Jan Marwan, and separately Ed Storms, asked the AIP to explain why they
canceled the conference proceedings. He sent them the letter appended
below, on October 15. He just now gave me permission to copy it here.
As far as I know the AIP has not responded to either Marwan and Storms.
I doubt they will. They were within their contractual rights to cancel
the proceedings at the last minute.
- Jed
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
AIP proceedings withdrawal - explanation required
Dear Maya Flikop and AIP colleagues,
The fact that the AIP has declined to publish our conference proceedings
on Low Energy Nuclear Reactions at the very last moment has raised many
questions. My colleagues are wondering what is the true reason for this
unexpected decision and why was our AIP conference book advertised on
the AIP web site (title, table of content, ISBN, price etc) from end of
August until Oct 04 and then suddenly removed and cancelled for
publication. Until now, the AIP is missing a plausible detailed explanation.
On Dr Ed Storms polite request (Oct 07) to provide an explanation Maya
Flikop, the director of the AIP Special Publication and Proceedings,
wrote: "After a customary review by our editorial office, the content of
the planned proceedings volume entitled "Symposium on New Energy
Technology" was judged not to meet the minimal editorial standards that
have been established for the AIP Conference Proceedings program." In
his letter (Oct 11) to Dr Dylla Ed Storms was asking for specific
details but to my knowledge has not been given any answer yet. Our AIP
colleagues (Maya Flikop, Dr Dylla and so on) should know that their
behaviour to handle our request for detailed explanation why the content
of the planned proceedings volume "was judged not to meet the minimal
editorial standards" looks quite strange and more and more my colleagues
and contributors to this AIP book are wondering what is really going on
behind the scene.
Having been in Zürich, Switzerland, over the last couple of days I had
the chance to go through my office correspondence that I have had with
Maya Flikop over the last 14 months. Putting this email correspondence
and the actions taken by the AIP regarding our proceedings in a
chronological order, I came to a very strange conclusion, and I hope the
AIP can give clarification on this matter.
* Mid of July 2009 Maya Flikop contacted me and asked me to edit and
publish the conference proceedings with the AIP based on the New
Energy Technology Symposium at the ACS in San Francisco 2010. I
let her know that I would be on holiday during much of August and
would get back to her in September.
* Mid of September 2009 when I came back from vacation I contacted
Maya Flikop saying that I need to think about her offer as I am
having another offer from the ACS (Oxford University Press) volume
3 on my desk
* On Oct 05 Maya Flikop wrote in her email: "Please let me know if a
decision has been reached regarding publication of the proceedings
of the Symposium on New Energy Technology. I look forward to
hearing from you soon." She offered me a contract that I signed.
* On June 29, I submitted the whole AIP proceedings volume right on
deadline.
* During July I was waiting for any complaints, any errors I need to
correct, any minor details (the AIP editor questionnaire says that
the editor in case of any corrections required should be available
for 4 weeks after he submitted his volume). But nothing happened
except some clarification regarding Dr Pam Mosier Boss' signature
on the AIP copyright form (that Dr Mosier Boss handled on the
phone with the AIP Production editor).
* On July 18, I sent Maya Flikop an email asking to replace Prof
Nagel's introduction paper with an updated version (Prof Nagel
found 2 errors in his paper and kindly asked me to use the updated
version). Maya Flikop responded: "We will replace the paper.
Please stay in touch and let me know if I can be of any help while
the Volume is in Production."
* During the last week of July Maya Flikop directed me to the AIP
Production Editor, Tina Choy, who was in charge to design the
cover and frontmatter page (see attached - on the frontmatter page
it has been written, all papers are peer reviewed).
* On August 23, the AIP Production Editor Tina Choy wrote: "During
the final press check for CP1273, we found a file that may have a
font problem (see attached) and would like you to confirm the
content before we begin printing. Please let me know if the file
is ok as is or if you would like to submit a new file." (This was
about Prof Kim's paper who, after 2 days, sent me a corrected
version).
* End of August the AIP advertised this book on their we site (Table
of content, title, ISBN, price of 209,-- USD etc)
* On Sept 09, I received a box sent by the AIP, a box that contains
a bunch of copies of papers as part of our conference proceedings
printed by the AIP. In my email to Maya Flikop I wrote that I had
ordered books and not paper copies (the contract includes an
offprint order of 150 AIP books to be paid by the editor and
distributed to my colleagues and contributing authors). Maya
Flikop responded immediately and wrote: "Let me check with the
production department".
* On Sept 13 an invoice of about 5500,-- USD was issued by the AIP
and sent to me that I balanced on Sept 29. On Oct 01 the AIP has
withdrawn the amount of 5500,-- USD from my account. The contract
says: "The total charge is payable to AIP in U.S. dollars at the
time the Volume is published, i.e., within 30 days from receipt of
AIP's invoice."
* On Oct 05, couple of hours after the noble prize for physics was
announced in Stockholm, Maya Flikop informed me about the
withdrawal of our conference proceedings.
Again, I am quite struggling with the explanation given by Maya Flikop
that "the content of the planned proceedings volume was judged not to
meet the minimal editorial standards". If that's the case why, on earth,
wasn't I informed during July after I had submitted the volume to the
AIP? After having received the volume, within a time frame of about 4
weeks the AIP editorial board, because this volume "was judged not to
meet the minimal editorial standards", should have been able to evaluate
the content of the proceedings and to come to a final decision, namely
to reject this book for publication. But that did not happen. Instead,
we were working on the cover design, we eliminated the font problem
concerning Dr Kim's paper right before print production, I received
printed copies, and I was sent the invoice of 5500,-- USD issued by the
AIP, and on top of all that the money had been withdrawn from my account
4 days before I was informed about the cancellation of our AIP book.
This all together does not make sense considering the explanation given
by the AIP. As a consequence, there must another reason that only the
AIP can clarify.
Our estimated AIP colleagues will understand my confusion, and they are
very welcome to shed some light on this mystery to enlighten me.
Otherwise, I would tentatively assume that this decision to finally
reject our volume has nothing to do with science but is rather
politically motivated. It is now your turn, dear AIP colleagues, to
explicitly name the reasons why this volume has been withdrawn at that
very final stage. It is your responsibility to clarify this matter for
all those interested in New Energy related subjects. We would very much
appreciate to discuss with you science related issues that forced you to
reject our volume.
The way I see it, refusing our volume or not, giving detailed answers to
our questions or not. the AIP is already totally involved in the topic
of Low Energy Nuclear Reactions and cold fusion whenever this topic is
debated in New Energy related discussions and whenever it comes to the
question: why was this volume rejected. Which way you choose, my dear
estimated AIP colleagues, you won't be able to return.
Forgive me that I've been choosing this way of communication. I have
been thinking a lot over the last couple of days in Switzerland how to
deal with this situation.
But the fact that I promised my colleagues an AIP book for which they
came to San Francisco to give their presentations, did not leave me with
any other choice. From the first moment I created this New Energy
Technology Symposium at the ACS I intended to encourage the scientific
debate on Low Energy Nuclear Reactions and Cold Fusion, and I want to
invite you to join this discussion.
Jan Marwan
I am copying this message to Christy Frazier (Infinite Energy), Jed
Rothwell, Dr Swartz, Dr Chubb (LENR web site), the ACS Press Centre, ACS
Book Department, ACS Environmental Division and many of my colleagues.
Dr. Marwan Chemie
Forschung & Entwicklung
Rudower Chaussee 29
D-12489 Berlin
Tel: +49 30 6392 2566
FAX: +49 30 6392 2566
http://www.marwan-chemie.com/
