[meteorite-list] Statement from Derek Sears, Meteorite magazine

[Robert Beauford]

I hope it is clear to all MetServ readers that the letter purported to have been written by me and circulated on today's listserve is entirely a figment of Mr. Kichinka's imagination.

Mr. Kichinka submitted an article to METEORITE magazine that was accepted and prepared for publication.  On receipt of the proofs, Mr. Kichinka reacted strongly against the edits, which were routine corrections to grammar, insertions that he had failed to make (like figure captions), removal of material that in the Editor's view might upset certain readers, and the shortening of some ancillary text in the interests of space.  This was an extraordinarily long and expensive article to print.  The number of edits was actually very few, maybe 20, in an eight page article.  Realizing that this was not going to be resolved quickly, and that we would be dammed if we published and dammed if we didn't, I withdrew the article from the August issue and told Mr. Kichinka we would consider the matter before the November issue was prepared.  That is where the matter rests.

METEORITE magazine is seeing a major increase in the number of articles being submitted and is excited and grateful to the community for its support of the magazine.  Both the quality and the quantity of articles is going up.  We are considering a number of changes to take advantage of this, some have already been implemented (like glossy paper throughout and a more attractive covers), others will unfold in the next few months.  During this renaissance for the magazine, which will surely please everyone interested in meteorites, we recognize the need for author cooperation and appreciate the fact that in running METEORITE for the eight years since Joel Schiff handed the magazine over to us this is the first incident of an uncooperative author.

Derek Sears
NASA Ames Research Center,  MS 245-3,  Moffett Field,  Mountain View,  California 94035