Executive Committee of the American Institute of Physics
Minutes of Meeting
Members Present: H. Richard Crane – Chairman, Joseph A. Burton, Laurence W. Frederick, W. W. Havens, Jr., E. Leonard Jossem, H. William Koch, Jarus W. Quinn
Non-Voting Participants: F. R. Eirich (SOR), R. D. Burbank (ACA), Colin Orton (AAPM), and Robert T. Beyer (ASA)
Absent: Wallace Waterfall
AIP Staff: H. William Koch, Director; G. F. Gilbert, Treasurer; Lewis Slack, Associate Director for General Activities; Robert H. Marks, Associate Director for Publishing; Dorothy M. Lasky, Assistant to the Director; Mary M. Johnson, Assistant to the Acting Secretary
Absent: Sidney Millman, Acting Secretary
Chairman Crane called the meeting to order at 9:35 a.m. and welcomed the four non-voting participants.
1. Minutes
Upon motion made and passed without dissent, the minutes of the April 25, 1974, meeting of the Executive Committee were approved as distributed.
2. Subscription Fulfillment Matters
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APS Dues Billing Arrangements for 1975
Gilbert reported that APS will go over to a dues billing year of July 1 to June 30, starting in 1975, with renewal bills this fall covering the six-month period of January 1 to June 30, 1975.
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Agency Negotiations
Gilbert stated that AIP is negotiating with some of the larger agencies that handle nonmember subscriptions with a view toward having them submit computer-readable data in lieu of paper orders. Havens said he would like to see any experiment confined first to one agency so that results can be evaluated before any major changes are made. There was considerable discussion of the cost of processing agency subscriptions. The present cost for a nonmember subscription is $6.00 compared with $3.50 for a member subscription.
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Optical Scanning Reader
Gilbert reported that an order has been placed for the lease of OPSCAN-17, an optical scanning device, to be delivered in time for the 1975 renewal billing period. This will enable us to eliminate the keyboarding of paid-as-billed transactions which comprise about 80% of returns. The cost will be about $4,250 per year plus a one-time installation charge of $175. The scanner will replace one keytape operator for a net saving of $4,000 a year.
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Acknowledgments to Member Communications
Gilbert stated that, in the future, all complaints which cannot be acted upon within five days of receipt will at least be acknowledged by postal card. It was decided to discuss the matter further at the next Executive Committee meeting.
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Revised 1974 Budget for Subscription Fulfillment Division
Gilbert reported that some reorganizations within the Subscription Fulfillment Division are expected to reduce expenses for 1974 by $122,400 from the amount originally budgeted. The expense for this Division in 1974 is therefore expected to be about $872,600. This is to be compared with the 1973 actual expense of about $872,600. The following motion was passed without dissent:
MOVED that the revised 1974 budget for the Subscription Fulfillment Division as presented by Gilbert be approved. (A copy is attached as Exhibit A.)
3. Publishing Matters
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Backlog in Journal Publishing
Harks stated there had been a slight improvement in the backlog of unhonored pages as compared with a year ago, and he reported that the following delays are anticipated as of December 1974:
Journal Delay Articles Pages JAP 4 months 50 250 JCP 6 months 100 700 PF 4 months 20 100 JMP 10 months 45 300 RSI 5 months 24 140 -
Reprinting of AO and JOSA Back Issues
Gilbert reported that because of an inadvertent duplication of back issue mailing strips, the May 1973 issues of APPLIED OPTICS and JOURNAL OF THE OPTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA are out of stock. He recommended that AIP pay the cost of having these issues reprinted which is expected to be about $2,000 for AO and $800 for JOSA. The following motion was then passed without dissent:
MOVED that AIP bear the cost of reprinting the May 1973 issues of AO and JOSA.
Crane suggested it might be well to have some kind of reserve or “insurance” fund to cover such unanticipated costs.
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Current Physics Information Program
Marks reported that, because subscriptions have not come up to expectations, AIP management recommends that CURRENT PHYSICS ADVANCE ABSTRACTS and CURRENT PHYSICS TITLES, in their present form, be discontinued. One may want to revive them in some altered form in the future. The following motion was passed without dissent:
MOVED that CPAA and CPT be discontinued for 1975.
The following motion was then also passed without dissent:
MOVED that the publications committees of the various Member Societies be asked to examine the question of whether there are alternative combinations, or variations, of abstract or titles journals which could be recommended to the AIP Publications Division for consideration.
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New NSF Grants Received
Koch reported that the following grants had been received from the National Science Foundation:
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$128,700 for 20 months to develop the Interchange of Data Bases between “Engineering Index” and AIP
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$27,800 for nine months for the Development of Data-Descriptive Records for the Physical Sciences.
The grants have not yet been accepted but will be if there are no objections by this Committee. There were none.
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Copyright Developments
Koch opened the discussion on copyrights by referring to his manuscript entitled "Copyrighting Abstracts of Physics Journal Articles" which had been distributed prior to the meeting. He stated that increasing requests for permission to copy and the proliferation of unauthorized copying of our material are making it more and more difficult for AIP to deal with copyright problems. There was general agreement that the Institute has an obligation to protect authors from distortion of their articles and abstracts. As an example of unauthorized reproduction, Marks reported that the Japanese are producing a 10-year cumulative index to JAP and APL without having consulted AIP in advance. The matter is now in the hands of our attorney. Havens objected to some of the statements in the Koch document concerning IEE negotiations and asked that they be toned down.
The meeting was adjourned for luncheon at 12:30 and reconvened at 1:10 p.m.
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Negotiations with the Soviets and IEE
On our negotiations for exchange of translation and publication rights with the Soviets, Koch reported that we submitted a contract to the Russians about three weeks ago but have not yet had a response. The proposed arrangement is to be on the basis of bartering dollars rather than pages, as previously indicated. In this connection, Burton reported the receipt of a letter from legal counsel concerning the APS proprietary position with respect to copyright in any deal AIP might make with the Soviets which would include APS publications. A copy of that letter is attached as Exhibit B.
Koch also reported that plans to revive negotiations with the Institution of Electrical Engineers in London are proceeding smoothly, and that a meeting between E. L. Brady of NBS and Harry Hookway of the British Library Board is scheduled for June 17 (see minutes of Executive Committee meeting of April 25, 1974, Item 7).
4. Fiscal Matters
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Auditors’ Report for 1973
Gilbert said our audit for 1973 had not yet been completed but we expect it will be finished in time to publish an audited financial report in the August issue of PHYSICS TODAY.
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Quoted Prices for 1974 and 1975
Gilbert distributed schedules of quoted prices for 1974 and 1975 and copies of his covering letter to be sent to Society treasurers (copies will be attached to the official minutes). He also distributed four summary sheets, copies of which are attached to these minutes as Exhibit C. The Executive Committee approved Gilbert's letter and it was mailed on June 7. Gilbert said our auditors have been asked to set up the cost accounting procedures which will be necessary to implement the new quoted-prices system.
5. Recommended Page Charges, Subscription Prices, and Advertising Rates for 1975
Marks distributed a list of proposed 1975 journal subscription and back number rates, and the following motion was passed without dissent:
MOVED that proposed 1975 primary journal subscription rates and back number rates, as listed in Exhibit D, be approved.
Marks also recommended that the publication charge for APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS be increased from $75 to $80 per page, and the following motion was passed without dissent:
MOVED that the publication charge for APL be increased from $75 to $80 per page, effective January 1, 1975.
Marks reported that PHYSICS TODAY is still showing a deficit in spite of the fact that advertising rates have gone up 10% a year and he proposed that the ad rate be increased from $1,150 to $1,500 per page beginning next year. He also recommended that the advertising rate for THE REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS be increased from $300 to $350 per page. The following motion was then passed without dissent:
MOVED that advertising rates in 1975 be increased, at the staff’s discretion, from $1,150 to a maximum of $1,500 per page for PHYSICS TODAY and from $300 to $350 per page for RSI.
6. Summary of Society Responses on AIP Long-Range Planning Committee Report
Crane reminded the Executive Committee that he had been instructed to send copies of the Long-Range Planning Committee report to Member Societies for consideration at their council meetings. Rather full responses had been received from AAPT and OSA and he planned to present a summary of comments received at the fall meetings of the Executive Committee and the Governing Board.
7. Plans for AIP Fall Meetings
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Executive Committee, Governing Board, and Assembly of Society Officers
Koch reported that Thursday and Friday, October 3 and 4, have been set as the dates for the fall meetings of the Executive Committee, Governing Board, and Assembly of Society Officers, with the Executive Committee to meet on the morning of October 3. The Assembly will convene that afternoon, and the Governing Board will meet that evening and all of the following day, October 4. There was a brief discussion of proposed speakers for the Assembly and Fredrick, who will serve as Chairman, said he would follow up on the suggestions which were made.
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Corporate Associates
Koch stated that the annual Corporate Associates meeting will be held on November 14 and 15, possibly in Washington. Dorothy Lasky reported on the May 17 meeting of the Advisory Committee on Corporate Associates at which one of the suggestions made was that foreign scientific attaches be invited to participate in the fall Corporate Associates meeting.
8. Committee to Nominate Candidates for K. T. Compton Award
Crane stated that the last award of the Compton Medal was made to Ralph Sawyer in 1971 and it is now time to consider another award for late this year or early next year. A motion was then passed to authorize the Chairman to appoint a committee to nominate candidates for the next Karl T. Compton Award.
9. Next Meeting
The next meeting of the Executive Committee will be held at the offices of the Institute on Wednesday, August 14.
10. New York City Real Estate Tax Exemption
Gilbert reported that the New York City Bar Association had recently lost its real estate tax exemption through reversal of a previous court decision, and our attorney has warned that we may also be faced with a similar ruling. We would, of course, oppose such a decision even if it meant going to court but if we should have to pay real estate taxes they would amount to approximately $63,000 a year.
11. Consolidation of Publication Division
Marks stated that AIP currently has publishing operations in three different locations and, for reasons of efficiency and economy, we should start thinking of ways in which they might be consolidated. He suggested that a study be made with a view toward achieving this goal within two years. The following motion was passed without dissent:
MOVED that the staff be authorized to conduct a study of ways in which AIP publishing operations could be consolidated.
The meeting was adjourned at 3:20 p.m.