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Photogrammetria 
  
The official journal of an international society should be an influential showpiece in 
its field. It should include authoritative articles of broad interest written by 
eminent practitioners of photogrammetry and remote sensing. It should inform the 
reader in a comprehensive manner of relevant new developments and literature on 
a worldwide basis. It should be the journal that every serious photogrammetrist 
and remote sensing scientist considers essential, regardless of the excellence of the 
journal of his own national society. 
Regrettably, Photogrammetria does not fully meet these criteria. Although the 
articles appearing in the journal are generally excellent, the appeal of this 
publication is extremely limited. Its circulation--less than 1,000--is minuscule. Its 
thin issues--the March 1982 issue had 34 pages of text—contain but a fraction of 
the information given in such journals as those of the British, French, German, and 
American national societies. Moreover, Photogrammetria does not sufficiently 
address the subject of remote sensing, a serious deficiency, considering that it is 
the organ of the International Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. 
  
  
Unfortunately, a journal cannot exercise much influence or command much 
prestige if the volume of its content is not significant and if its readership is small. 
Compounding this problem is the high subscription rate--about $56 annually. 
Comparing this to the well known national society journals, the prospective 
subscriber cannot help but observe that he would pay much more for much less if 
he subscribes to Photogrammetria. ISPRS pays for a subscription to 
Photogrammetria for each of the current 66 member organizations and the council 
members and commission presidents; most of the remaining subscribers are 
libraries, with a negligible number of individual subscribers. Further compounding 
this situation is the fact that prospective advertisers recognize the limited 
influence of the journal and withhold their advertising. If Photogrammetria were 
truly a worldwide publication with the massive influence it could have, it would be 
a first-rate medium for commercial advertising. Such advertising could permit a 
lowering of subscription rates with a resultant increase in circulation. 
  
  
One more problem—a problem common to all of the ISPRS publications--is the lack 
of a cumulative index for all the issues of Photogrammetria. This means that there 
is no convenient way of finding references to a given subject in back issues of the 
journal. As a result, a researcher may remain unaware of previously published 
work that could be of great value in pursuing the research at hand. 
  
Archives 
The Archives of ISPRS are published in a multi-volume collection of papers and 
reports. Prior to 1980, each author of a congress paper supplied his own printed or 
typed copies in quantities of about 2,000. The copies of the several hundred papers 
were then collated and bound into archives volumes. Beginning with the Hamburg 
Congress, a new procedure was put into effect: the papers are printed and bound 
by the congress committee. This also applies to commission symposia reported in 
even-numbered volumes of the archives, with printing done by the host society. In 
spite of instructions to authors to observe certain standards of format, the papers 
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