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from the Editor | Arthur N. Popper
I am honored to have been selected as the new editor
of Acoustics Today. This is a daunting responsibility since Dick Stern founded and de- veloped a truly fine magazine. And so “filling his shoes” is not an easy task, nor is it one that I take lightly. Indeed, I
see my role as taking a magazine that we are all very proud of and making it even better, and perhaps moving it in a few new directions that will increase its value to ASA and the broader acoustics community.
I want to make it clear, though, that while I have a number
of ideas for the future of the Acoustics Today “enterprise,” I
am firm in my conviction that the heart of what we do is the print magazine sent to all ASA members. It is my belief that even in these days when most of what we read is on a screen, there is a significant value to have something one can carry around, read on a plane or subway, and browse cover-to-cover. And for some of us, there still is nothing like print for reading and learning!
I want to take this column to share with you some of my thinking about where I would like us to take Acoustics Today. At the same time, I am also very much open to other ideas and suggestions, and I want to encourage ASA members who have thoughts about my plans, or about Acoustics Today, to drop me a note (apopper@umd.edu) and share your thinking.
My primary goal for Acoustics Today is to ensure that it has
a broad set of articles that are of wide interest to all ASA members, and that these articles are all understandable, and readable, by every member of the ASA, whatever their spe- cialization may be. Thus, I want to ensure, especially starting in future issues, that every article is not only understood and appreciated by members from the same specific discipline as the authors, but also that the articles will be read and under- stood by members from all of the numerous disciplines within ASA. I do appreciate that writing articles for a more general acoustics audience is a greater challenge than writing for one’s peers, but the feedback I have already gotten from prospective authors and other ASA members is that moving in this more “general” direction is highly desirable and appreciated.
Over time, I also want to ensure that each year we publish articles from the broadest possible range of disciplines within ASA. I realize this won’t always be feasible, and it may be impossible for my first few issues since I am still early learning the job and working to get articles, but I see this as a long- term goal. That said, as we say in other places in this issue we are looking for interesting articles and I encourage potential authors to drop me a note to discuss ideas.
We are also, even with this issue of Acoustics Today, making
a few interesting changes. First, we are instituting a “Letters
to the Editor” department. This will be an opportunity for members to (in up to 150 words) comment on past articles, raise issues of interest to our community, and share observa- tions. We will review all letters (send them to me please, in Word format) and retain the right to select which we use. But, assuming we don’t get inundated by letters, we will certainly try and use as many letters as we can within our space con- straints.
Another development is to initiate book reviews. In the past, Acoustics Today has had book announcements. While these have been useful, their presence depended on the authors
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