June 12, 1975

Executive Committee of the American Institute of Physics

Minutes of Meeting

Members Present: Philip M. Morse – Chairman, Robert T. Beyer, William A. Fowler, Laurence W. Fredrick, W. W. Havens, Jr., H. William Koch, Jarus W. Quinn

Absent: A. A. Strassenburg

Nonvoting Participants: Melba Phillips (representing Strassenburg), J. R. Knox (SOR), R. D. Burbank (ACA), Larry D. Simpson (AAPM), Edward L. Brady (MaL)

AIP Staff Present: H. William Koch, Director; Sidney Millman, Secretary; G. F. Gilbert, Treasurer; Lewis Slack, Assoc. Director for General Activities; Robert H. Marks, Assoc. Director for Publishing; Dorothy M. Lasky, Assistant to the Director; Mary M. Johnson, Assistant to the Secretary

The meeting was called to order at 9:30 a.m. by Chairman pro tem Beyer in the absence of Chairman Morse, who had been delayed and arrived shortly thereafter.

1. Minutes

Upon motion made and passed the minutes of the April 30, 1975, Executive Committee meeting were approved with a change in wording, suggested by Havens, to the draft minutes which had previously been distributed to Executive Committee members.

2. Fiscal Matters

1. Report on Meeting of the Fiscal Policy Committee

   Gilbert called attention to his report of the Fiscal Policy Committee meeting held on May 22, 1975, and, after noting the successes with the quoted prices, pointed out that there is lack of uniformity as to stocks of journal back numbers that Societies keep. It is over 1,000,000 copies for all journals and the annual storage cost is about $45,000. We, at one time, thought that microfilm would replace back numbers but we still enjoy large sales in hard copy back numbers, particularly in Europe. Marks added that Thomas R. Marvel Consultants, who are looking at the printing-paper problems for us, will also investigate this storage problem as well. In general, we keep 25 issues of the very old material, 50 copies of the intermediate age, and up to 800 copies of recent (the last 5 years) issues.

2. 1974 AIP Journal Expense Variance Statements

   Gilbert pointed to his cover memo explaining why the AIP journals were treated somewhat differently from the Society journals, and Marks added that our in-house composition performed much better than had been anticipated. Therefore, the first quoted prices which were arrived at after only two quarters of experience were higher than the currently revised quoted prices. Havens felt that one of the purposes was to see how quoted prices differed from actual prices, and in giving revised figures, one is defeating that purpose. Gilbert assured Havens that this kind of adjustment will not be done again. Next year one will see quoted prices only. Actual prices will come much later when the variances are settled. Quinn expressed the hope that, eventually quoted prices will become fixed prices, and thereby eliminate the additional accounting work necessary to calculate variances.

3. Report on Soviet Subscriptions to AIP and Society Journals

   Gilbert reported that there is no change in these subscriptions since the Washington meeting of the Executive Committee in April. Beyer thought it would be interesting to know how many subscriptions are going to the Satellite countries.

4. Grants to Stony Brook Foundation

   Koch reported that, in line with the discussions at the April meeting of the Executive Committee, AIP has given to the Stony Brook Foundation one grant of $5,700 to cover involvement of the Education Division and is in the process of making the first half of a second grant of $20,000 per year, related to our publication activities.

3. Publishing Matters

1. Report on Meeting of the Publishing Policy Committee

   Quinn reported on a number of actions taken at the meeting of this Committee which was held on June 2, as follows:

   1. Recommended the appointment of an ad hoc committee to review RSI

   2. Recommended establishment of 3-year terms for editors of Institute journals with one-third appointed each year

   3. Encouraged AIP to negotiate its contract with Plenum Publishing Company to obtain the lowest cost to the subscriber

   4. Arrived at a consensus that the publishing of books by AIP is acceptable but should not be undertaken generally without further study

   5. Recommended that the AIP Publishing Policy Committee be the one to oversee secondary services, as recommended in the Brady-Hookway report.

   Acting on the last recommendation, the Executive Committee passed the following motion:

   MOVED that the AIP Publishing Policy Committee be increased by adding a representative of IEE, as recommended in the Brady-Hookway report, and that its charge be expanded to include overseeing AIP secondary services.

2. Recommended Page Charges and Subscription Prices for 1976

   Marks called attention to a list of recommended 1976 AIP journal subscription rates (copy attached as Exhibit A) and noted that he is not recommending any change in page charges for 1976. Referring to the proposed increase in member rates for PHYSICS TODAY from $8 to $10, he stated that there are about 1,000 member-rate subscriptions to PT. These include, for example, members of Affiliated Societies. There are about 8,000 nonmember subscribers. He expected some further increases in cost of the delivery of journals when we start to use plastic shrink wrappers. He did not think the ratio of nonmember rates to member rates is excessive and it did not seem to affect the number of subscriptions. He did not request any further increases in advertising rates since we have still not put into effect all of the increases previously authorized.

   The following motion was passed:

   MOVED that the rate increases for 1976 as presented in Exhibit A, with appropriate adjustments in foreign rates, be approved.

3. Move to SUNY-Stony Brook of Brookhaven Publishing Operation

   Marks reported that the move is proceeding in good order and he expects normal operations to be resumed by June 23. Only one person from the staff has resigned so far as a direct result of the move.

4. Translation Contract with Plenum Publishing Company

   Koch called attention to a document on this subject which had been distributed describing the provisions of a draft contract being negotiated with Plenum Publishing Company. He reported that 3 negotiating sessions have been held by Marks and himself with Earl Coleman and others representing Plenum. Coleman conducts a big translation operation and employs a large crew of translators. He is paying a total royalty of about $900,000 a year to the Soviet Copyright Agency. There is every indication that a satisfactory contract between AIP and Plenum will be arrived at. Under the previous arrangement, the rights to translate 9 of the Soviet journals came to us through Coleman and not directly from the Soviets. Under the proposed new contract, the translation rights to all journals in the AIP program would be assigned directly by the Copyright Agency to AIP and not through a third party. AIP would also have all rights of first refusal on new Soviet physics journals.

   Marks added that, because we have demonstrated to Coleman that we can do the translation and publication ourselves, Coleman agreed to reduce the cost-of-living escalation clause. Under the new arrangement, AIP will take over the translation of two of the 9 journals:

   • Soviet Journal of Particles and Nuclei
   • Soviet Journal of Quantum Electronics

   while Plenum will be asked to translate 4 additional new journals:

   • Astronomy Letters
   • Technical Physics Letters
   • Plasma Physics
   • Low Temperature Physics

   The anticipated cost to be incurred in the first year for the 4 journals is about $110,000 and the income about $70,000. This loss will be partially offset by a saving of $25,000 expected under the new contract. These figures are based on the following subscription prices: Astronomy Letters $110, Technical Physics Letters $185, Plasma Physics $145, Low Temperature Physics $245. The following motion was then passed:

   MOVED that AIP be encouraged to enter into a new contract with Plenum Publishing Corporation along the lines discussed by Koch and Marks, including the production of 7 journals previously produced by Plenum plus the 4 journals listed above, for the period 1975 through 1980.

5. Translation of Soviet Books

   Marks displayed two Russian-language books, "Ocean Acoustics" and "Waves in Layered Media," and stated his intention to ask the Office of Naval Research, which has indicated interest in the translation of these books, to give us page-charge support. Beyer had, himself, translated for AIP an earlier edition of "Waves in Layered Media" which was very successful. We could sell the first of these books for $20 and the second for $16. ONR wants a formal proposal from us. Our estimates are based on a format like that used for the Conference Proceedings, although this is still open for discussion. We are proposing to do it by typewriter composition and it will look very nice. Havens wanted to stress that this would be an experiment in the translation of Soviet books. The following motion was then passed:

   MOVED that the staff be authorized to submit a proposal, as described above, to ONR for support of the translation and publication of the two Soviet books and to proceed with the production of the books if ONR accepts our proposal.

6. Issuance of Current Physics Index

   Marks displayed a copy of the first issue of this new quarterly and noted that it came out on schedule. The next issue will be out toward the end of July. The cost has been much less than our original estimates. Currently we have about 360 nonmember subscriptions and almost 200 member subscriptions. We expect to have 600 and 300, respectively, by the end of the year, at which point we will do a little better than break even. Our promotion program is continuing in high gear. The index system covers all journals published by AIP, can accommodate to changes, and is reviewed every year.

7. Seybold Report

   Marks pointed to the report by John W. Seybold & Associates on computerized text publication which had been distributed to the group and stated that he will refer it to the Publishing Policy Committee for study before coming up with any program. There were no objections expressed to this procedure.

8. Status of NSF Grants

   Marks reminded the Committee that AIP currently has two small grants from NSF, one for Interchange of Data Bases between AIP and EI in the amount of $129,000, and the other on Data Descriptive Records in the amount of $28,000. Both grants will end soon and he would like to propose their continuation. On the extension of the first, we could produce a product in optics and one in acoustics, possibly by extracting the information from "Engineering Index." If NSF is not interested in funding it, we could then consider making proposals to the two Member Societies. The following motion was made and passed:

   MOVED that the AIP staff be authorized to prepare and submit proposals to NSF for the continuation of work related to our current two NSF grants.

9. AIP Publication of Transactions of the Society of Rheology

   At the April 30 Executive Committee meeting, the subject of AIP involvement in the publication of the Transactions of the Society of Rheology was raised by Koch since the actual publishing was being done by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and all AIP was doing was collecting page charges. Subsequent discussions between Koch and J. R. Knox, Vice President of SOR, gave strong indication that SOR will transfer the publication of its Transactions from Wiley to AIP. (See minutes of April 30, 1975, Executive Committee meeting, Item 4, Page 4.)

   Knox, who was present as a nonvoting participant, reported that SOR is reaching a decision to publish with AIP. He gave a brief history of SOR’s publishing experience, noting that the SOR Transactions has been published by Wiley since the 1950’s because it seemed more economical. The proposal is to continue SOR ownership of the journal. Knox also stated that Wiley claims ownership of the nonmember subscription list but he did not think that will be a problem. The following motion was then passed:

   MOVED that AIP be authorized to undertake publication of the Transactions of the Society of Rheology when a formal request to do so is received.

10. Projected SPIN Tape Usage

    MARKS reported that Physikalishe Berichte is interested in including our abstracts in English in their publication. We are supplying our abstracts to Nuclear Science Abstracts. That arrangement is going very well and will continue. The use of the AIP SPIN tape for “Chemical Abstracts” in 1977 is also a possibility. Whether INSPEC will become interested is still a question mark.

4. Report on Status of IEE Discussions

1. Sale of Reprints

   Koch reported that, prior to the April 30 Executive Committee meeting, he had some discussions with Derek Barlow of The Institution of Electrical Engineers in London about their making copies of our articles for sale to their 4 National Patent Offices. IEE would want 5reprints each of approximately 1,500 such articles per year. Koch told Barlow AIP would sell him the reprints at the regular rate of $0.25 per page or charge him a flat fee of $6,000 per year plus postage. (Subsequent to the meeting, IEE expressed preference for the flat $6,000 arrangement.) If the income from such sales becomes substantial, it would be appropriate to distribute to the Societies the net income relevant to their respective journals.

2. Correspondence

   Morse discussed his letter dated May 30, 1975, to J. H. H. Merriman, President of IEE, copies of which had been distributed before the meeting. There will probably be a face-to-face discussion some time in the fall when Merriman comes to Canada. He will report at the next meeting of the Executive Committee on further progress.

The meeting was adjourned for luncheon at 12:10 p.m. and reconvened at 1:00 p.m.

5. Report on Meeting of Advisory Committee on Public Relations

Slack reported that the first meeting of the new Committee was held on June 10. Bruce Strasser, the new chairman, felt it was important that the committee spend some time on reviewing the purposes and objectives of the Public Relations Division and of AIP in general in the area of public relations. A statement of these objectives will be prepared by the staff and submitted to the Governing Board for discussion and approval at the October 4 meeting.

The preliminary discussions brought out the feeling that the major objectives were in publicizing the achievements of physics, perhaps through greater coverage in the news media; to make information on research available; to create greater understanding of the benefits of physics; to acquaint the public with the limitations of physics, and to assure a continued supply of students. There are two broad areas of public relations that concern the Institute. One is internal, within the physics community, and the other is external.

The Committee concluded that it would be useful to have the public relations staff prepare, during the summer, proposals for programs they might develop that are different from what they have been doing. Four general areas where we are not presently very active might be explored:

1. Increase the coupling between Congress and its staffs about what goes on in the physics community, possibly by sending them PHYSICS TODAY. The Committee emphasized that those who are involved in science would find it most valuable to have their staffs get it.

2. Develop suggestions for studies on how to achieve greater success in reaching the TV and radio audiences.

3. Come up with suggestions for improving AIP communication within the physics community. One suggestion was an AIP news page in PT, similar to that of APS. The Institute has enough programs about which the membership ought to be informed that it would be worthwhile doing this sort of thing. It was hoped there would be a reduction in the confusion over what is AIP and what are the Societies.

4. Improve the publicizing of Society meetings, before and after, for the press and media representatives who do not attend. AIP should also consider reinstituting the seminars for science writers.

In reference to the first area where AIP might become more active, i.e., that of increased coupling with Congress, Havens proposed that PHYSICS TODAY be sent to every member of Congress. Fowler agreed and expressed his belief that PT more than any other journal reflects what is going on in physics. He also felt that we should try to get some feedback. Gilbert and Marks estimated that the cost per copy would be appreciably less than the current $8 member subscription rate and we could start with the July issue and perhaps get some feedback by the end of the year. The following motion was passed without dissent:

MOVED that PHYSICS TODAY be sent gratis to every member of Congress for the next year starting with the July 1975 issue.

Morse thought that the Congressional Fellows supported by APS have made a considerable contribution. There was some indication at the March Board meeting that some of the other Member Societies might be interested in providing support for a Fellow or a fraction of the cost of a Fellow. Perhaps some arrangement could be made so that AIP could collect these partial contributions and make them cover one or more full Fellowships to work with APS and, indirectly, with AAAS. There would have to be some arrangement worked out about how they would be chosen. This is something the Public Relations Committee might consider.

Quinn added that the OSA Executive Committee wanted to support a full Fellow but the Board would not go along. They were willing to provide support for one-half the cost of a Fellow if someone would provide the other half. There will be problems in the selection of the Fellow. Morse wondered whether the AIP Corporate Associates might be persuaded to contribute some funds, not only to support a Fellow, but for other activities such as the cost of sending PT to Congressmen.

6. Report of Committee on Society Services

Millman reported that the second meeting of this Committee was held on May 1 in Washington, and it continued the general survey of AIP services and activities initiated in its first meeting. The topics covered were printing facilities at AIP, subscription fulfillment including acquisition of new computer facilities, manpower activities, public relations, education, advertising and marketing, and directories. On printing facilities, there were complaints that they are not adequate to cover peak loads, and when work is sent out-of-house it costs more and takes longer. Strassenburg agreed to survey the needs of the Societies.

On subscription fulfillment, there was a report by Fredrick that the time for getting new members processed was slipping in the last few months. Gilbert explained that there were a number of contributing factors, but there is no major cause for worry. The AAPT experiment in processing the front-end of subscription fulfillment is going well. There was a question about possible conflict of interest in having the AIP Advertising Division selling ads for AIP journals, such as PHYSICS TODAY, and for Society journals. The Committee got some reassuring answers of non-bias from Marks. No one suggested a better alternative.

Millman’s report led to discussions on items related to the Committee’s activities. Havens proposed that, at the time of the dues billing, we could put in a questionnaire on some of the more important manpower questions and get information that way. We could probably include the answers on the computer. He appreciated the fact that the staff is presently tied up with the conversion but thought that we could appoint an ad hoc committee to look into it. Koch thought that the major assignment ought to be given to the Manpower Advisory Committee. You want to survey people in March and that is when half the membership gets billed now. We could do the other half by a separate mailing. It is increasingly evident that we are not going to have access to outside files. We can add someone to the AIP Manpower Committee who knows something about computers.

7. Report of Committee on Committees

Havens called attention to the report and letter from F. Dow Smith, Chairman of the Committee on Committees, copies of which had been distributed. He stated that this report does not differ much from the first draft submitted in March. The Committee felt that, while it would not be desirable to specify that the Chairman of the Governing Board or the Director ought to be ex officio members of all AIP committees, they did suggest that some member of the staff be assigned to each committee. The report emphasized again that management-type committees should not be included in the over-all committee structure. The Physics Today Committee was included as a subcommittee of the Publishing Policy Committee.

Morse envisaged close coordination between the APS Panel on Public Affairs (POPA) and the proposed AIP Public Information and Education Committee. In reply to Fowler's suggestion that the Physics Today Committee might also be connected with the Public Information and Education Committee, Havens thought that the PT Committee should be more concerned with matters of publishing policy and is, therefore, properly shown as a subcommittee of the Publishing Policy Committee in the schematic of the proposed committee structure, copy attached as Exhibit B.

Koch thought that this report ought to be discussed further at the September meeting of the Executive Committee and following that, if there are no objections, it would be submitted for discussion and approval to the Governing Board in October.

8. Status of Computer Acquisition

Koch reported that we had a start-up problem on the conversion but are now back on the track. The countersigned copy of the contract has been received from UNIVAC and they have assigned a programmer to us who is either in the building or in contact by telephone at least once a day.

The new computer is to be located on the first floor. We are going to relocate the Accounting Division to the second floor and will also have to relocate Personnel and Office Services. The AIP Management Committee feels we should hire a space consultant to work out the details of the changes and we can do so at a cost of about $3,000. The total move will cost about $55,000. The following motion was passed:

MOVED that the staff be authorized to employ a space consultant to plan the necessary moves at a cost of approximately $3,000.

Koch also stated that he has been asked by Chairman Morse to develop a future housing plan for AIP by the time of the October Governing Board meeting.

9. Application of AVS for Change in Membership Status

Millman stated that, since the last meeting, the Secretary’s Office has sent to Executive Committee members copies of the American Vacuum Society journals and up-dated statistics on their membership. Copies of the most recent letter from C. B. Duke, and other pertinent material, were contained in the loose-leaf books distributed at the meeting.

Havens asked what would be the advantages to AIP if AVS becomes a Member Society and whether anyone has ever looked at what should be the maximum size of AIP. If it keeps getting larger there will be some point where one will not be able to keep track of everything. In APS there is a concern about the proliferation of divisions. He thought AVS has come a long way in the last ten years in becoming more scientifically-oriented.

Beyer thought that AVS fits the criteria that it is part of the physics community. Fowler observed that a statement of criteria for membership was not included in the report of the Long-Range Planning Committee. He reported that an informal survey he made around Cal Tech showed not much enthusiasm for the admission of AVS to full Membership but noted that most of the people he talked with are APS members. They have no acoustics or optics people. He would be inclined to vote for it.

Millman explained the procedures for election to Membership, as given in the AIP Constitution. Morse appointed a committee consisting of R. T. Beyer (chairman), W. W. Havens, Jr., and Jarus W. Quinn to consider the matter and to come up with guidelines for criteria for new Members. The committee is to report at the next meeting of the Executive Committee.

Fredrick wanted to record the fact that the Council of the American Astronomical Society looked favorably upon admission of AVS as a Member Society.

10. Recommendations for National Science Board Candidates and National Medal of Science Candidates

Morse informed the Committee that NSF had asked AIP to recommend candidates for the National Science Board. We also have a request to nominate candidates for the National Medal of Science and we raised this with the Corporate Associates Advisory Committee at its meeting on April 28.

Fowler thought that membership on the National Science Board is one of the most important positions one can hold. The Science Board actually administers NSF and sets policy. In principle, it must pass on every grant NSF makes. We should take this very seriously. Unless the physics community gets together and comes up with a single recommendation or group of recommendations, it can be bypassed. At present, there is very little representation from the grassroots and Fowler thought we should try very hard to support a few excellent candidates. Representation has to be geographically balanced and has to include women and minorities.

The Executive Committee agreed to nominate C. P. Slichter, Sidney Drell and Solomon Buchsbaum for membership on the National Science Board. Koch will supply background information on them to NSF.

Koch read the names of the 1973 recipients of the National Medal of Science and noted that the only recommendation we received so far was for Herman Mark. After brief discussion, the Executive Committee agreed to recommend Charles Townes, Martin Schwarzschild and Philip Morse.

11. Plans for Fall Meetings

Koch called attention to the Preliminary Programs for the 1975 Assembly of Society Officers and the Annual Meeting of Corporate Associates, copies of which had been distributed just prior to the meeting.

12. Next Meeting

It was agreed to hold the next meeting of the Executive Committee at the Institute on Monday, September 8, as previously tentatively scheduled.

13. Status of Proposed Amendment to AIP Constitution

Millman reported that APS has approved the proposed amendment to the AIP Constitution which makes the Secretary an ex officio member of the Governing Board and Executive Committee.

14. Republishing of Papers from Society Journals Without Society Permission

Quinn informed the Committee that a certain publisher has been picking out papers from OSA journals and republishing them without OSA permission and disregarding the copyright. He does get permission from the authors. The OSA’s legal counsel says that this may not constitute a violation of copyrights. Koch stated that is why he feels it is important for our authors to assign their rights to us. He will take it up with the AIP attorney.

15. Proposed AIP Marketing of CODATA Bulletin

Koch informed the Committee that David Lide, of NBS, has requested that AIP market the new CODATA Bulletin in the U.S. This is published by the Committee on Data for Science and Technology of ICSU. We could handle it in the way we do the journals of The Institute of Physics. There would be very little money for AIP in it but we would propose that our return cover our costs. There were no objections.

The meeting was adjourned at 3:05 p.m.