40th Anniversary Volume – Issues 1-10, 2011
Abstract
Citation
Rudall, B. (2011), "40th Anniversary Volume – Issues 1-10, 2011", Kybernetes, Vol. 40 No. 1/2. https://doi.org/10.1108/k.2011.06740aaa.002
Download as .RISPublisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2011, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
40th Anniversary Volume – Issues 1-10, 2011
Article Type: Editorial and preface From: Kybernetes, Volume 40, Issue 1/2
Kybernetes – The International Journal of Cybernetics, Systems and Management Sciences is 40 years old this year and special issues, as well as our regular issues, have been compiled to honour the event. This special double issue is the first of this celebratory volume and we are grateful to Professor Martin Smith and Dr Bernard Scott for preparing it as our invited Guest Editors. It will further strengthen our links with the UK Cybernetics Society, which like the World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics, has selected Kybernetes as its official journal.
Readers may know that this journal was established in 1971 by the late Professor John Rose who was one of the enlightened scientists who at that time realised that cybernetics and systems lacked a forum for the exchange of knowledge and information. He founded the World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics (WOSC), arranging congresses and publishing books and journals.
On this 40th Anniversary of Kybernetes, we believe that we should pay a tribute to his foresight and express our thanks for his untiring labours in the cause of advancing systems and cybernetics. A full tribute was included in: “Leading the way: tributes to John Rose” (1917-2007). Kybernetes Volume 38 Nos 1/2 2009, pp. 1-285.
Kybernetes was first published as a quarterly whereas today it features ten issues a year, which include special issues that explore selected topics in the field. During its 40 years, it has published important contributions by some of the world’s most distinguished scientists including several Nobel Prize winners. Kybernetes also encouraged all who endeavoured in our fields to communicate their ideas and researches through its pages.
In 1987, Professor Rose handed over the publishing of Kybernetes to MCB University Press, which subsequently was renamed Emerald Group Publishing Ltd. A new editorial team was appointed with Professor Brian Rudall as Editor-in-Chief and which included a new role for Dr Alex Andrew as Internet Editor. They had both served Kybernetes since its foundation. New Section Editors were also welcomed as well as an enlarged Editorial Advisory Board. Professor Rose accepted the publisher’s invitation to remain as Founding Editor.
It is with great regret that we record the deaths of two of this original team prior to our celebratory year. Tributes are included in our regular section.
It was also a great pleasure to the publishers and to the editorial team that Professor Stafford Beer, who is President in memoriam and Professor Robert Vallée, the current President, of the World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics accepted our invitation to be the first patrons of this journal.
During this period, under the auspices of the publisher’s Literati Club, the “Norbert Wiener Award for Excellence” was instituted to recognise the best papers published in the journal during a volume. Three “highly commended” awards are also presented to the authors of papers that display excellence. All the selections were made by a panel of judges invited from the cybernetics and systems communities.
Kybernetes also became an integral part of the organisation of the important WOSC World Congresses and the proceedings of these events have been published as special guest-edited issues. To encourage participants at these events, a special “Kybernetes Research Award” was sponsored by the journal’s publishers.
In our coming anniversary issues, we will provide a more detailed history of Kybernetes and the endeavours of its publishers and editorial teams in a period when it was not only a major contributor to the literature but also an enthusiastic supporter of organisations such as the World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics and the UK Cybernetics Society, as well as other national associations and institutions devoted to cybernetics systems and management sciences.
Throughout this anniversary year, we will continue to publish our regular journal sections as well as both invited and other contributed papers.
Brian H. RudallEditor-in-Chief