Chris,

For a long time I have watched and enjoyed the discussions which take place on this forum. As a rule I seldom engage in the discussions however I feel compelled to respond to your recent comments to insure the participants of this forum have accurate and factual information regarding the current policy of the IAAI Fire & Arson Investigator Journal relating to the submission of articles for publication. Included in each issue of the Fire & Arson Investigator Journal is a column which outlines the procedures for submission of articles. Paragraph one states and I quote:

“Articles for the Fire & Arson Investigator magazine are accepted with the understanding that the paper must be reviewed and approved for publication by the Editorial Board. Submission of a paper for publication is understood that the content of the article is original and unpublished, and has not been submitted for publication elsewhere, if not, approval must be obtained for reprinting if accepted. All papers will be peer reviewed prior to acceptance.”

As you can see there is no language relating to copyrighted material. The Editorial Board policy reflects no limitations or prohibitions as to publishing copyrighted materials submitted by anyone. We do require that the proposed article be original and the product of the submitter, accordingly we also require written permission, as do most professional publications, to reprint any article which has previously been published.

I cannot speak of your past discussions with Ms. White the Editor of the F & A Journal, but I can respond to your allegations of refusal to print your articles over the past few years. As the Chair of the Editorial Review Board since May of 2006 all articles submitted for consideration are received by me and disseminated to the Board for review. After an initial review each submitted article is forwarded to no less than three individuals on the Board who have specific knowledge and training in the area of discussion. The Board reflects and utilizes a broad spectrum of experts both internal and external to the Board. We utilize fire investigators to review articles relating to fire investigation, engineers review any engineering article, attorneys reviewing all articles relating to court cases, decisions or rulings and others who review opinion pieces.

As I have not received any articles written by or submitted by you since my appointment, I openly extend an invitation to you to submit any articles you have that you believe would be beneficial to the IAAI membership and the fire investigation community.

Finally I must also address a few additional comments reflected on your March 12 posting. Relating to the NHTSA Auto Fires Listserv email tree, several years back I did make an regrettable comment in reference to you to which I publically apologized to you and the system manager. As to being removed from the NHTSA Listserv, that is incorrect. I was not removed from the service and currently enjoy the postings on this service. You also comment we have never met or had a personal conversation. I must remind you during my term as the IAAI President 2003/2004 we did meet at a west coast conference and I also called you later that year to discuss an issue you had with the IAAI Board of Directors. It is unfortunate you do not recall those occasions. I look forward to the future and assisting you whenever possible. Please feel free to contact me at any time.

David R. Sneed IAAI-CFI