THE TITLE "PROPOSAL FOR SYSTEMS SCIENCE" REFERS TO TWO DIFFERENT VERSIONS, FIRST THIS, THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT VERSION, WHICH WARFIELD REALLY WANTED TO BE PUBLISHED, BUT IT WAS NEVER PUBLISHED - and SECOND, A REVISED and PUBLISHED VERSION WHICH WARFIELD DISLIKED INTENSELY. See also, in database, these two other titles: 1) Forecast for Systems Science 2) A Proposal for Systems Science (published version)

A Proposal for Systems Science is actually the same paper that was FIRST submitted to Systems Research Journal on 14 May 2002 under the title Forecast for Systems Science. It has been modified in this 22 Feb. 2003 PDF file only by the addition of 2 footnotes, and 5 extra entries in the reference section. Nothing else was changed. Wiley Interscience rejected this version because it did not conform to the Wiley editorial style for references in Wiley journals. Warfield did not comply with their request to delete the categorization of the reference section. Things were at an impasse until Systems Research Associate Editor revised the reference section to meet demands of Wiley Interscience after which Wiley published it in the Journal Systems Research & Behav Sci.

WHAT WILEY PUBLISHED: When Warfield wrote this article he gave it the title "Forecast for Systems Science" and submitted it to Systems Research editors 14 May 2002. Editors and reviewers didn't like his title, asked that he change to "A Proposal for Systems Science". Also they asked that Warfield combine all references into a SINGLE ALPHABETIZED list, to conform with the style of other Wiley journals. Warfield was reluctant to alphabetize the references. He had constructed a subdivided, topical Reference Section as an essential part of his manuscript. However Wiley Publishers had literary style rules which they refused to bend. Finally Amanda Gregory, that sweet, good-natured Associate Editor at Systems Research journal, took over the Warfield manuscript herself. She put it into a word processor in her own office, and remodeled Warfield's reference section to suit Wiley. And after that the remodeled paper was published by Wiley Interscience in Systems Research & Behavioral Science Journal, 2003.

WHAT WILEY WOULD NOT PRINT: While grateful to Amanda for helping to get his work into publication, Warfield was dismayed with the published version because the changes in format of the references altered the meaning of the entire article!

ON HIS OFFICE COMPUTER: Warfield keeps his original article in a PDF file with his original CATEGORIZED reference section and a new title page which says "Proposal for Systems Science, by John N. Warfield copyright 2002," and this is the version which he sends to students and colleagues who want a copy. Warfield's PDF file for Proposal for Systems Science (last modified 22 Feb 2003) is the same manuscript originally titled Forecast for Systems Science (dated May 2002) There is no difference at all in the body of the two manuscripts. His 22 Feb 2003 manuscript has two extra footnotes that were not there in the May 2002 manuscript, one footnote about Willard Gibbs and another about Frank Harary. In the unpublished PDF document Warfield's CATEGORIZED reference section is exactly the same as in his Forecast for Systems Science submitted May 2002, except that Warfield added 5 more references (to publications by Checkland, Gasparski, Lewin, von Mises and Warfield).

SUMMARY OF THE original manuscript WRITTEN May 2002, revised Feb 2003: In this article author develops a set of topical headings, reducing system science to only FOUR categories - 1) Description of complex situations, 2) Design of solutions or improvements for complex situations, 3) The nature of Complexity, so that practitioners of his work can better understand what they are doing, 4) Methods for taking Action to apply solutions or improvements for complex situations. The article concludes with a topically subdivided Reference Section, giving titles of about a hundred papers and books in these twelve subject areas: References for the Basic Triad of Science; References for the Human Component of the Basic Triad of Science; References for the Language Component of the Basic Triad of Science; References for the Thought Component of the Basic Triad of Science; References for the Science of Modeling; References for the Modeling Quality-control Triad; References for the Science of Generic Design; References for the Science of Complexity; References for the Science of Action; References for Systems Science; References for Scientism; References for Education. ---end---