End-of-year reflections

Abstract

'~Those of you who aspire to be editors-don' t . For me, so far, it has been an agonizing experience." Thus, began an April 9, 1984 memorandum to associate editors and members of the editorial board from Keith Lupton, our previous editor. Perhaps I should have heeded his 1984 advice (or Orwell's, at least), but I thought it would be safe to assume this responsibility, because it had been a very smooth and pleasant experience working as an associate editor with Keith Lupton. Also, I know six other capable editors fairly well, Stephen White (National Forum), Robert Kingston (The Kettering Review), Stanley Lindberg (The Georgia Review), David Groves (Visions in Leisure and Business), Suzanne Lindenau (Journal of Educational Techniques and Technologies), and Lance Kramer (Continuing Higher Education Review), and they generally seem in good spirits and able to meet for lunch. I did suspect that once I assumed this editorial responsibility, I would be able to even fur ther advance the fine manuscript flow systems pioneered by journal founders Perenich and McCallum, which were even more streamlined in the Lupton period. This has not been the case at all. It is a tremendous challenge to merely stay atop the distribution of manuscripts. I sometimes th ink my position should be retitled, ~Editorial Node." Nonetheless, I am proud of the first two issues because I know firsthand the serious considerations given articles by all reviewers, and in tu rn the conscientious openness and responsiveness most authors have given the many recommendations for revisions. The interactions inherent in this critique of manuscripts can be most stimulating, and Keith is right, from time to time, agonizing. In the months ahead I hope to develop a system that will permit me to perform a more sensitive analysis of Innovative Higher Education activities. This journal is a biannual publication containing articles that emphasize innovations occurring in higher education systems. Three senior editors, one editor, three associate editors and a 16 member editorial board are responsible for soliciting manuscripts in addition to many which are independently forwarded, and for facilitating a network for blind review of all submissions. Since I assumed the editor-