Winfield Swanson, author of the new AESE editorial guide, gave a progress report on the project and discussed the content of the guide. The idea for a guide for earth-science editors was inspired by a guide produced by the Council for Biology Editors. In the CBE guide, each subject is divided into a chapter. If the AESE guide follows this format, possible chapters could include "rocks and minerals," "soils," "fossils," "mapping," "numbers and statistics," "chemistry," "aquifers," "mining and drilling," "electronic publishing and digital mapping," etc. The content of the guide is being discussed and the information to be included is still being defined. The goal is to have the guide finished by 1999.
A comment made by Alison Weatherston of the Ontario Geological Survey concerned the differences in Canadian vs. American style and how this might be handled in the AESE guide. Swanson said that more than one "right way" could be listed in some cases.
Swanson welcomes all suggestions and can be contacted at 3420 16th Street NW, #303, Washington, D.C. 20010; e-mail: winfield@access.digex.net.