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Editor's Report

Directed by the Executive Committee on 6 December 2008 to negotiate and sign a contract for Speculum with Cambridge University Press, President Geary and I, with the assistance of Associate Editor Jacqueline Brown, came to the virtual completion of the negotiations with the fifth draft of the proposed agreement on 12 March. The contract was signed 25 March at the Council meeting.

The whole process began in the fall of 2007 when three university presses approached Speculum seeking publication relationships. By mid-summer there were six bona fide proposals, from three university presses and from three commercial presses. The Finance Committee vetted and reviewed the proposals since the financial impact of any contract would be immense. The committee compared the proposals point by point, conducting interviews with other publications connected to the proposers, assessing editorial independence and financial advantages, and looking ahead to eventual online publication. In late November the committee was able to make its recommendation that CUP was the preferred choice.

The CUP offer is attractive financially, administratively, and intellectually. The Academy will receive a royalty on Speculum sales to subscribers (i.e., institutions) and a sweetener. A wide range of costs associated with the publication will move off the Academy's ledger and onto Cambridge's: warehousing, printing costs, mailing. Office workload will decrease because CUP will manage all subscribers (but not members!). CUP will also help Speculum set up a Web-based manuscript tracking system. Speculum will see circulation increase, a virtual doubling of subscribers, because of the CUP marketing plan. CUP will support an online directory of members gratis, and it will assist Speculum in its move toward online publication. Members of the Academy will receive a 20 percent discount on all CUP titles.

It is clear that the major effort of the office the rest of this year and into 2010 will be the adjustments necessary to produce Speculum in the new relationship. Editorial work will take place at the Academy office and, when ready, given to CUP for the printing process through publication and distribution. Speculum maintains its editorial independence. Volume 85 no. 1 (January 2010) will be the first issue with CUP. The editors are beginning to fill this number now.

The number of pages printed in Speculum in 2008 was 1,084, 1 fewer than in 2007. We devoted 486 pages to reviews and brief notices, an increase of 30 pages in comparison with 2007. The number of pages devoted to articles remained comparable, 530 in 2008, 548 in 2007, as did the number of articles, 15 in 2008, 17 in 2007. The costs for printing and mailing the journal were $90,356.94 ($85,663 in 2007; cf. $109,778 in 2006).

I am happy to note that Speculum on JSTOR yielded a payment of $16,955.44 (cf. [corrected] $13,206.43 in 2007; cf. 2006, $12,419.77; 2005, $10,578.19; 2004, $9,802.75). The CUP agreement does not dissolve the Academy's relationship with JSTOR. Sales from the associated program, Publisher Sales Service, are subsumed in the 2008 total.

I am grateful to the Speculum Editorial Board for their continuing good advice on submissions, practices, and policy questions. Their collective discretion has assisted an easy working relationship, and their enthusiasm for Speculum continues unabated. Rachel Fulton, Maryanne Kowaleski, Roberta L. Krueger, Thomas F. X. Noble, Conrad Rudolph, and Elaine Treharne have served in 2008-9. In this period of transition I have asked Roberta L. Krueger and Elaine Treharne to extend their terms, and I have added Maura Nolan and Monika Otter to the board. The book review editors for Speculum support a key function as well. Book review editors for 2009-10 will be Rebecca A. Baltzer, Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, Brian A. Catlos, Theresa Coletti, Maria Dobozy, Anthony Kaldellis, Stephen E. Lahey, Josef W. Meri, Joseph Falaky Nagy, Lawrence Nees, Frederick S. Paxton, F. Regina Psaki, David Townsend, and Barbara Weissberger. I acknowledge with thanks the contributions of Siān Echard and Steven A. Epstein, who rotate off, and welcome newcomers Brian Catlos and David Townsend.

Respectfully submitted,
PAUL E. SZARMACH, Editor



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