IPA Executive Committee

In June 2007, the new IPA Council elected the following Executive Committee members to serve from 2007 to 2011:

The President, Gösta Bruce, and the Vice-President, Daniel Recasens, will also serve as ex-officio members of the Permanent Council for the Organisation of ICPhS.

1 Minutes of last meeting

The minutes of the General Meeting of 5 August 2003 in Barcelona as published in the Journal of the International Phonetic Association vol. 33 (2) were agreed as a correct record. The President signed the minutes as correct.

2 Matters arising

There were no matters arising from the previous minutes.

3 President's introduction

The President began his address by pointing out that the IPA is the oldest organisation within Phonetics with a long, illustrious history. He emphasised the importance of maintaining the tradition. Prof. Wells reviewed the accomplishments of the Association over the past four years: the JIPA was published regularly, the IPA website was well-visited, the IPA Council approved a new IPA symbol, the labiodental flap //, the new edition of the IPA chart (2005) was released, initial discussions with the International Standards Organisation (ISO) for cooperation on continuing the standardisation of phonetic symbols were conducted, the IPA examination was held regularly, the Association sponsored ICPhS2007. The President also emphasised the importance for people working in phonetics to maintain traditional transcription skills and the ability to perform the sounds of languages. He pointed out that a good knowledge of the sounds of the IPA, and the ability to use the IPA chart and to transcribe are essential for language teachers and language learners, speech and language pathologists, actors, singers, missionaries, anthropologists and ethnographers, individuals working in applications in automatic speech recognition, speech synthesis, prosthetics and so on. He also gratefully acknowledged the contribution of the Summer Institute of Linguistics in making the IPA fonts available and being prompt in providing the new symbol for the labiodental flap.

4 Secretary's report

Secretary Katerina Nicolaidis reported that over the past four years the Secretary's office has received a lot of communications on theoretical, practical and procedural matters from members of the Association and individuals with an interest in phonetics from the broader academic community and the general public. A series of formal resolutions have been passed by Council since 2003. Of a total of nine resolutions, four concerned financial matters (including the approval of the rewording of By-law #1 to include the membership fee in Euros only), two editorial issues, two the sponsorship of conferences (International Symposium on Tonal Aspects of Languages, 2004, and ICPhS2007), and one the approval of the labiodental flap. The new edition of the IPA chart (2005), updated to include the labiodental flap, was released in April 2006. A copy of the chart was published in JIPA vol. 36 (1) and a .pdf file of the chart has been made available for downloading on the IPA website. There have been over 20 requests from authors or publishers for permission to reproduce the IPA chart, which have been authorised. The Secretary also reported that the audio files which accompany the illustrations of the IPA since 1998 (following the publication of the Handbook of the IPA) are available on a privileged-access site for IPA members only. This and all other benefits that members of the Association are entitled to are now listed on the IPA website. The complete IPA membership list has been edited and will be posted on the Cambridge Journals Online JIPA website. The final major responsibility of the Secretary's office is to run the elections. These took place from August 2006 to July 2007 and followed the timetable set out by the by-laws.

5 Treasurer's report

1. (a) Treasurer Michael MacMahon presented the financial records for the years 2003–2007. He reported a substantial increase in the bank balance mainly due to publishing income from CUP for the publication of JIPA. The balance increased from (approximate values) £29,000 in 2004, to £33,000 in 2005 to £55,000 in 2006, with a current balance in 2007 of around £55,000. Over the years there has been a modest increase in subscriptions while there has been an increase in publishing costs due to the introduction of the third issue of JIPA. A statement of accounts for the years 2004–2006 was published in JIPA 37 (1). A full audit was due to be carried out in August 2007. The audit report is included in the present issue of this journal (pp. 369–370).

2. (b) The Treasurer reported that the Association currently operates two accounts, a current and a capital account, with the Royal Bank of Scotland. He pointed out that a substantial decrease in bank charges made to the Association was achieved due to a reduction in the number of accounts held (from seven in previous periods to two currently) and changes made in the currencies acceptable for the payment of subscriptions (i.e. exclusion of the US dollar). Following negotiations with the bank, a discount in transactional charges was also achieved. The Treasurer also noted that the WorldPay system adopted for the payment of subscriptions has been operating very well.

3. (c) The individual membership currently stands at 540 members. Forty per cent of those are life members including members of the Association who have paid their membership dues for 30 years. The student membership currently stands at 17 members. Institutional membership stands at 270, of which approximately 180 are libraries that subscribe to JIPA.

4. (d) The Treasurer extended his sincere gratitude on behalf of the Association to Pauline Maridor, Assistant Treasurer, for her outstanding service. He pointed out that her previous professional experience in business had been invaluable to the Association, thanks to her considerable knowledge and expertise in financial procedures.

6 Editor's report

Editor John Esling reported that the 2003–2007 period has been productive for JIPA. Issues appeared on time, copyediting and typesetting have become very efficient. Electronic contents have been posted on the Cambridge Journals Online (CJO) site. A very important development is that as of 2007 JIPA has moved to three issues a year (April, August and December) increasing the number of pages from 256–288 per annum to at least 384 per annum. This change was introduced to accommodate the growing number of submissions and to ensure that papers are published in a timely manner. The editor also reported that CUP have initiated an electronic newsletter which will publicise JIPA to other CUP journal subscribers and to the broader academic community. The initial instalment of the newsletter will be linked to the CJO JIPA website within the next two months. Since 2001, the audio files that accompany the illustrations of JIPA have also been posted on the CJO JIPA website as ‘Supplementary materials’ next to the .pdf file of each illustration. The Editor informed members that all back issues of the journal since 1971 were sent to CUP and will be made available online. CUP will also integrate Mike MacMahon's fully searchable JIPA Index, which includes information dating back to 1886. Another significant development is the adoption of the Unified Style Sheet for Linguistics Journals as of 2008. The Editor concluded by inviting members to attend the JIPA Editorial Board meeting the following day during which editorial issues for the coming years would be discussed. A full editorial report to the JIPA Editorial Board is included in the present issue of this journal (pp. 365–368).

7 Examinations

The President invited Patricia Ashby, who took over as Examinations Secretary in 2006, to present a report on the IPA Examinations. Patricia Ashby pointed out that there has been a significant increase in the number of candidates for the Certificate in the Phonetics of English since 2003, when the IPA strand had been introduced on the UCL Summer Course in English Phonetics that focuses on the development of practical skills. The syllabus and the format of the exam are posted on a new page on the UCL SCEP website; it is intended to update the link on the IPA website to this new page on the UCL SCEP website. The two sittings of the examination are as of this year scheduled to be in May and August, thus including the statutory three-month gap between attempts and so enabling those who failed the exam the first time to re-take it in August. Three further developments were proposed: (a) updating of the syllabus to include aspects of acoustic phonetics such as acoustic identification of vowels and consonants, VOT, etc, (b) introduction of different levels of certification such as lower level non-theoretical certification of pronunciation abilities and more advanced practical training for potential examiners, (c) re-instating the German and French certificates and possibly expanding to other languages.

8 Election results

The results of the two rounds of voting to elect the Council of the Association and of the separate round of voting to choose representatives to the Permanent Council for the Organisation of International Congresses of Phonetic Science elected by the IPA membership were published in JIPA 37 (1 & 2). John Wells welcomed the new Council of the Association and announced the results of the last round of voting to elect the new Executive Committee of the Association. This consists of Gösta Bruce (President), Daniel Recasens (Vice-President), Katerina Nicolaidis (Secretary), Linda Shockey (Treasurer) and John H. Esling (Editor). The President congratulated the newly elected members of Council and Executive Committee.

9 Address by incoming President

The new President, Gösta Bruce, thanked the members of the IPA Council for their expression of confidence in electing him President of the Association. He assured members that he would strive to serve the aims of the Association: to promote the scientific study of Phonetics and its various practical applications, to support the publication of the journal of the Association, to increase membership particularly among countries and languages which are under-represented in the IPA. He also thanked the outgoing Executive for their excellent service in the past four years.

He pointed out that throughout the decades of his Council membership he has witnessed the dynamic and sound development of the Association. Since the IPA Convention in Kiel in 1989, where he coordinated the group on suprasegmentals, he has observed the convergence of classical ear phonetics and experimental machine phonetics in phonetic sciences and in the Association, a development which has his full support.

Being a prosodist, he would like to encourage the adoption of a more prosodic perspective in the study of spoken languages especially at a time when there is an increasing interest in the study of spontaneous speech. He stressed the importance of studying not only regular prosodic features such as stress, tone and intonation, but of placing particular emphasis on the influence prosodic features exert on speech sounds.

He emphasised the need for (a) conducting basic research in linguistics and phonetics, (b) developing theoretical and experimental paradigms, and (c) investigating important phonetic features of spoken language, for instance precise phonetic characteristics of native vs. non-native accent. Research findings in the above areas would promote the phonetic sciences and their practical applications.

The new President stated his firm belief in teamwork and his determination to cooperate with members and the Executive officers. He concluded by expressing his intention to be sensitive to the developing needs of the Association and by inviting members to give him feedback about those as they arise.

10 Other business

A question was asked about the re-introduction of the vowel sound represented by the ‘small capital A’ symbol. It was pointed out that there had been discussions about this sound in the Kiel Convention and that it was finally not approved for inclusion in the vowel chart. The President suggested that a recommendation be drawn up and the issue could be brought to the attention of the Council for further discussion.

11 Closing

The President closed the meeting with an invitation for the Association to re-convene during the next International Congress of Phonetic Sciences in 2011, at a meeting to be chaired by the new President, Prof. Gösta Bruce, to whom he offered his best wishes.

The meeting closed at 12.30 p.m.

Katerina Nicolaidis

Secretary

Overview of the editorial process

Submissions are processed as e-mail attachments in PDF format. This is by far the easiest method of accepting papers and disseminating them to reviewers. Some reviewers request, receive, and return paper copy, which is then forwarded to authors at the same time that PDFs or email text are forwarded to the authors. Some reviewers prefer to remit their review in PDF documents, especially when phonetic symbols are involved, and some annotate the original PDF submissions, but in many cases, reviews can be provided quite efficiently in the body of a message. Illustrations of the IPA must be accompanied at the time of submission by audio recordings of all words and narrative material cited in the text. Authors often provide preprocessed .wav files in zipped attachments at the same time as they submit PDF text. When the audio files are too large, authors are asked to place them on a website for downloading or to send them by post on a CD. All audio material is processed in the editorial office for posting on a web site for downloading by the reviewers of the Illustration. If audio material is provided in analog form or sent in as a single long .wav file, it is broken up into individual word and text files by an editorial assistant. Ultimately, the supplementary audio materials will receive filenames that are grouped together by section heading and numbered linearly in text order as well as being glossed with the English translation given in the text so that readers can easily locate each recorded item in its appropriate folder.

Reviewers who are the most appropriate people in the field are selected by the editor; they are not necessarily members of the IPA. Often, one reviewer will be a specialist in the language area, and at least one other reviewer will be a specialist in the experimental approach. Members of the Editorial Board often act as reviewers, but not exclusively. Usually there are two reviewers; in many cases there are three; and in some cases there are four. Occasionally, a manuscript will be referred to the Editorial Board for supplementary adjudication. We do not conceal authors’ names from reviewers, as we believe that a submission should be judged with reference to its background. Reviewers can make more helpful comments if they know the author they are trying to help. We assume that reviewers will remain anonymous, but if they wish to sign their reviews we will communicate this to the authors. Papers are usually considerably improved by the collaborative interaction between reviewers and authors. The normal object of a review is to help improve a paper within its own framework with the best advice available. When a revised manuscript is received from an author after rewriting, it is forwarded to the original reviewers for their further evaluation, comments and suggestions.

Once a paper is deemed acceptable by the reviewers, the editor reviews the final revision of the paper and makes extensive added comment primarily on format and structure but also on content. After that, the final revised manuscript, formatted according to the Journal's Instructions for Contributors, is forwarded through the editor to the copy-editor as electronic files, with the hard copy being sent directly to her by the author. From that point, the copy-editor deals directly with authors on the technical aspects of copy preparation, verifying fonts and figures in the files, and noting particular items to the typesetters, and then working with authors on first proofs and mediating corrections to the typesetters through second proofs.

The time it takes for papers to be reviewed and to be returned by authors varies greatly, and the number of revisions required also varies considerably. Generally, however, manuscripts submitted in 2004 were published in 2005 or 2006, manuscripts submitted in 2005 have been published in 2006 or 2007, and manuscripts submitted in 2006 are being published in 2007, although some pieces have taken and will take longer. Statements of acceptance/rejection rates cannot be given exactly because of the variation in each paper's individual history. A large number of papers that are accepted subject to revision seem to fade away, the required revisions becoming too difficult. Probably about 40–50 per cent of article submissions are accepted (with a better acceptance rate for Illustrations but a longer turn-around time for their revision), but this number is going down as JIPA in its new form becomes more well-known. A number of books are regularly sent out for review, but about half of those never get reviewed. We need to find a way to ensure that book reviewers either write the piece they promised or return the book or forward it to a person who will write the review.

Production issues

As a brief commentary on the editorial report of 2003, it is now possible to say that:

• • Hard copy and matching electronic files are now used at the onset of copy-editing, and issues of formatting are taken up by the copy-editor with individual authors.

• • The copy-editor prepares the electronic files for typesetting, ensuring font compatibility and specifying how the detailed phonetic representations peculiar to a phonetics journal are to be typeset. The copy-editor deals with authors at first proofs and with the editor at second proofs to clear up errors of formatting. Many of these errors still involve phonetic symbol shapes/sizes.

• • There are still the expected discrepancies at first proofs between intended phonetic symbolization, chart, table and figure formatting and typeset copy. The copy-editor is well aware of the process and has mechanisms to correct the situation. Most errors are corrected by second proofs.

• • The production editor at the Press deals with front/back matter and covers. Proofs of these pages are sent to the editor for proofreading. Changes are queried well in advance (for example, JIPA 37 (3) contains a new list of IPA Council members and new information about subscriptions/IPA membership for 2008; JIPA 38 (1) will contain a list of the new Editorial Board and new editors). The production editor is also in close contact with the copy-editor to match the table of contents with prepared copy.

• • Illustrations are submitted in various formats with varying styles of charts and font usage. All of these are now easily handled by the copy-editor who either reformats and/or reworks the artwork or requests different formats, if necessary. In fact then, CUP have undertaken the responsibility to accept a considerable variation in style of input and to move graphic material through the composition process with less difficulty than before.

We now have a professional journal that can hold its own with its nearest competitors, Journal of Phonetics and Phonetica. These two journals differ from JIPA in that they are owned by their publishers, not by their readers, as JIPA is. Each of them has only about 100 individual subscribers, whereas JIPA goes out to about 600 members of the IPA. Cambridge is managing to produce JIPA at a reasonable cost to members (who pay nothing other than their annual dues) and institutions (for whom the subscription in 2008 will be £134 or US$215 per year in both print and online form) or individual CUP subscribers (at £45 or $75 in print form). These prices enabled CUP to return £11,897 to the Association in 2006. The rates compare favourably with the other two journals. Journal of Phonetics in the US is now $144 for a personal subscription and $542 for an institutional subscription. Phonetica in the US has a base price for individuals of $207.75 and costs $831 for an institutional online subscription, $870.20 for an institutional print subscription, and $953.20 for an institutional print/online subscription. Journal of Phonetics has far more pages than JIPA, 530 pages in 2006, and Phonetica had 276 pages in 2006. As of 2007, JIPA will have 384 pages per year. In the case of the IPA, it is important to remember that the cheapest way to receive the Journal in paper form is to join the Association for 45 euros (equivalent to £30). In all probability, there are other good reasons why people eventually choose to join the IPA.

Finally, we are continually reminded of our debt to the reviewers and Editorial Board members (who produced some 236 evaluations for JIPA over the past four years; some colleagues contributing more than one review) for their conscientious and prompt responses, especially when they are under editors’ pressure and their reviews are needed urgently. Careful and thoughtful reviews have been provided consistently, whether a submission has needed only minor revision or when substantial changes have been necessary, and even if a paper cannot be accepted. In the latter cases, the task is even more arduous, and the reviewers deserve our praise and thanks for their exceptional service.

From volume 38 (2008), JIPA will be edited by John Esling and Adrian Simpson, with Linda Shockey as Reviews Editor.

John Esling

Linda Shockey

Editors of JIPA

The International Phonetic Association: Company Information

Treasurer: Professor M. MacMahon

Assistant Treasurer: Mrs Pauline Maridor

Address: Department of English Language, 12 University Gardens, Glasgow G12 8QH, Scotland, UK

Accountants: The Kelvin Partnership, Registered Auditors, Chartered Accountants, The Cooper Building, 505 Great Western Road, Glasgow G12 8HN, Scotland, UK

Respective responsibilities of Treasurer and Assistant Treasurer

The Treasurer and Assistant Treasurer are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. It is our responsibility to carry out procedures designed to enable us to report our opinion.

Our responsibility is to audit the financial statements in accordance with the relevant legal and regulatory requirements and International Standards on Auditing (UK and Ireland).

We report to you our opinion as to whether the financial statements give a true and fair view and are properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice.

In addition, we report to you if, in our opinion, the Association has not kept proper accounting records, and if we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit.

Basis of audit opinion

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK and Ireland) issued by the Auditing Practices Board. An audit includes examination, on a test basis, of evidence relevant to the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. It also includes an assessment of the significant estimates and judgements made by the management committee in the preparation of the financial statements.

We planned and performed our audit so as to obtain all of the information and explanations which we considered necessary in order to provide us with sufficient evidence to give reasonable assurance that the financial statements are free from material misstatement, whether caused by fraud or other irregularity or error. In forming our opinion we also evaluated the overall adequacy of the presentation and information in the financial statements.

Opinion

In our opinion:

– the financial statements give a true and fair view, in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice of the state of the Association's affairs as at 31 July 2007 and of its surplus for the period then ended.

The Kelvin Partnership

Chartered Accountants

Registered Auditors

The Cooper Building

505 Great Western Road

Glasgow G12 8HN Dated: 18 September 2007