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LINKING PEOPLE, JOINING NATIONS
‘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
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
Bruno de Meester
Thomas Böllinghaus
John Lippold