Memories of an editor:Malcolm and Astronomy & Astrophysics

se ne vale la penna, vale la pena

steve shore

Univ. di Pisa and A&A

2 Oct. 2018: Arcetri

steve shore Memories of an editor: Malcolm and Astronomy & Astrophysics se ne vale la penna, vale la pena2 Oct. 2018: Arcetri 1 / 15

2003: the new A&A; after Sept. 2003 the Leiden office was closed andLetters operations also transferred to Bonn (Schneider); ODIN andINTEGRAL special issues

steve shore Memories of an editor: Malcolm and Astronomy & Astrophysics se ne vale la penna, vale la pena2 Oct. 2018: Arcetri 2 / 15

2006: change in editorial policy - the editors became associate editors ofthe Letters; the HINODE special issue; this is also the year when thetransition in the Letters finalized and Malcolm went from associate editorof the journal to Letters Editorin Chief.

steve shore Memories of an editor: Malcolm and Astronomy & Astrophysics se ne vale la penna, vale la pena2 Oct. 2018: Arcetri 3 / 15

Usually handled for 200-250 papers/year. His special area was ISM (ofcourse) and the online section on laboratory data (atomic/molecular).; hecontinued after taking on the Letters.

steve shore Memories of an editor: Malcolm and Astronomy & Astrophysics se ne vale la penna, vale la pena2 Oct. 2018: Arcetri 4 / 15

2009 report: Corot special issue (54 articles), 40th anniversary issue;APEX special issue, GREAT/SOFIA (2012)2010 Report: Herschel (2010, the largest special issue and the largestnumber of papers submitted in the last decade)

steve shore Memories of an editor: Malcolm and Astronomy & Astrophysics se ne vale la penna, vale la pena2 Oct. 2018: Arcetri 5 / 15

the raw numbers

Editors usually handle around 150-250 papers per year, at any momentsome 50-80 are likely in process.

Around 2000-2500 referees, from almost 50 countries. Of these about 10%take two papers per year, some masochistic souls (a few percent) take 3,and there are always those who generously exceed any communityresponsibility with 4 or more (a few).

About 5% are adjudicated by more than one reviewer (and the editor), afeware cases go to three (something can go wrong with a second referee).

A substantial fraction of the reports arrive on or close to the requestedreview interval but a few disappear.

steve shore Memories of an editor: Malcolm and Astronomy & Astrophysics se ne vale la penna, vale la pena2 Oct. 2018: Arcetri 6 / 15

Comments from the 2010 report, defining a Letter,typical of Walmsleys style:“They should present new results from current research. They also shouldbe “short and sweet, meaning that articles needing the space of a MainJournal article should be submitted to the Main Journal. It seems to uscounterproductive to attempt to cram a large amount of material into fourpages in order to meet the constraints of a Letter. The difference inpublication times between a Letter and a Main Journal article is rarelyworth the discussion with referees and Editors arising from the attempt tocram six pages into four. We encourage prospective authors to considerthe problems of their readers before producing a short butincomprehensible summary of their doubtless important results.

steve shore Memories of an editor: Malcolm and Astronomy & Astrophysics se ne vale la penna, vale la pena2 Oct. 2018: Arcetri 7 / 15

The Special Issue from hell: Herschel

In 2010 there were over 450 Letters submissions, about 1/6 of which wereeventually transferred and another∼35 were rejected outright. A fewHerschel papers were among these but very few. The submissions, about200 in the final count foincluding the HIFI supplement, needed to bereviewed in a highly coordinated manner among the editors (at the time,10 of us) and a non-overlapping, unconflicted portion of the community.The work required exceeded anything to date, and the special issue closedon time and with 150 accepted papers. Almost none went through a singlereview, several were even farther from final, but this became the definitivefirst results issue of the journal.

steve shore Memories of an editor: Malcolm and Astronomy & Astrophysics se ne vale la penna, vale la pena2 Oct. 2018: Arcetri 8 / 15

2005, Obs. Paris: first group portrait (Bertout, Schmidt,..., Langer; Walmsley; Schneider; Combes; Beckman;missing: Jones

steve shore Memories of an editor: Malcolm and Astronomy & Astrophysics se ne vale la penna, vale la pena2 Oct. 2018: Arcetri 9 / 15

2011: the three principals (Bertout, Jones, Walmsley)

steve shore Memories of an editor: Malcolm and Astronomy & Astrophysics se ne vale la penna, vale la pena2 Oct. 2018: Arcetri 10 / 15

2012: the extended team, at full strength

steve shore Memories of an editor: Malcolm and Astronomy & Astrophysics se ne vale la penna, vale la pena2 Oct. 2018: Arcetri 11 / 15

2013

steve shore Memories of an editor: Malcolm and Astronomy & Astrophysics se ne vale la penna, vale la pena2 Oct. 2018: Arcetri 12 / 15

2013: the next editorial change: Forveille, Alves (andFerrara and Tolstoy

steve shore Memories of an editor: Malcolm and Astronomy & Astrophysics se ne vale la penna, vale la pena2 Oct. 2018: Arcetri 13 / 15

The mentors and guides: 2015Habing, Bertout, Cesarsky, Lequeux, Walmsley

steve shore Memories of an editor: Malcolm and Astronomy & Astrophysics se ne vale la penna, vale la pena2 Oct. 2018: Arcetri 14 / 15

2018: Goettingen- the full editorial team now including thelanguage editors and Paris office, remembering Malcolm

steve shore Memories of an editor: Malcolm and Astronomy & Astrophysics se ne vale la penna, vale la pena2 Oct. 2018: Arcetri 15 / 15