1. Election of a chairperson
Ulla Mannering was unanimously elected chairperson for the meeting.
2. The report of the board for the period since the previous annual general meeting
It was noted by the meeting that:
Issue 57 was published at the start of January 2016 and that at 270 pages, it was at the maximum size possible for an issue of ATR due to printing and postage costs.
Issues 54, 55 and 56 are now on the website and can be downloaded for free.
Issues 1-45 should be online and printable from March 2016. They have all been scanned and we are now waiting for the scans to be cleaned. This has meant that the current funding account with the Danish research council has had to be extended until the end of May.
The website payment platform is now functional but there have been some issues regarding institutional subscribers’ reluctance to pay for subscriptions by credit card and everyone finding their place in the new routine.
Kenneth Jensen manages the ATN/ATR website. We do not have editing rights for this – all changes must go through him. The website could do with some minor corrections and aesthetic changes.
All ATR authors receive a PDF of their article.
We would like to thank the reviewers of the articles for issue 57 for all their hard work.
3. Presentation and approval of the revised account of 31st of December 2015
The meeting approved the spreadsheet for incomings and outgoings in the ATR account for 2015 as presented by Ulla Mannering.
It was noted by the meeting that:
The account looks relatively healthy in terms of being significantly in credit.
The ATR funds consist of legacy monies from when the journal was based in Manchester, funds acquired through bids (e.g. from FKK) and our subscription income.
The future funding situation is uncertain. There may be another FKK call in the coming year, but it is not certain. If there is, we can apply for a grant.
Printing and posting the journal is by far our largest expense, and exceeds what we take in in subscription fees. As such, the journal is running at a loss.
Until now we have been fortunate that CTR has donated a postgraduate student to do the journal layout each year. Sidsel Frisch will be graduating in summer 2016, so we may have to pay someone to do the layout in future. This is likely to be a significant cost.
Post-meeting note: Karina Grömer may be able to do the layout from issue 59 onwards but this requires clarification at a later date.
Current administrative running costs for ATR (separate from the printing/postage) are about 5,000 DK per year. This includes Dropbox accounts, travel costs, website expenses etc. These costs will continue.
4. Decisions concerning individual and institutional subscription fee for the current financial year
It was noted by the meeting that:
Subscription numbers have gone down dramatically in recent years, and especially since we started putting back issues online for free.
Eva Andersson Strand has spent considerable time sending out invoices and chasing payments because some institutions will not pay their subscription by card through the webshop.
At the same time, the numbers of people downloading ATR from the website is now extremely high: last year, over 1,000 people downloaded material.
Institutional subscribers are more likely to be interested in the online material than the printed versions.
The meeting decided that:
Subscription rates should remain the same in the coming year.
The invoice system should be abandoned completely, even at the risk of losing institutional subscribers.
In general, the subscription system is no longer fit for purpose: with ever fewer subscribers and ever more people downloading back issues from the website, a way must be sought to find alternative funds. We should consider abandoning the subscription system as it currently stands.
5. Election of 5 members of the board for 2016
The current Editors and Scientific Committee members were approved unanimously – there were no changes to membership from the previous year.
6. Election of an auditor and 1 deputy auditor member for 2016
The current auditor and deputy auditor were approved unanimously – there were no changes to membership from the previous year.
7. Miscellaneous
It was noted that:
Issue 58 will come out in winter 2016. The deadline for submissions is 1st June 2016.
ATR is now operating with only a one year delay.
ATR now has a Facebook page. We are grateful to Margarita Gleba for setting this up. We have had well over 1,000 likes already. Everyone is welcome to post questions, comments and news items relating to archaeological textiles on the page.
The ATN/ATR website now has more than 32,000 visitors per year.
Ex-editors of ATR currently receive a free subscription with hard copy of the journal – tthis is a considerable cost.
Article submission numbers are high, but it would be desirable to attract a greater number of high-quality research articles.
ATR is a very specialised journal and as such cannot hope to make the highest ranking positions for journals, but our current ranking could be improved. The more people use our journal, the more citations we receive and the higher we are ranked.
Action Point E. Andersson Strand: To find out more about the ranking criteria and how we can improve our standing.
The meeting discussed at length solutions to the financial issues outlined under 3 above, focussing on the following points:
The use of a print-on-demand service: This would make individual volumes more expensive as the overall number of volumes printed would be less, but the expense would be transferred to the purchaser.
Getting rid of print copies altogether and going entirely online: This would mean also getting rid of the subscription system and perhaps putting the most current volume behind a paywall that could be managed either by the webshop or by a publishing house (if the latter were to take on the layout as well). It is unclear how badly the erecting of a paywall would affect our currently high numbers of downloads from the website. If we decided to issue the journal entirely for free, it would qualify as Gold Open Access and as such be attractive to authors, especially from the UK. This would be a disadvantage of a paywall.
Action Point Ursula Rothe: To ask UCL how they fund their Open Access journals like Archaeology International.
Action Point Ursula Rothe and Jo Cutler: To find out from the Pasold Fund if they can help fund issue 58.
The meeting decided that:
Ex-editors should receive their ATRs in PDF form only. If they require a hard copy, they are very welcome to pay for a subscription.