Annals Board Meeting 2009

The IEEE Annals of the History of Computing held its annual Editorial Board Meeting at the Pittsburgh Hilton, immediately preceding the annual meeting of the Society for the History of Technology.

The meeting began with discussion and planning on each of the individual departments.  Next, Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Yost gave a “state of the publication” presentation.  He reported that the number of submissions is up (40 in 2008), the acceptance rate is down (to 53% for 2008), the impact factor is holding steady (and comparable to leading publications in the history of technology), and the annual retention rate on existing print subscribers (77%) remains the highest of all IEEE CS titles.  He listed the publications queue and showed how the journal had published multiple articles over the past two years in each of the targeted areas identified at the 2007 meeting (social history of computing, political history of computing, computing as infrastructure, business history of computing, international history of computing, etc.).  Annals has been particularly strong in publishing more on non-US topics/themes—with well over half of all articles from 2008 and 2009 focused on developments outside the US—furthering its reputation as an international journal.

In the second half of the meeting, the board discussed a pre-circulated strategic planning report of a committee appointed by Yost.  The committee, which included board members, those outside the board, and scholars at different stages of their careers, was organized and led by Associate Editor-in-Chief Atsushi Akera (and included Geoffrey Bowker, Martin Campbell-Kelly, Brent Jesiek, and Eden Medina).  On some issues decisions were made; on others, a healthy dialogue was started that will continue online and at subsequent meetings.

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