2013 Report by BSA Publications Committee:

Transcription

1 2013 Report by BSA Publications Committee: Qiu-Yun (Jenny) Xiang (2013), Chair William (Ned) Friedman (2013) Jeffrey Osborn (2014) Mitch Cruzan (2015) Michele Dudash (2015) Natalia Pabon Mora, Student Representative (2013) Rachel Germain Student Representative (2015) Carol Goodwillie, BSA Director at large - Publications, ex officio (2013) Sean Graham, BSA Director at large - Publications, ex officio (2016) Judy Jernstedt, Editor, AJB, ex officio Theresa Culley, Editor, APPS, ex officio Marshall Sundberg, Editor, PSB, ex officio Amy McPherson, AJB Managing Editor, ex officio Richard Hund, AJB Production Editor, ex officio Beth Parada, APPS Managing Editor, ex officio Responsibilities of the committee: This committee provides the link between the various publication activities of the society, the staff and the board through the Publications Board Member. The committee seeks to elevate the BSA to be one of the most influential publishers of scientific content in plant biology, examines the role of all BSA publications such as AJB, PSB, APPS, and the web pages and works with outside evaluators on assessment of the journals. In addition, the committee will coordinate with the editors and associate editors on issues regarding their publications and consider and advise on new activities and initiatives, present a resource assessment on the impact of any new activities for the society, address issues impacting the publications, such as online vs. print copies, subjects to be covered, and other matters arising from the publications. This committee will interact with the Information Technology Committee to be sure the BSA web presence is representing the society publications appropriately. Selection of the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal is the responsibility of the Board of Directors, with the Publication Board Member acting as the liaison for this activity. To fill a vacancy in this office, the President appoints a committee consisting of at least three members of The Society, including the chair of the Publications Committee. This committee solicits nominations for Editor-in-Chief, evaluates the candidates and makes recommendations to the Board of Directors, who then appoint the Editor. Over the past year, the committee has communicated via and discussed several important issues related to BSA publications. These are reported below in detail. The key action the committee was involved in the past year was searching for the replacement of AJB Editor-in- Chief and preparing for the AJB s Centennial Celebration in Ongoing Topics concerning BSA publications: AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY

2 1. The Journal Citation Report was issued last month, which showed that AJB essentially held steady from last year (Impact Factor of compared to 2.664). In overall rank, we hold position 47 once again, even with 6 more plant science journals added in this year. The 5-year IF is still strong at (down slightly from 3.159), and our Eigenfactor ticked up slightly (to from ). A positive note is that our overall citations have increased to 14,538 (up from 13,713). We anticipated a dip (due to a larger number of papers published, some of them not highly cited) and have taken two important steps to improve our IF: (1) We split off the Primer Notes & Protocols section into the new Applications in Plant Sciences (see later in this report); and (2) we published more special issues and sections this year (see following point). 2. AJB typically publishes one special issue, and several special articles, each year. This year, we have published: A Special Issue on Advances in Plant Tropisms (editors: John Kiss and Sarah Wyatt) AJB 100(1) A Special Section on Ecological Interactions and the Evolution of Plant Mating Systems (editors: Rupesh R. Kariyat, Jordan P. Sinclair, and Edward M. Golenberg) AJB 100(6) A Special Issue on Global Biological Change (editors: Stephen G. Weller, Katharine Suding, and Ann K. Sakai) AJB 100(7) A Special Section on Rhizosphere Interactions: The Root Microbiome (editors: Darlene Southworth and Marnie Rout) in press for AJB 100(9) In addition, we published a well-received special issue in February 2012 on Applications of next-generation sequencing in plant biology (editors: Ashley Egan, Jessica Schlueter, and David Spooner) AJB 99(2) We anticipate that these topics and articles will increase interest in and citations to the journal and thus contribute to a higher Impact Factor. 3. AJB s Centennial Celebration (2014) The AJB will kick off its Centennial Celebration here at BOTANY 2013 on Tuesday, July 30, from 5:00 to 6:00 pm, in the Port Room of the Riverside Hilton. This event offers advance notice of our full-year celebration next year. Judy has been contacting prominent authors to provide updates to AJB "citation classics" [why this paper was important, where are we now in a given topic area, and where are we going]. These articles will begin to appear in January 2014 as a way of focusing on the importance of the AJB in the previous 100 years while looking toward the beginning of its second century. A mini-web site is in development to highlight authors with the most published articles in AJB over the past 100 years. We re in discussions on the most effective way to create a centennial video.

3 We ll publicize the centennial and related news through the PSB and our social media feeds (currently at Facebook followers and Twitter followers). 4. Subscription numbers The renewal rate for AJB is around 96%, the best showing in 5 years. Overall, subscriptions are 75% online-only and 25% in print and online (for members and institutions). For institutional subscribers only, 46% are online-only and 54% are in print. [Subscriptions in print include online access.] Our print numbers continue to decrease, but we still have 892 print copies delivered, which is not yet a level that allows us to go electronic-only without affecting a large number of subscribers. We have been raising our print rates higher to encourage subscribers to switch to online-only. We continue our consortial arrangement with Charlesworth to maintain subscriptions in China; in late 2012, we engaged tbi consultants to help with renewals and new prospects in Europe; we re in contract negotiations with Globe for subscriptions sales in India; and we re working with Publishers Communication Group (PCG) to pursue new subscription opportunities in Latin America (specifically Mexico and Brazil). 5. With Judy s tenure as Editor-in-Chief ending in December 2014, a search committee for her replacement was formed and candidates were interviewed by phone. An offer was extended, and it is hoped the Executive Committee will make a formal announcement at the Botany 2013 meeting. APPLICATIONS IN PLANT SCIENCES (APPS) 1. The first issue of Applications in Plant Sciences published January 2, 2013, as part of BioOne s Open Access collection ( The editorial board is: Theresa Culley (Editor-in-Chief), Richard Cronn, Mitch Cruzan, Kent Holsinger, Jeff Maughan, Mike Moore, Pam Soltis, and Lisa Wallace. There are 19 reviewing editors, each serving a 2- year term (9 on the board; 10 on the board). 2. Submission data: Submissions declined in late 2012 and early 2013 after the July 2012 announcement that the Primer Notes section was launching as a separate journal. However, we ve seen recent encouraging signs that these are picking up. Twenty non-primer Note submissions have been received since the announcement of the new journal launch. 3. Call for papers/invited authors: a. APPS sent out a Call for Papers to our BSA member list (with a waived OA offer for non-primer Note submissions) in February This received a positive response, with 8 manuscripts submitted and an additional paper promised. Note that regular publication charges for APPS are $ for BSA members and $ for non-members. b. Based on a review of competing journals by our reviewing editor board, we have compiled a list of authors to invite to submit their research to APPS. We will begin sending invitations in August.

4 4. ISI indexing: We initiated conversations early with Thomson Reuters regarding selection for ISI/Web of Science indexing. Based on our discussions with other journals: a. We should not expect to receive any news from them until close to the end of b. Society-owned publications have an advantage for indexing selection. c. Timely publication of issues is an important factor for selection. Once APPS is selected for indexing, the first impact factor for the journal will be available in June 2015 (evaluating 2013 and 2014 publications). The immediacy index would be available in the 2013 JCR (available in June 2014). 5. PubMed application: This will be an important undertaking for the second half of The editorial office will be working together with the editorial board to prepare the application materials. 6. Developing subject categories and subject editors: Due to the increased number of non-primer Note submissions, we are planning to institute subject categories and editors. We will be developing subject categories and inviting new editors beginning late summer/fall PLANT SCIENCE BULLETIN The PSB is now published, in addition to the standard hard copy and PDF versions, in a flip-book format at This is more conducive for e-readers and for the way PSB is used (i.e., readers actually prefer to flip through the PSB for articles and read it casually). As the AJB celebrates its 100th anniversary, the PSB will be approaching its 60 th anniversary. We may consider articles that tie in the where have we been/where are we going? angle as we are for the AJB Centennial. For example, the very first issue of the PSB discussed issues in botany education that may be relevant even in Miscellaneous topics of discussion CHORUS: a publisher-directed option for public access to articles DORA: an effort to support alternatives to the journal Impact Factor, A discussion session moderated by Chris Martine and Amy McPherson, Open access, reputation metrics, and the future of academic publishing: Perspectives from the author side and the publisher side, will be held Tuesday, July 30, at 10 a.m. in the Cambridge Room of the Riverside Hilton. If you ve heard of altmetrics (or haven t), DORA, CHORUS, Mendeley/Academia.edu/ResearchGate, etc. this will be an opportunity to discuss. Page charge policies modified: free to publish in AJB for members (regardless of length of membership), - 2GeneralRequirements,

5 reduced fees for APPS, - 4OAfees Institutional repository policy final ms. (pre-copyediting and typesetting) may be posted, with links to the final, published article New policies for data deposition requirements; AJB, APPS, - 9DataAccess ORCID integration in 2013, Exploration of options ---Enhanced PDFs; see Anything particularly worth pursuing in future, when technology allows? ---Toll-free linking: Toll-free linking: corresponding authors receive a URL key that lets them access their own paper, and share it with others as an electronic reprint. Cost to install: $3,600, with ongoing $50/month. Some journals provide this as an alternative to allowing pdfs of final articles to be posted elsewhere. ---Figures/tables as PPT downloads: Allows readers to automatically generate a preformatted PowerPoint slide from figures and tables within the full-text of journal articles. Cost to install: $1,800, with ongoing charge of 4% of information delivery. (If applied to back content, additional one-time fee of $500.) Other journals provide for this, and we ve had inquiry. Respectfully submitted by Jenny Xiang, Amy McPherson, Richard Hund, and Beth Parada 20 July 2013