Editorial


 

 Pythagoras, 68, 2 (December 2008) 2 

EDITORIAL 
 

Pythagoras is going places …  
 

Alwyn Olivier 

Stellenbosch University 
pythagoras@amesa.org.za 

 
You will be very much aware that this issue of 
Pythagoras is very late. 
 
I very much apologise! 
 
I will be franc and admit that I underestimated the 
task! I was overwhelmed and underprepared for 
the task! 
 
I underestimated the amount of time that needs to 
be invested to just manage the day-to-day editor’s 
task – acknowledging receipt of submissions, 
finding suitable reviewers, distributing the papers 
to reviewers, following up reviewers, chewing on 
different evaluations, giving feedback to authors. I 
found that I needed good organisational skills to 
manage – store files and e-mails and find them 
again! Truth is that my little system basically 
crashed and my communication with eager authors 
and reluctant reviewers faltered. 
 
I underestimated the specialised knowledge needed 
for the task – I still had to learn how to edit a 
journal. It takes time to establish procedures and 
policies, e.g. about the so-called journal house 
style. So I had to learn much on my own, mostly 
by learning from others. Suddenly I was reading 
the APA manual and downloaded the Gaurdian 
Style Book!  
 
It has been suggested that editing Pythagoras is not 
for an amateur working in his “free time”, but that 
AMESA should hand over Pythagoras to some 
publishing house so that it can be done 
professionally. However, it is clear that it will 
escalate costs and it will probably then not be 
possible to continue offering Pythagoras as a 
“free” benefit to members. Therefore it is not the 
route to go. 
 
However, it will be necessary for AMESA to 
invest more in Pythagoras to develop an infra-
structure and involve more people. 

The AMESA Council has accepted my proposal to 
appoint three associate editors. They are Michael 
de Villiers (UKZN), Anthony Essien (Wits) and 
Dirk Wessels (Stellenbosch). I am sure that this 
larger team must be more effective. We will start 
by re-building a database of reviewers and 
streamlining our procedures and policies … 
 
Council has voted that we establish a little office 
for Pythagoras in my building, with a little infra-
structure and administrative support. I also have 
the support of the Dean of Education for the 
Pythagoras office. This should help in being more 
efficient! 
 
Council has made the principled decision to go the 
open access route, where Pythagoras will be freely 
available to everyone. Pythagoras is already 
available online to members and buyers through 
Sabinet. We will now also join African Journals 
Online. We are starting a new website where 
Pythagoras will be freely available. To do this, we 
will be using an open source journal management 
program that will streamline the process. Nearly 
everything should happen “automatically”: authors 
will submit their papers online, the program will 
acknowledge receipt, then suggest reviewers, send 
the paper with a covering letter to reviewers, 
reviewing will likewise be online, etc. 
 
There are also national initiatives to improve the 
quality of South African journals, e.g. the 
Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) has 
established a Committee on Scholarly Publishing 
in SA and they have an annual National Scholarly 
Editors’ Forum. I have therefore become a member 
of an active community of editors, and I find that 
very supportive. 
 
All in all, I am very confident that we are building 
a structure where Pythagoras will go from strength 
to strength – improving its quality while 
simultaneously becoming more accessible to more 
authors and to its readers.