International Society for the History of the Neurosciences (ISHN)
1997 Business Meeting Minutes Boerhaave-room (Koetshuis)
Agenda:
Minutes: Dr. Peter Koehler (President ISHN) called the meeting to order by welcoming the members of ISHN to the Business Meeting. Dr. Koehler discussed the minutes of the last business meeting and asked for each member to approve the copies of the minutes that they had received. The minutes were approved. Dr. Koehler called on Dr. Duane E. Haines for the Secretary’s Report. Dr. Haines presented his report. The membership stands at 230 members at this time. Two years ago we had 9 founding members and two years later we have 230. It is obvious we are going in a very positive direction. Dr. Haines reported that the mailing of dues notices has been modified. The dues notices and renewal notices were formerly mailed from the Secretary’s office. However, our publisher Swets & Zeitlinger has generally agreed to mail the renewal notices from their office in the Netherlands. In this respect members can renew their membership, or pay their dues as new members, with a credit card since Swets & Zeitlinger can accept credit cards but the society can not. Dr. Haines thanked the publisher for their cooperation in this matter. All renewals were sent out from the publisher and will state that these are renewals for membership in the ISHN. The dues remain the same for 1997 year ($95.00 USD) for full membership which includes Vol. 6 of the journal and $25.00 for student membership which does not include the journal. Dr. Haines stated that he hopes to send out later in the summer a brief summary of the meeting and to encourage each current ISHN member to interest one of the his/her colleagues in becoming a member. He will also make available to members the new guide for authors for our journal. Dr. Haines also stated that later in the year he hopes to send out to all members a copy of the membership list which includes name, address, phone, fax, e-mail, and special interest information. Last year Dr. Haines reported that the society had secured from Wiley-Liss their cooperation in advertising the society in a number of their journals. They did this for about 8 months out of the year and we received 30 to 40 members from this listing. This courtesy is over but we have talked to the publisher of our journal (Swets & Zeitlinger) and requested that they advertise the society in their various neuroscience publications. The report of the Secretary was accepted by members of the society. Dr. Koehler called upon Sam Greenblatt for the Treasurer’s Report. Dr. Greenblatt discussed the financial report, and situation, of the society from information passed out at the beginning of the business meeting. His report was accepted by the members of the society. Dr. Stan Finger reported that journal of the society (Journal of the History of the Neurosciences) is doing quite well. He noted the change in the editorship of the journal in that Dr. Frank Rose has passed the editor’s responsibility on to Drs. Finger and Koehler. Changes also have been made to the editorial board and in the section editors. The goal is to have more active participation of the people who are associated with the journal in the function of the journal and to consider inviting people who have written articles for the journal to be more actively involved in its administration. Dr. Finger noted that we will have three new columns in the journal. One is called NEUROWORDS, one NEUROGNOSTICS, and the last NEUROLANDMARKS. The last column will be concerned with events of particular importance that happened during that calendar year. Dr. Finger also noted that an effort will be made to increase the number of sections in the journal with a corresponding increase in the number of section editors. He noted that it may be appropriate for him (Dr. Finger) and Dr. Koehler to step down as section editors since they are now the editors-in-chief of the journal. If this takes place new section editors will be selected. Dr. Finger noted that the long term goal is to rotate section editors along with the editorial board. He also discussed the advisability of having double reviews, and blind reviews, of any paper submitted to the journal. Dr. Koehler indicated that he will also consider this issue. In this plan, the editors would ask two people to review a paper submitted to the journal; one copy will go to a section editor and the other copy will go to another person, presumably a member of the editorial advisory board, who would be a good reviewer for this particular topic. In some cases the section editor may be asked to suggest a good additional reviewer. In this plan there will be a minimum of two reviews for each paper. The idea of blind review can be mentioned in the new instructions to authors. The instructions to authors are to be found in the new issue of the journal. We will have a statement that papers will be sent out to reviewers in the same format in which they were submitted, but the person who submits the paper will have the option of requesting a blind review. If an author requests a blind review the editor will remove the first page on which the author's name appears and will submit the rest of the paper out for the blind review. The editor's job, when the paper comes in, is to write a letter to the author of the paper and tell them where the paper is accepted or rejected. The new instructions to authors will apply to all papers submitted to the journal. Dr. Finger indicated that we have been contacting other editors of journals asking them if they would like to trade with us, that is if we get a paper of good quality but it doesn’t really fit in our journal we are asking them if they would be interested in reviewing the paper for their journal. Ms. Martha Chorney, our editor at Swets & Zeitlinger, indicated that the publisher is making every effort to get this journal listed in a wider range of indexes. The editors of the journal, section editors, and many members in the organization have expressed great interest in having the journal indexed. This will give strength to the journal, will improve membership in the society, and will make it easier to attract high quality papers. Ms. Chorney indicated she understood all of these issues and the publishers were doing their best. The officers express their appreciation to her for these efforts. Dr. Koehler indicated that when the editorial board sends out a paper, the reviewer should review and return the paper within one month after they have received it. The question was raised: if the paper is sent to another journal is the author notified? Dr. Finger and Koehler indicated that the plan of sending papers to other journals was not fully worked out, but that it would be done so in the near future. However, Dr. Finger stated that he would ask editors of other journals to indicate to authors that if a paper did not fit in that particular journal the authors may wish to try the Journal of the History of the Neurosciences. Dr. Koehler called upon the organizer (Dr. Harry Whitaker) of the 1998 meeting. Dr. Whitaker stated the meeting will be held in Annapolis, Maryland (USA), June 7-9, 1998, which is Sunday through Tuesday. If it turns out we need more time the meeting could be extended into Wednesday. The meeting will be held at the Annapolis Marriott Waterfront Hotel in Annapolis, Maryland. This location was chosen because people can combine a trip to the meeting with historical research, since the National Library of Medicine is located close by in Washington DC. The room price will be $164.00/night; this will apply to single and double occupancy and the hotel has agreed to allow up to four (4) students to stay in one room for that price. There are a lot of activities in this area and Dr. Whitaker indicated that this should be an excellent meeting. Dr. Koehler stated we had two nominations for President-elect. These individuals are Dr. H-R. Isler (Zurich, Switzerland) and Dr. C. Smith (Birmingham, UK). A call for further nominations from the floor brought forth the name Dr. Zanchin (Italy); his name was added to the list and a total of three nominations for President-elect (to be President in 1999) were put forth. Paper ballots were passed out and vote taken and Dr. C. Smith was elected President-elect for the ISHN for 1998. Dr. Koehler indicated that we have to elect a Secretary and a Treasurer at this meeting. He noted that the Executive Board of ISHN proposed that Dr. Duane Haines be re-elected as Secretary and Dr. Sam Greenblatt be re-elected as Treasurer. The proposal was put to the membership, there were no objections, and these officers were re-elected as noted. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 13.30. Minutes recorded and transcribed by Duane Haines [Return to 1997 ISHN 2nd Annual Meeting - Program]
International Society for the History of the Neurosciences (ISHN) - 1997 Business Meeting Minutes <http://www.medsch.ucla.edu/som/bri/archives/ishn1997-minutes.htm> Last modified: 8 July 2000. This site is maintained for the ISHN courtesy of the Neuroscience History Archives, Brain Research Institute, UCLA
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