About this issue

AFTER last issue´s “orgy” of mathematical, systems, and operations research-type papers, we had hoped that the current issue would restore the balance between such approaches and the behavioral or management-type articles. Several of the papers are, in fact, in the latter category. Authors of two of the six papers are in industry. However, there is still strong emphasis on more analytical attempts to understand and improve the Research, Development, and Engineering (RD&E) process. From the viewpoints of a highly technical professional society (IEEE) and the people attempting to improve the RD&E process from inside and from outside, this is not a bad situation. Although hunches, insights, and stimulation may result from general discussion papers on problems of managing RD&E, significant improvement in the art will require a much stronger analytical base than now exists.