MINUTES

ACI Publications Committee

Boston Sheraton
Boston, Massachusetts
TEC/Conference 1
8:30 to 10:00 a.m., Tuesday, September 30, 2003
MEMBERS PRESENT
Bruce W. Russell, Chair
Rachel J. Detwiler
C. Terry Dooley
Jeffrey Dragovich
Kevin J. Folliard

Geoffrey Frohnsdorff
Basile G. Rabbat
Julio A. Ramirez
Sharon L. Wood
MEMBERS ABSENT

James N. Cornell, II*

Juan Pablo Covarrubias
Randall W. Poston*
*Completed ballots on the proposed revisions to the ACI Publication Policy
VISITORS
John Glumb
Ward Malisch

Miroslav Vejvoda

Rebecca A. Hartford, Staff Liaison

1.0

OPENING REMARKS
1.1

Chair Russells Welcome to Committee Members and Visitors

Chair Russell welcomed all members and visitors.

1.2

Invitation of Additional Agenda Items

There was one new agenda item added by Chair Russell: Item 5.1, the long-term viability
of maintaining two ACI journals.
1.3

Approval of the April 2, 2003 Meeting Minutes from Vancouver

The minutes of the April 2, 2003, meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, were
approved as submitted.
2.0

ACI JOURNALS
2.1

Manuscript Review Committee (MRC)

An internal reorganization of the MRC occurred at Headquarters in September 2003. The

administration of the manuscript review process now resides in the Editorial &
Production Department (E&P), and staff member Rebecca Hartford, Manager of E&P,
updated the Committee on the reorganization.
Questions arose from the Committee as to why the reorganization occurred. Staff
member Hartford explained that there were a number of reasons: 1) the process originally
resided in Editorial; 2) the staff liaison to the Publications Committee is also the manager
of the Editorial and Production Department, which will allow the Publications Committee
to be closer to the MRC process; 3) the reorganization adds one more person to the
process; and 4) staff will report to the Committee regularly. In addition, Staff Engineer
Miroslav Vejvoda will now be the MRC contact person in Engine ering, with the
remaining staff engineers continuing to participate in the MRC process regularly.
Staff Engineer Vejvoda reported to the Committee that the weekly decisional meetings
have been restructured and are now conducted on a monthly basis. He stated that the
optimum solution would be to have a yearly decisional meeting, but that option is not
practical. Vejvoda also noted that the MRC is only accepting a certain number of papers
per month throughout the remainder of 2003 to meet the goal of 144 total papers
published per year in the journals.
Vejvoda also reported that in the peer review process, the manuscripts are initially sent to
five reviewers with the goal of receiving three in return. The Committee asked what
happens if only two reviewers respond? If that occurs, the MRC then sends the paper out
to additional reviewers in order to obtain three reviews. The Committee agreed that
receiving three reviews back is a good number to have to make a decision. The
Committee then asked what happens if a review is late? If a review is late, it is still
considered by the MRC.
Staff Engineer Vejvoda also reported that the two most time-consuming aspects of the
MRC process are the peer review and returning the manuscripts to the authors for
revisions. He also stated that staff compliance checks are done regarding the reviewers
comments.

2.2

Total Time to Publication

Current data show that the median time to publication for the Sept.-Oct. issue of the
Structural Journal was 15 months, and 13.5 months for the Jul.-Aug. issue of the
Materials Journal. Committee member Wood pointed out that the maximum time to
publication is 18 months as approved by the Board, and that the data show that 8 out of
14 months of the MRC process is controlled by the authors and reviewers. Woods
concern is that we are accepting more papers than we can realistically publish. It was then
suggested, and the Committee agreed, that a marginal paper can float into the next
hopper, but for not longer than a period of 1 month.
Staff Engineer Vejvoda stated that everything is currently on schedule with the MRC, and
Chair Russell and the Committee commended staff for their ongoing efforts.
3.0

ELECTRONIC INFORMATION
3.1

On-Line Manuscript Submissions

Staff informed the Committee that the on- line manuscript submission process is now
operational; however, it is not currently being publicized due to the fact that there are still
bugs that need to be worked out. Despite the bugs, on-line submittal is available to
authors. Chair Russell asked about advertising the capability. Staff requested that an
interim period continue where a small number of submittals are made electronically
before widespread announcement is made regarding the capability for electronic
submission. Chair Russell suggested that in the next cycle (after the Washington, D.C.
convention) staff might be willing to advertise in CI regarding electronic submission for
the Journals.
It was noted by the Committee that there may also be issues with the on-line manuscript
submission process regarding international authors, i.e., they may have slow Internet
connections, where they may lose the connection and/or have trouble uploading the files.
3.2

On-Line Manuscript Reviews

Staff is currently reviewing demos from vendors, and will update the Committee on this
item in Washington, D.C. Chair Russell urged staff to make on- line manuscript
submission a priority and be prepared to report to the Committee in Washington, D.C.
4.0

ACI PUBLICATION POLICY

The ACI Publication Policy was last updated in 1989. In Vancouver, the Committee
agreed to facilitate a revision of the Policy and conduct a ballot before the Boston
meeting.

Chair Russell reported that ballots were received prior to the Boston meeting, and that
comments and negative votes were received and that they would need to be resolved in
Boston if the Committee wanted to make a recommendation to the Board.
After discussion, it was agreed by the Committee that the following changes be made to
the document:
First bulleted item on Page 2: At the end of the existing sentence, the addition of:
Conclusions of a manuscript must be fully supported by data or reference.
Second paragraph under Evaluation system: after the sentence, Manuscripts submitted
for publication in the ACI Structural Journal and the ACI Materials Journal will be given
preliminary review by an ACI staff committee that selects reviewers for a peer review.
ACI staff could reject a manuscript on preliminary review based on nonconformance to
ACI procedures or a preliminary evaluation of writing quality.
Fourth paragraph under Evaluation system: where it reads, Appeal of a decision not to
publish a manuscript should be made to TAC. Beginning with the word TAC, the
sentence should read: ACI staff and reviewed by TAC. After reviewing the case, TAC
will issue a final recommendation. This recommendation is not subject to further review.
On page 4, at the end of the first paragraph under Item 8, the sentence should be added:
ACI assumes no responsibility for ACI Chapter publications.
On page 6 under Copyright : 24 months should be changed to 18 months.
Chair Russell acknowledged that a quorum was achieved by membership. With the
changes noted above, the Publication Policy was approved by the Committee and
recommended to the Board for their approval.
MOTION
The Publications Committee recommended to the
Board of Direction that the revised Publication Policy
with noted changes be approved.
NOTE: At the Board meeting in Boston, Chair Russell presented the Revised Publication
Policy to the Board, along with the Committees motion for its approval. The Board
approved the Publication Policy by unanimous consent.
The Committee would like to express their gratitude to Staff Engineer Lesley H. Sneed
for her contributions in drafting the revised Publication Policy.
4.1

Print on Demand

Due to time constraints, this item was tabled by the Committee until Washington, D.C.
5.0

OTHER BUSINESS
5.1

Long-Term Viability of Maintaining Two Journals

Committee member Wood is concerned about the long-term viability of maintaining two
ACI Journals. Currently, the ready-to-edit queue at Headquarters contains 44 Structural

Journal manuscripts and only 14 Materials Journal manuscripts; the Structural Journal
has a 3-4 month longer life cycle than the Materials Journal. This imbalance has existed
for some time. How long can it continue? Should ACI eliminate the Materials Journal? It
was noted by the Committee that ACI doesnt sell many second subscriptions to the
Journals.
Committee member Frohnsdorff is not sure that ACI should eliminate the Materials
Journal. Chair Russell asked for input from Committee member Folliard, who is in the
materials field. Folliard stated that if ACI eliminated the Materials Journal or combined
the two journals into one, then submissions to the remaining Journal could essentially go
away, as authors may go elsewhere to have their materials papers published. The
Committee should be prepared to discuss this item further in Washington, D.C.
5.2

Next Meeting

The next meeting of the Publications Committee will be in Washington, D.C. on

Wednesday, March 17, 8:30-10:00 a.m. Room to be announced.
6.0

ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 10:00 a.m.