This quadrennium's IUGG reports serve an expanded purpose. Past
reports principally recorded the progress of four years of research in
discipline areas, and did so comprehensively. They chronicled advances,
demises, and emergent new directions. They systematically arranged and
related the content of research findings, which are otherwise spread
at random over hundreds of journal articles. They provided
encyclopedic coverage of current research, which benefitted the
seasoned professional hunting
a reference, the new profession
[4]
al expanding her familiarity with the field,
the professional wanting a quick update on work in a neighboring field, and
the historian mapping the content and context of research viewed from the
working level. They told what happened, when it happened, who did it,
and how it relates to other happenings. They were written from the
working level scientist to the working level scientist. And they succeeded
superbly.
The reports for this quadrennium aim at a more diverse audience. Besides the professional scientist working in a field covered by the reports or in a neighboring field, or the historian using the reports as a data base, the reports are meant to interest scientists working in non-neighboring fields and non-scientists seeking information on the purposes and goals of geophysical research. In their institutionally mandated summarizing roles, the IUGG reports are meant to be part of the effort to inform the general scientific community and the scientifically involved public about the achievements of geophysical research and about its value to society. Space Physics and Aeronomy (SPA) reports are meant to be both interesting to and readable by, say, an oceanographer or an astrophysicist. Beyond this, they could help congressional staffers understand why taxpayer money should go to support SPA research.
To achieve the conditions of being more broadly interesting and more accessible, the reports were written under new guidelines. They are shorter and more focused than previously. Compared to the last quadrennium, there are about 50% more SPA reports with correspondingly fewer pages. They are topical rather than comprehensive. Topics, which were selected in part on the basis of inputs from the secretaries of the SPA subsections, identify areas of research that seem ripe for highlighting. To keep each report topical, authors were asked to use no more than 50 references. To build aspects of general interest into the reports, authors were asked to develop, where appropriate, the themes of relevance and applications, to answer the `So what' question, to tell why it happened as well as what, when, who, and how.