In view of the recent correspondence which shows that TAC is not properly listed by ISI I follow with my email to James Testa of 19/11/2009 which got a reply which seemed sympathetic and further correspondence from Rodney Chonka which I thought had led to a proper judgement. ----------------------------- Email from Rodney Chonka to Bob Rosebrugh 02/07/2010 I am pleased to inform you that this journal has been accepted for the following Thomson Reuters products beginning with volume 20(2008): /Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCIE)/ including the /Web of Science/ / ISI Alerting Service/ / Current Contents/Physical, Chemical & Earth Sciences (CC/PC&ES)/ /--------------------/ I therefore suggest that Dr Testa be sent emails deploring the situation. Ronnie Brown ---------------------------------- Dear James Testa, (james.testa@thomson.com) I attach an article on the use of metrics for Research Evaluation, particularly with regard to mathematics. I am interested in this as a founder member of the editorial boards of three electronic journals Theory and Application of Categories (TAC) Homology, Homotopy and Applications (HHA) Journal of Homotopy and Related Structures (JHRS) of which only the second has managed to get through the seemingly impenetrable `methodology' of the ISI journal selection procedure. I have made in 2003 a brief survey of editors of small journals in mathematics and found deep resentment at the treatment of distinguished academic boards of editors, in that submissions seem often to disappear into black holes, and the qualifications of those who deal with the process are unknown, unlike those of the editorial boards. By relying on `impact factor' there is no allowance for the slow acceptance of new ideas, and it seems certain that the use of the ISI methodology is a brake on scientific progress, and of the development and influence of new ideas. This is certainly true in category theory, an area developed in the second half of the last century, has had a major influence in unifying mathematics, and has developed new methods particularly in higher dimensional algebra. A major influence in the development of category theory has also been the journal Cahier de Geometrie et Topologie Categorique again not on the ISI list. Perhaps it also could be said that any methodology of selection of journals must inevitably fail to detect new trends, and will reinforce exiting tendencies. The technology you use is a commercial secret, not subject to independent quality control inspection, and is perhaps nowadays old fashioned? I would be glad of any comments you may have on these points. Yours sincerely Emeritus Professor Ronald Brown www.bangor.ac.uk/r.brown [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]