New Zealand Statistical Association Newsletter 65
March 2007
Australian & New Zealand Journal of Statistics
ANZJS - Organizational Matters
Wiley-Blackwell Merger
Accessing ANZJS online
ANZJS - Organizational Matters
Since the last newsletter, a lot of discussion has been going on concerning the ANZJS, firstly within an NZSA workgroup that has reported to Exec, then more recently between representatives of NZSA and SSAI by teleconference.
These discussions culminated in a meeting that was held on 28 February in Brisbane, and attended by representatives of both Societies and Blackwell. We went through the Annual Report of the journal in detail, and discussed the updated Blackwell – SSAI/NZSA contract, which is due for rollover at the end of the year, the appropriate structure for non-editorial management of the journal, the Wiley-Blackwell merger, and trends in the industry.
The SSAI recently obtained a legal opinion on the draft contract, and Blackwell has reassured us about issues that it raised. The main change is that it will cover a 3-year term, to the end of 2010. Over the intervening period, we plan to hold general discussions on publication models.
The journal’s Annual Report is available through our website. The
main features listed in the report are
• The smooth transition of the journal to full production by Blackwell.
• The journal’s impact factor jumped 50% to 0.573.
• Members of both Societies were able to choose to receive the journal
either online only or as online and print for the first time in 2006.
• Access to the journal reached an all time high with 3540 institutions
able to access the journal through a combination of direct subscriptions,
consortial arrangements or through licensed databases.
For the last 10 years the non-editorial management of ANZJS has been under the name of ASPAI (Australian Statistical Publishing Association Incorporated), but in reality it has all been done through SSAI. Various options have been discussed as to how to replace ASPAI. The currently favoured option does not involve a separate entity (such as ASPAI) at all, but rather a Memorandum of Understanding between SSAI and NZSA, and a high level of communication between us.
I have only touched on the main issues of a very complex and positive process. Please contact me with any questions or feedback. And, of course, submit your manuscripts to ANZJS – the statistical value of impact factors would appear to be a subject that is ripe for discussion.
Roger Littlejohn
Members will be interested in recent news about Blackwell Publishing,
the publisher of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Statistics.
On February 2, the merger between Wiley STM Division and Blackwell Publishing
took effect, with the UK courts approving what is called the scheme of
arrangement for the sale of Blackwell Publishing to Wiley. There is great
compatibility between the two companies' publishing programs, markets,
missions and values. The merged business will publish approximately 1,250
scholarly peer-reviewed journals (over 1 million pages) and an extensive
collection of books with global appeal. This collection of must-have content
will be delivered to customers in print and electronic formats, advancing
our goal of providing more access to more content to more people than
ever before in our history. As the world's pre-eminent society publisher,
this
new entity will continue to value and nurture close relationships with
our society partners, academics and professional organizations.
The senior leadership team for the merged Wiley-Blackwell business has
now been announced and Wiley-Blackwell will be organised in five broad
divisions: Life Science, Physical Sciences, Professional, Medical, Social
Sciences and Humanities. Each division will have a global management team
with representation from Asia and will follow the current Blackwell model
whereby each journal has its own title team that operates within one of
the
subject teams.
The impact on Societies who currently publish their journals with Blackwell will be positive in that the new Wiley-Blackwell company will have greater reach throughout the scholarly publishing world, combining the considerable strengths of both companies into one whole, and guarantee the ability of journals published by Wiley-Blackwell to compete in a tight marketplace. The new company will have increased global reach in marketing and sales and in Statistics the combined strength of Blackwell’s journal list and Wiley’s books list will make Wiley-Blackwell a true global leader in the subject.
Nick Melchior
Blackwell Publishing
Blackwell Synergy
Members were emailed (March, 2007) with instructions and their password from Blackwell Publishing on how to log-on to the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Statistics online directly through Blackwell Synergy (www.blackwell-synergy.com).
Alternatively, check with your library about access to ANZJS online through the subscriber-based providers Ingenta, Ebsco, SwetsWise or OCLC.