In 2006, 383 new manuscripts were received. These papers came from 44 countries; 119 papers (31%) came from the U.S.A.

Transcription

1 Radiation Research Editor s Report Submitted June 22, 2007 Submission Statistics for 2006 In 2006, 383 new manuscripts were received. These papers came from 44 countries; 119 papers (31%) came from the U.S.A. Argentina 1 Australia 5 Austria 3 Belgium 3 Brazil 6 Canada 7 China 30 Croatia 1 Czech Republic 2 Denmark 2 Egypt 2 Finland 1 France 26 Germany 26 Greece 1 Hungary 1 India 11 Iran 1 Iraq 1 Ireland 2 Israel 1 Italy 15 Japan 47 Lebanon 1 Malaysia 1 Mexico 1 Netherlands 5 New Zealand 1 Nigeria 1 Poland 2 Russia 3 Saudi Arabia 2 Serbia-Montenegro 1 South Africa 1 South Korea 7 Spain 3 Sweden 6 Switzerland 2 Taiwan 5 Thailand 1 Turkey 12 Ukraine 1 United Kingdom 13 United States 119 Comparisons with past years New papers received Percent from U.S Papers published Commentaries Technical Advances Issues and Updates 1 1 Letters to the Editor Book Reviews Editorials Memorial notes Extended abstracts/meeting reports Supplements Number of pages published In 2006, the journal published one supplement (Applications of Dosimetry in Radiation Epidemiology, July 2006), extended abstracts from the 7 th International Workshop: Microbeam Probes of Cellular Radiation Response (October 2006), and one meeting report on Low-Dose Radiation Risk Assessment (September 2006). The most recent data available on submissions and published papers are for the period January 1 June 18, 2007: During this time, 182 papers were submitted to the journal; a submission rate slightly higher than that in Six issues of the journal were published, containing 70 papers, 5 letters, 1 set of extended abstracts and 1 memorial note, comprising a total of 748 pages. 1

2 Over the past 4 years, the number of papers submitted to the journal has increased, while budgetary constraints make it necessary to hold the number of pages devoted to regular issues of the journal relatively constant. submissions and papers published Total pages published submitted published 1800 number Total pages Year year The result has been a decrease in the acceptance rate for newly submitted manuscripts from about 60% in 2000 to about 40% in All submissions to the journal, including review articles, commentaries, and editorials are submitted for peer review before publication; review criteria include the importance and novelty of the work, as well as the quality of the science and the rigor of the analyses and conclusions. Approximate Acceptance Rate Percent accepted year Overview of Journal Operations Manuscript Submission and Review The increase of ~30% in submissions during the last 5 years has increased the work of the journal staff, editorial board and manuscript reviewers. Despite this, the review process generally works well. The median time between submission of a manuscript and communication of the initial decision to the authors is now 42 days. This is good, but not good enough. Rapid review requires that all Associate Editors and all reviewers be committed to providing rapid, high-quality reviews. 2

3 Analysis of the slow reviews shows that the major problems with the review process are slow responses to requests to review, failure of potential reviewers to respond to requests to review, and the fact that some researchers will agree to review manuscripts but do not return reviews in the time requested, even when reminded. The Editors will take steps to try to address these problems. We ask for assistance from those who review from the journal. Please respond to requests to review rapidly. If you cannot review within the requested time, decline to review that particular paper. If you agree to review, return your return your review rapidly, within the time frame promised. While some authors have had problems with the submission of manuscripts through the website and some reviewers have had problems with the submission of their reviews, this has become less common as people have become more adept at handling web-based submission/review systems. We continue to work with Allen Press to attempt to improve the website and facilitate its use by authors and reviewers. Citation Data The citation data for the Journal continue to be strong. In 2005, the last year for which ISI web of science citation data are available, there were 6545 citations to articles in the journal. The "impact factor" for the journal was 3.1 (The impact factor is the average number of times an article published in 2003 or 2004 was cited by papers published in It is therefore a retrospective metric which looks back at the citation of articles published years previously by papers published 1-2 years ago). For the impact factors were: 3.2, 3.2, 2.8, 2.5 and 2.7. The current citation index places the journal 776 th among the 6088 journals included in the ISI reports, or among the top 13% of all journals surveyed. Because of the journal s broad subject matter, ISI includes the journal in three subject categories. This citation index places Radiation Research 10 th in the ISI ranking of Biology journals; 16 th in the ISI ranking of Radiology, Nuclear Medicine, and Medical Imaging journals; 20 th in the ISI ranking of Biophysics journals. The 2005 "immediacy index" which measures cites to articles published in 2005 by papers published in 2005, was The 2005 "citation half life" was 8.4 years, a strong value, showing that papers published in the journal hold their value very well over time. In 2005 the journals most frequently citing articles published in Radiation Research were Radiation Research, International Journal of Radiation Biology, Cancer Research, PNAS, IJROPB, J Biol Chem, Oncogene, Mutation Res Fund Mol M, Health Physics, Nature, Mutation Res, Science, Radiat Prot Dosim, Nucleic Acids Res, Blood, Radiat Environ Biophysics, Carcinogenesis, Brit J Cancer, and Cell. Electronic Access to Radiation Research BioOne continues to work to expand their customer base through national and international marketing programs, regional and national site licenses, and participation in consortia that make free and lowcost subscriptions available in low-income countries. A multi-year plan has also been developed to give participating journals and societies a larger share of the net BioOne revenue. In January 2006, print subscribers to the journal, both institutional subscribers and Radiation Research Society members who subscribe, received electronic access through the journal s 3

4 freestanding site, designed and maintained by Allen Press. The site includes all issues from 2000 to the present. As a result of our participation in BioOne, we were given the opportunity to contract with JSTOR to scan all the back issues of the journal that are not available through BioOne and make these issues available in JSTOR s Biological Sciences collection at no cost to the Society. The full collection of the back issues of Radiation Research, beginning with Volume 1 from 1954, became available to all JSTOR subscribers in November Because of the wide availability of the JSTOR collection, full electronic access to the back issues of the journal should be available through the libraries of most Radiation Research Members, as well as many public libraries. If your library does not provide an easy electronic link to Radiation Research through JSTOR, please speak with your librarian, as some libraries are slow to update their direct links to JSTOR journals. Pay-per-view access to electronic copies of individual articles in the BioOne database is available to non-subscribers through Infotrieve on a fee-for-service basis; this service is widely used by commercial firms that want limited access to articles. BioOne also manages our Copyright Clearance Center program. These services provide modest revenue for the journal. Board of Editors Seven outstanding Associate Editors left the Editorial Board at the end of 2006: Jim Freyer, Sue LaRue, Jay LaVerne, Jeff Schwartz, Roy Shore, Joan Turner and Eric Wright. Radiation researchers have benefited greatly from their service to the journal and the society. New members joined the Editorial Board in January 2007: Sally Amundson, Robert Bristow, David Close, Sydney Evans, Alice Sigurdson, Robert Stewart, Irena Szumiel, and Catharine West. We thank them for taking on this important task. Open Access The complex issues associated with Open Access have been discussed extensively by Editorial Board members, the finance committee, the journal committee and the governing council. Decisions on this matter have major implications for the visibility of the journal and the articles published in it and also for the finances of the society. They therefore require thoughtful consideration from the society leadership and society members, as well as from the board of editors. SIT Podcasts The SIT of the Radiation Research Society have undertaken an exciting new initiative with their podcasts featuring interviews with authors of papers in the journal and of award winners at the meetings of the Society. These podcasts can be found at We are delighted with this initiative and we thank the SIT who have worked so hard to bring this project to fruition and to produce these monthly podcasts. 4

5 Requests for Help from Members Radiation Research is the official journal of the Radiation Research Society. The journal is intended to publish research of interest to the members and research performed by the members. The Editorin-Chief and the members of the Editorial Board welcome and encourage more input from the members of the society. We urge the members of the society to submit high quality, high impact research papers to the journal. We also welcome the submission of papers describing new technical advances, review articles, commentaries on controversial topics or presenting novel hypotheses, and papers addressing issues of interest to members. The Editor-in-chief would be glad to discuss potential submissions in these areas in advance of their submission. The journal also needs your help in reviewing manuscripts, in identifying potential new reviewers for manuscripts, and in suggesting future members of the editorial board and potential new initiatives for the journal. 5