Special Issues- A Pain!

Hideo sends me a New Year greeting card without fail every year from Japan, though I reciprocate only by e-mail. How this came about is an interesting story, the subject of this blog. We submitted a detailed paper based on Anindya Sarkar’s Ph.D. work in the early nineties to Hideo, who was to bring out a special issue of some Japanese Journal, with Prof. D P Agrawal of Archeology fame as a co-editor ( DP called me this week end again; he has come to Ahmedabad to undergo hernia surgery). Then every year we enquired with Hideo about the publication till 1999 when Prof. K. Gopalan retired from NGRI and Prof. B. L. K. Somayajulu decided to bring out a special issue of the academy proceedings in to felicitate him on the occasion of his superannuation. Sick of hearing from Hideo that the publication will be done as soon as the Russian authors submitted their manuscripts, we withdrew the paper from the special issue and put it in the latter, Indian one, more assured of publication within the next two years at least. Hideo’s cards continue to arrive, the annoying problem solved once for all. This first experience must have taught me a lesson, but alas! As Prof. Soma used to say, I am not ‘smart’. Whoever said that those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it, was dead right!
In the early nineties Prof. V. Rajamani conducted a refresher course and asked me to write a detailed chapter on stable isotope applications, which was to be brought out as a book. This was done, and the notes never saw the light of the day for a decade or so. I ended up putting it in the volume edited by Dr. L S Chamyal of Baroda University a few years ago.
Dr. Kotlia conducted a conference, which BLKS attended, asked us to submit a paper for a special volume in PPP. Six months after submission when we did not get the referees’ comments, I made a wise decision of hastily withdrawing the paper; Yadava and I submitted it to the Holocene, which got published within a year. The promised special volume of PPP came eventually carrying only Prof. Soma’s paper from PRL. Kotlia was very upset because I withdrew my paper.
Three years ago we submitted two papers for a special section in Current science, based on our work in the Southern Ocean. We are reminding the editors continuously, who seem to be in deep slumber. Soon we may have to make a decision on what to do (Luckily, both the students whose papers are stuck got jobs recently!).
BSIP invited me for a conference in 2004 and subsequently wanted me to write a paper for their special issue of the Paleobotanist. I asked Manish to write it, and after 3 years of correspondence and attempts to call the editor on phone, the paper was eventually published last year. They again called me in 2009 for their Diamond Jubilee. I accepted to go and give a talk but in my belatedly acquired wisdom, did not accept to submit a paper.
As in my last two blogs, in this too I give you the news of a baby boy born to Shreyas, my student.