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Once again, I have the honor to write to you through these pages as the incoming Editor of the American Journal of Physiology: Cell Physiology. As some of you may know, the Publications Committee of the American Physiological Society voted in the spring of this year to reappoint me for a second term as Editor, which I consider to be a very welcome endorsement of the performance of my editorial team since we took over the helm of the Journal in 1996. I am certainly excited to have the opportunity to steer the Journal into the next millennium. I am equally happy that all of my Associate Editors (Tim Bigby and Paul Insel from the University of California, San Diego; Dennis Brown and Art Mercurio from Harvard; Kathy Morgan from the Boston Biomedical Research Institute; and Kevin Foskett from the University of Pennsylvania) have agreed to continue in their current roles. This is especially important given the outstanding performance that they have been able to maintain with respect to timeliness in the editorial process. The time to first decision in all offices remains at an average of ~31 days. While there are, of course, always individual cases when this time exceeds that which we would like, I think that our current record speaks to the continuing diligence of my skilled team of Associate Editors and the assistants in their various offices.
We are planning for our next term in a number of ways. First, we would greatly like to encourage the submission of additional papers in the area of membrane transport, and particularly with respect to the application of molecular biological techniques to this important topic. To this end, the Publications Committee has approved the appointment of an additional Associate Editor. I am happy to report that Kevin Strange of Vanderbilt University has agreed to assume an Associate Editorship, effective November 1, 1999. Kevin brings outstanding expertise in the application of molecular tools to the understanding of processes by which electrolytes are translocated across membrane barriers, with particular interest in the mechanisms by which cells respond to an acute change in their volume. He also brings a welcome increment of geographic diversity to the editorial team. I am certain he will perform in his new role in an exemplary fashion, comparable to the other Associate Editors. Second, we have undertaken a major review of the membership of the Editorial Board, and the new board represents a turnover of ~30%. We have been fortunate to have had some outstanding scientific expertise on our board in previous years, and the turnover is in no way a comment on any lack of caliber among the scientists who are rotating off (with our sincere thanks for their many years of loyal service). However, we would also like to extend the opportunity to participate more fully in the activities of the Journal to the most diverse group of scientists possible who bring relevant expertise to the task. We have considered geography, specific areas of interest (including emerging interdisciplinary areas), and the desire to include some younger scientists who represent the future of the discipline and who may bring fresh insights to the process. We have also strived to recruit international board members, with the recognition that many of our submissions and published papers come from laboratories outside of North America. The new Editorial Board has made a special commitment to service on behalf of the Journal. However, I would certainly encourage all of our readership to volunteer their time as reviewers and especially to suggest topics for Invited Reviews and Invited Commentaries that would be of broad interest and utility. Finally, the editorial team is actively planning a retreat in the fall of this year, where we will discuss new initiatives for the Journal that we hope will increase its utility and prestige. We will also make plans for a transition to a "paperless" submission process. I will return to this topic below.
My previous term as Editor saw a rapid acceleration in the application of electronic means of communication to the editorial and publishing process. Indeed, the current situation, in which almost all of us can access full-text, high-resolution copies of articles in AJP and many other journals without leaving our desks, could only have been glimpsed in the early years of this decade. While I fear that this move to on-line access may impact negatively upon the fitness level of scientists who no longer need to walk to the library to read the world's scientific literature, it also offers unprecedented opportunities for international communication and collaboration and the potential to advance the pace of discovery still further. These opportunities are not without challenges, however. The likely advent of on-line publications, in which findings will be posted almost as soon as they become available, threatens to call into question the very nature of peer review and original publication. The American Physiological Society has adopted a policy of "watchful waiting" with respect to these developments. While we applaud the rapid dissemination of new research findings, we also feel it will be a long time, if ever, before the peer-reviewed, previously unpublished (in any form) manuscript becomes anything other than the coin of the realm in scientific circles and with respect to academic advancement. The Publications Committee has adopted a position which is both pragmatic yet firm on the subject of on-line publication, considering that it may be appropriate to post preliminary findings on the World Wide Web but that complete communications would constitute prior publication and would therefore prohibit consideration as an original paper for the AJP. We will have to await further developments to refine this position, with particular interest in initiatives sponsored by the National Institutes of Health to organize an on-line forum for the dissemination of biomedical data.
On a more positive note, the availability of electronic communication has certainly enhanced the timeliness of the editorial process, both before and after acceptance of manuscripts. We now have an enviable record of timely publication, with manuscripts normally appearing within 3-4 mo of acceptance. This, we feel, represents an outstanding record, for which credit must be accorded to the production staff in Bethesda (and particularly the hard-working, but often unsung copy editors for AJP: Cell Physiology, Virginia Bourgeois and her staff), and is a record with a time to publication that may be as short as is practical given a monthly publication schedule and our commitment to high production standards in layout and content. Of course, however, we will always explore ways in which this can be enhanced still further. In addition, we are planning for the implementation of a Web-based, electronic manuscript submission process. This will enhance my ability to assign manuscripts to the Associate Editors in a timely fashion and will certainly shave many days off the editorial process that are now needed for mailing of hard copies of manuscripts between the Bethesda office, editors, and reviewers. The electronic submission process also offers the promise of securing reviewers with appropriate expertise more readily and not overburdening any single reviewer, since editors will have immediate access to the entire database of active AJP reviewers across all of the sections of the Journal. I am therefore excited about this new system, which we anticipate will be instituted in the year 2000 (by the way, even our current systems are Y2K ready!). In the meantime, I certainly encourage the readership to avail themselves of electronic means to communicate with me or any of the Associate Editors; E-mail addresses are provided in all of our letterheads and are readily available in the FASEB directory or via the main editorial office in Bethesda. Authors would also be well advised to include their E-mail addresses in manuscripts to enhance scientific interchange. We are also more than willing to receive reviews in electronic formats.
In closing, I urge your participation so that we can make the Journal more responsive to your needs. Please do not hesitate to contact me or any of the Associate Editors with suggestions for Invited Reviews (or to volunteer your services as an author), with ideas about new initiatives for the Journal, or with any problems or concerns. The Journal can only be as good as the papers it receives, no matter what efforts we make to improve the quality of the publication and the timeliness with which papers appear. For that reason, I do also want to enlist your help in getting out the message that publication in AJP: Cell Physiology not only represents a successful negotiation of a rigorous editorial review, but also is a timely process with publication in only a few months after acceptance. Please call, write, or E-mail me with any suggestions you may have to get this message across to our diverse readership or to relay any comments on our performance.
Kim E. Barrett, Editor American Journal of Physiology: Cell Physiology University of California San Diego Medical Center, 200 West Arbor Drive, San Diego, CA 92103-8414 Tel: 619/543-7201 (E-mail: kbarrett{at}ucsd.edu) August 1999, Volume 277 (46) |
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