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SIVB to Move Journal Publications to Springer

For the past several years, the SIVB has had the two Society journals, In Vitro-Animal and In Vitro - Plant, published and printed by different publishers/printers. In Vitro -Animal has been self-published by the SIVB and printed by Allen Press while In Vitro - Plant has been published and printed by CABI Publishing (a unit of CAB International). While these arrangements have proved satisfactory in several respects, the financial returns on these assets have not been up to our expectations. Also, the marketing activity for In Vitro - Animal needed a major boost. It was our hope that one publisher could consolidate our journals and then mount an aggressive marketing campaign to raise their profile, increase submission rates, subscription numbers and the journal impact factors. Over time, we hoped to increase the revenue coming into the SIVB while keeping our editorial integrity, always a major concern when changing publishers.

The SIVB Publications Committee was given the task of pursuing the best course of action with regard to the Society journals. We solicited proposals from many publishers with little constraint on the form those proposals would take. The proposals we received were very different from one another, both in content and in the expected revenue the SIVB would receive. The Committee evaluated these proposals and recommended to the SIVB Board of Directors that we move both journals to the publishing house of Springer. The proposal Springer submitted was comprehensive in its depth and provided a monetary guarantee to the Society that none of the other proposals contained. The SIVB will keep complete editorial control. Perhaps most importantly, Springer has proposed a very significant amount of funds for advertising the journals that we could not have hoped to do on our own. The Board has agreed with the Committee's recommendations and by the time you read this, we will be proceeding into contract negotiations with Springer that we hope to conclude by the end of 2005.

Once the contract is signed, the SIVB will receive a substantial signing bonus from Springer. We will then start a yearlong transition that will culminate with a January 1 2007 launch as new members in the pantheon of reputable Springer scientific journals. This fact alone will put our journals into hundreds of libraries we are not part of currently. Springer has proposed no increase in subscription rates for members and we hope to keep our subscription rates increases for members very low for a long time to come. The guaranteed minimum income the SIVB will receive will help bolster our recovering finances and allow the Society to do many things to increase membership and improve the overall health of our organization.

In conclusion, I would like to thank the members of the Publication Committee for their hard work and diligent service, the people at CABI Publishing and Allen Press for their efforts and cooperation, the employees at New Beginnings Management and especially Michele Schultz for her tireless efforts on behalf of the SIVB publications. Please join me in supporting your Society's journals by submitting your best manuscripts and reviewing manuscripts when you are requested to do so.

Michael E. Horn
SIVB Publications Chair