Robert Espinosa, Chair
"The BPG Publications Committee is charged to draft a general policy statement on BPG publications. The policy will outline the mission and scope of the publications program and define the relationships between various BPG publications. It will address such matters as endorsing, funding, and/or publishing works created outside the formal BPG publications program (such as conference proceedings, monographs, and works created by individuals or organizations not affiliated with the BPG). In fulfilling this charge, the Committee is asked to consider such matters as peer review, and to coordinate its work with the AIC Publications Committee."
The Book and Paper Group Publications Committee, consisting of Konstanze Bachmann, Walter Henry, Jane Klinger, Kate Maynor, Olivia Primanis, Dianne van der Reyden and myself, Robert Espinosa, was formed at the request of the BPG membership after last year's (1997) BPG Business Meeting, and began discussions via email this spring. This year's work has been primarily to review the history of our publications, namely the Annual and the Paper Conservation Catalog, and to begin to clarify the mission and purposes of these publications.
We have also been in contact with the AIC Publications Committee, and this committee has been working on a set of policies concerning specialty group publications, which we eagerly await. It is likely that the AIC Publications Committee will issue a document outlining some its questions/concerns regarding specialty group publications.
The Book and Paper Group Annual has been the yearly publication of the Book and Paper Group that has served primarily as a record of the presentations, including some of the tips sessions, of the Book and Paper Specialty Group Sessions at the annual conference of the American Institute for Conservation. The presenters at the conference have been encouraged to submit their papers, with any revisions they desire, to the Annual, with the understanding that their articles will not be edited nor subjected to peer review. In this sense the Annual has been a 'Proceedings' of the annual meeting and performs a valuable service to the profession, extending the audience of the annual meeting presentations to all members/subscribers of the Book and Paper Group. Since the authors are solely responsible for the content and accuracy of their submissions, publication does not constitute endorsement by the Book and Paper group or the American Institute for Conservation.
Secondarily, the Annual has served as a forum for the exchange of information and ideas relating to book and paper conservation, and in this role has accepted submissions by authors who believe they have information that is of interest to the profession and wish to publish it without the benefit of peer review. On average this has accounted for no more than one or two submissions per year. (28 out of 231 articles, or 12%). The same policy applies regarding endorsement by the BPG and the AIC.
In essence then, the Annual is an unedited publication reproducing unreviewed information for practicing conservators, who must assess the validity and usefulness of the information on their own. Its purpose is to record rather than to assess or critique the information presented.
It is the general consensus of the BPG Publications Committee that there should be a publication like the Annual, a Proceedings of the BPG sessions to document the information presented there, where peer review is not the criteria for inclusion.
There is not a consensus on the continued inclusion of papers independently submitted, but historically this has provided an outlet for a variety of articles. Whether there is still a need to provide this forum for unreviewed articles remains an open question.
There is a general feeling that the Annual needs to be more explicit in its front matter about its purpose, and the fact that articles have not been peer-reviewed. To this end, I have written a new "Notes from the Compiler:"
"The Book and Paper Group Annual, a publication of the Book and Paper Group of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC), is a non-juried anthology of papers pertaining to the conservation and preservation of works of art on paper, books, library and archival materials. The Annual is dedicated primarily to publishing written versions of the papers presented at the Book and Paper Specialty Group sessions of the annual conference of the AIC. Authors are free (though not required) to update and augment their oral presentations prior to publication, however the papers presented herein have not been peer-reviewed nor edited by the Book and Paper Group nor the professional staff of the Annual prior to publication and authors are solely responsible for their content. An abstract of the paper was read by the program committee and served as the basis for inclusion in the Book and Paper Specialty Group sessions at AIC.
"This is the . . . # . . .volume of the Book and Paper Group Annual . This issue includes . . . # . . . papers delivered at the 199? Book and Paper Specialty Group Session and . . #. . .papers presented as posters at the Poster Sessions at the AIC. . . #. . . Annual Meeting of the American Institute for Conservation in . . . City, State. . . . . . # . . .papers are independent submissions by their respective authors."
If we decide to continue the practice of accepting independent submissions, the front matter would also include the following statement:
"The Annual also serves as a vehicle for ideas and/or practical contributions on subjects of interest to the Book and Paper Group which have been submitted independently by authors wishing to share and disseminate information with the Book and Paper Group membership. These papers have not been peer-reviewed nor edited, except insofar as the Publications Committee of the Book and Paper Group has agreed to their inclusion in the Annual ."
In order to avoid confusion for persons who may photocopy individual articles, at the end of every paper, immediately following the author's names, there would be a statement that says:
"This paper was submitted by the author(s) and has not been peer-reviewed nor edited."
At present, the BPG would have to greatly expand its publication infrastructure to produce peer reviewed publications, either as outgrowths of BPG activities or as independently submitted monographs. We are not sure that this would not duplicate what is already established by the JAIC. But this is something that remains to be discussed.
The BPG Publications Committee should meet in Washington in the winter of 1998/99 for a one to two day meeting, for which $1200 be approved to cover airfare expenses.