President Fienberg brought to our attention an initiative by ISI to move toward a joint venture. For many years the ISI has produced a paper volume known as the Statistical Theory and Methods Abstracts. The advantage to IMS in such a proposal is that the ISI has a great distribution list. The disadvantage is that ISI does not have an electronic version of their listings. In discussion it was noted that the paper version of CIS is no longer a big source of revenue.
Most people currently make use of the CD version.
In the future CIS might move even further electronically by maintaining a web site with password access. President Fienberg noted that the ASA has asked the IMS to consider the possibility of allowing ASA members to buy Statistical Science at a price somewhere between that offered to IMS members and nonmembers. Although this would increase our exposure greatly, concern was expressed that it might lead to a drop in membership. A report will be issued to Council via email this fall. Richard Tweedie expressed concern about the lack of advancement toward electronic publishing of the journals, particularly the Annals of Applied Probability which has discontinued their effort in this direction.