IIW History 1990-2015

LINKING PEOPLE, JOINING NATIONS Dilthey (Germany), recognised that ‘This could not have been achieved without the indefatigable efforts, steadfast commitment, unequivocal dedication and unwavering faith of the IIW Secretariat, the Editors, the Editorial Board, as well as a superlative review system.’ 15 ‘in dire straits’ in terms of circulation and revenue. 11 A financial evaluation of all operational aspects of IIW’s publications by the IIW Secretariat, including WiW, selling of books, copies of documents and income from royalties and copyright, revealed that IIW was making substantial losses in 2009 from its publication activities. 12 The major reason for the losses were the labour costs involved as well as those for self-publishing of the journal. There clearly was some urgency in addressing these losses, and to improve the overall efficiency of the production of the journal. Self-publishing was not the answer that it was once thought to be after the agreement ended with Elsevier in 1998. Improving the status of the journal as a result became a definitive strategy of IIW’s WG-COM&MARK. The first step in doing so was the election of editors external to the IIW Secretariat. This occurred with the appointments of Prof. Bruno de Meester (Belgium), Prof. Dr-Ing. Thomas Böllinghaus (Germany) and Prof. Dr John Lippold (USA) as editors. In addition, the relevant TMB members and Working Unit Chairs were included on the Editorial Board and Peer Review Panel. 13 The first task of the Editorial Board was to streamline the peer review system which had been introduced a year earlier to improve the quality of papers produced through the Working Units. This was a necessary step since IIW had long cherished the inclusion of its journal in the Thomson Reuters Science Citation Index™ (SCI), which provided a measure of the quality and impact of scientific journals. This significant milestone was achieved in 2010 and was backdated to the time of application in 2009. It was said of de Meester and his fellow editors that their combined efforts had contributed significantly to the acceptance by Thomson Reuters of WiW in SCI. 14 In acknowledging this achievement, the President of IIW at the time, Prof. Dr-Ing. Ulrich

Bruno de Meester

Thomas Böllinghaus

John Lippold