The rate of submission of manuscripts for publication in the Canadian Journal of Analytical Sciences and Spectroscopy (CJASS) has remained stable at 4 or 5 per month. Nine new papers have been processed since my last report (less than two months ago). The rejection rate is also stable (at 45%). Of the 20 manuscripts being refereed or revised at the time of the last NEC meeting, 11 have since been accepted and 9 have been rejected.

Since the beginning of my editorship, at least one Canadian contribution has been included in each issue of the Journal. In fact, Issue 6 of 2001 is an all-Canadian issue, thanks to the excellent work of Associate Editor Gang Wu, who convinced several attendees of a local NMR meeting to publish their work in CJASS. All the manuscripts for Issue 1 of Volume 47 (2002) were sent to the publisher by May 1, 2002, so that the first issue of 2002 should appear by the end of June 2002, a significant improvement over the previous year! In fact, two papers have already been accepted for Issue 2.

Several future issues of the journal will be devoted to papers presented at the upcoming 48th ICASS. Many conferees have committed to submit papers (in fact, 3 papers have already been received!). The ICASS papers together with unsolicited submissions should allow the completion of the 2002 volume by the end of 2002. Furthermore, the preparation of two special issues of the Journal in honour of past Editors-in-Chief, Ian Butler and Chak Chakrabarti is progressing. Although the deadline for submissions for the Ian Butler issue is July 1, 2002, several papers have already been received. The goal is to have the first issue of Volume 48 (2003) in honour of Ian Butler and the following one in honour of Chak Chakrabarti. With the enthusiasm of Pierre Harvey (U. Sherbrooke) and Doug Goltz (U. Winnipeg), who respectively serve as Guest Editors for these issues, I am confident that this goal will be met. Indeed, depending on the number of submissions and their length, more than one issue may be devoted to each past Editor-in-Chief.

In summary, the future clearly looks bright for the Journal. The goal of completing Volume 47 in 2002 should be reached so that the first issue of Volume 48 can appear at the beginning of 2003. The journal owes a great debt of gratitude to its sole remaining sponsor for 2002, Varian Canada Inc., without this support CJASS could not continue to be published.

Diane Beauchemin,
Editor-in-chief, CJASS

Guest Editor for the Ian Butler Issue is Pierre D. Harvey.
Email: pharvey@courrier.usherb.ca
Phone: (819) 821-8000 ext. 2005 or 7092
Fax: (819) 821-8017

Guest Editor for the Chak Chakrabarti issue is Doug Goltz.
Email: dgoltz@uwinnipeg.ca
Phone: (204)-786-9748
Fax: (204)-775-2114

Instructions to authors may be found at:
http://www.s-s-c.ca/jengl.html and http://www.s-s-c.ca/jfrench.html for English and French manuscripts respectively.