society has been the renegotiation of the Wiley contract for the journal. Please see the System Dynamics Review Editor’s and Publisher’s Reports (2004) for details.
Other publication venues (including the society’s web site, the System Dynamics Bibliography, and the DVD of System Dynamics Materials) fall under the supervision of the society office with policy guidance from the VP for Publications. Please see the 2004 Executive Director’s Report for details about new and existing publication products.
Finally, there was detailed discussion this spring about the ability of a SIG to publish materials. Discussions with Bob Eberlein, Ginny Wiley, and Anastassios Perdicoulis resulted in the following items that will be used to electronically disseminate SD materials by the ED SIG:
- A collection of working papers, referred to as their “Repository”
- Review and editing of these works by the Editorial Board, in order to produce "pre-publication" material that authors can then submit to peer-reviewed journals
- A "Resource Database" for SIG members and other system dynamics researchers.
The attendant policy issue was that, according to society’s bylaws, SIGs are not independent entities (whereas chapters are). The result is that a chapter may start its own journal, but a SIG may not. Nonetheless, the ED SIG will provide important information dissemination and service to members through its efforts.