<VV> RE: Communique article rejections

[Jim Burkhard]

Harry-

Thanks for the reply and interest.  Let me state first that I think you and
Mike do a great job running CORSA and publishing the Communique. I *know* it
is ton of work.  I only sent that email because it seems that I keep hearing
more about tech articles being rejected or otherwise never seeing the light
of day at the same time we're being requested to submit.

As to the instances I alluded to:

1. Well, Joe Potts was one  -- I see from things I was copied on offlist,
you've already exchanged info on that.

2. The second guy sent me an offlist private earlier email today (before
yours) specifically asking me to not mention his name as he does not want to
antagonize CORSA. You posted your request after that, so I'm going to ask
him to give you the information you request. I'm sure you must get some
things definitely not ready for publication, but he writes very well (some
of his other stuff has been published in the Communique), so I don't think
this is likely the problem.  Anyhow, I'd like not to be a middleman. I'll
try to get him to contact you directly.

3. The third guy I ought not to mention by name without his permission
either, really (I will ask him, though). But this was the whole point of my
original post.  I wanted people who've had problems getting technical
articles published to mention their OWN names and get the whole thing out
into the open. When my dad and I talk with people at conventions (or
elsewhere) who have done excellent work (and are literate), often they have
reluctant to write about their work because of prior rejections or rumors of
other people having been rejected (or submissions "sat on" forever). My
intent was that if this is a real problem, let's hear about it from those
who've experienced it. 

On to something you mention below in your second paragraph: Please don't
request authors dumb down their articles to make them interesting to a
greater fraction of the CORSA membership! I think you are really
underestimating the readership. Sure, some people might not be interested in
the article, anyhow, but those who are want the "full meat".  Now, I don't
think we risk waves of submissions of treatises on computational fluid
dynamics...  I think if the tech is at the modest level of Hot Rod, Car
Craft, Circle Track, and Grassroots Motorsports, we are quite fine. For
people whom even that is "too much" they can look at the pictures and read
the opening and concluding paragraphs. Again, I'm not suggesting the
magazine be packed like this, but 1 such article an issue would be nice if
good quality material has been submitted by authors.

Certainly your comments support the prevailing wisdom is that anything
"overly technical" doesn't get published. Maybe this needs to be fixed ...
The average prospective newcomer to CORSA is MUCH more likely to be
interested in a technical article than reading about "Flo and Vern" (whom he
doesn't know) winning "Shopper's Choice" at a mall show in Kansas somewhere.
THAT is of little interest to anyone who doesn't know Flo and Vern!  If you
want something more people are interested in, I'm betting it is the tech.
If a new eager Corvair owner thinks the Communique is mostly about people he
doesn't know and what they did at their far-away local events, he devalues
the Communique; that's a big loss of membership incentive.

Oh one more thing ... What is the Communique's policy on people writing up
an article that prominently features a commerical product?  In the small
world of our hobby (even our "big" vendors are small businesses) oftentimes
somebody will develop something for himself which he later produces (often
in small quantity) to offer others perhaps for profit or perhaps just to
recoup his own significant investment. Besides the larger vendors who do a
lot of development themselves, , let me offer (there are many others... my
apologies for all the omissions) Rusty Rose and his A/C stuff, Ray Sedman
and his many performance engine parts & services, Duane Cartwright and his
intake manifold + fuel injection, or Tom Scalzi with his electric fan. I'm
just using these as examples ... perhaps some of them have been published in
the Communique already, I'm not sure.  

Anyhow, does the Communique reject out of hand any submissions 
1) about commercial products  OR 2) from people who stand to gain from the
publication of the article?  

I have heard this is true, and if so, this is a shame because it's the few
brave souls such as these (I mentioned small guys, but let's not forget the
"big" vendors either) who are really working on developing the future and
keeping people interested in the Corvair. To be sure, there should be limits
on sales puffery and the articles should be written to proper technical
standards (if you make a claim, back it up), but just because the article
presents a product that is offered for sale should in no way disqualify it.
I've been a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) for many
years and in that capacity have written and presented papers to SAE on
behalf of my employers (General Motors for 12 years and Delphi for the last
5). SAE has very high standards for paper publication, yet most of the
papers published are by people selling the things they are writing about!
There are requirements for how this is done, but it is the standard within
SAE and many (most?) other professional organizations -- I've presented
papers to the Global Powertrain Congress and the Aachen Kolloquium (the
major European powertrain conference) under the same basic rules. I'm
frequently one of the peer reviewers (on Advanced Valvetrain papers) for SAE
and one of the points that must be satisfied is an absence of puffery and
excessive salemanship. Note that does NOT mean that actual products cannot
be written about by their creators or others.  Just some thoughts ... I'd
like the official word on Communique policy regarding this - what's the true
scoop? 

Thanks & best regards-

Jim



> -----Original Message-----
> From: virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org 
> [mailto:virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org] On Behalf Of Harry 
> Jensen, CORSA Executive Secretary
> Sent: Sunday, August 07, 2005 12:01 PM
> To: Jim Burkhard; virtualvairs at corvair.org
> Cc: 'N. Joseph Potts'
> Subject: Re: <VV> Communique article rejections was RE: blow 
> up electric fans
> 
> 
> Hello--
> 
> I too would like to know about article which have been 
> rejected by the Communique. I know of none.
> 
> I know of one in which the article was sent back to the 
> author requesting changes to make it less technical to make it more
interesting 
> to a greater percentage of our membership.
> 
> Understand, I am not one of the editors. And Jim, I agree 
> with everything you've said, except for the unsubstantiated accusations of
rejecting 
> articles, especially tech articles. I understand that you may 
> not want to name names on VV, but send me a private post and let me know 
> the who and  when, and let me supply you with the facts.
> 
> Take care...
> 
> --H