As an essential membership service, SAMA is pleased to announce news of an on-line, biannual professional publication named Coherence.
The inaugural issue is the most difficult to launch; the others become easier! Volume 1, No1 is scheduled to be available on-line to professional members in the late winter of 2011 or early spring of 2012. Members will receive a brief e-mail newsletter blast to let them know that the issue has been published, at which point each individual can visit the SAMA web site, sign on with their assigned number and password, and access the publication at their leisure.
Members are invited to read each issue on-line, or print and save a single hard copy of the entire issue for personal permanent archives, whichever best serves personal needs. However, all professional members are asked to respect copyright and intellectual property law by limiting their printing to one copy per member and by not saving or reproducing the publication file in digital file on their computers. There is a reason for this. In the future, as each new issue is posted, the old issue will be taken down and archived. The publisher will maintain a formal descriptive index of each issue, and make the index visible here on-line, in synopsis format, so that new future members may see the content of the past issues. We anticipate that new members as well as organizations and libraries will want to request copies of past issues for a modest fee, thus assisting SAMA to meet some of the various costs of running the organization.
The Coherence publishing intention is substantive! The title of the publication came through board imagination, deliberation, and vote. As a serial, Coherence will be indexed with the Library of Congress. As a professional service, Coherence looks forward to serving the SAMA membership and field in an intelligent, substantive, heartfelt, discerning, imaginative and courteous manner. As an organization, SAMA attempts to uses words thoughtfully, deliberately, as modeled in the mission statement, and as a result, has elected to honor the spirit of the word coherence, in as many ways as possible, including this publishing effort.
Each issue of Coherence will feature one or two major interviews with outstanding, nationally or internationally respected leaders who are deeply involved in intentional uses of sound and music, through practice, education, performance, publishing or research. Some of the dialogue may take place with allied colleagues who have shown an historical and insightful support of such work during the course of their prodigious careers. Other regular columns or sections will include public service announcements about conferences, events or educational programs, large or small, and news of clinical research projects as well as original articles related to case studies in development or in progress. News from SAMA committees, as useful, and news of books, films, scholarships, grants, tele-conferences, continuing education units, and employment situations will serve the field in a timely and informative way. The inaugural issue will include, among other things, a brief time-line history of the organization leading up to the launch of the SAMA web site and the launch of Coherence. Of course, the issue will include a financial report from the Treasurer and a letter from the Chair of the Board of Directors.
As soon as readers see the format, style, look, feel and length of the various sections in the first issue, it will be easy to recognize or imagine the best ways in which to be involved in the future issues. Some of you may want to advertise, and some might consider submitting material for consideration as articles, columns, and news briefs; some will simply approach us with suggestions and additional ideas. Please hold questions, queries and suggestions until Thanksgiving or December, when we will post the inaugural issue, at which point on-line updates will detail information on the upcoming themes and calendars for future issues. The updates will also address submission deadlines, advertising copy deadlines, manuscript formats, illustration and graph requisites, footnote and end note conventions, and general publishing policies related to copyright and reproduction rights. At Thanksgiving, (or December) we will post specific email addresses for the various kinds of queries, so that we can best maintain the level of service needed for a professional publication.
Thank you for your patience, excitement and support!