J. Dairy Sci. 88:1614-1616
© American Dairy Science Association, 2005.
Journal of Dairy Science 2004 Editorial Report
S. C. Nickerson, Editor-in-Chief
Department of Animal and Dairy Science, University of Georgia, Athens 30606
Greetings from the University of Georgia in Athens! I am once again pleased to report that the Journal of Dairy Science (JDS) continues to serve as a leading medium for professional dairy scientists, and ranks second in the category of agricultural, dairy, and animal science journals, with an impact factor of 2.14 according to the most recent (September 13, 2004) Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) ratings. We are outranked only by Domestic Animal Endocrinology. The ISI has approximately 200 disciplines and categories, and ranks more than 7500 various peer-reviewed scientific journals. Thus, we still rank among the top 1% of all science and technology journals. This is certainly a great tribute to our editors, reviewers, authors, Journal Management Committee (JMC), and especially to our production staff and Interim Managing Editor, Amy Kemp, for the superlative job they have done to maintain the scientific quality and timeliness of our Journal.
We also want to thank Jean Rice, who served as Managing Editor from December 1998 through July 2004, for her dedicated service to JDS and our Association. She is now Managing Editor of the journal published by CHEST, the American College of Chest Physicians, and we wish her the best of luck in her new position in Chicago. Jean was relentless, and always on the lookout for novel technologies to keep JDS in the forefront of all scientific and technology journals. Jean saw us through Manuscript Central, which streamlined the manuscript submission and tracking process, and she was instrumental in moving us to HighWire Press, which now hosts the online version of JDS. In addition, Jean convinced us to become a signatory to the "DC Principles," which advocates a balance of numerous models of mixed sources of revenue and mixed models of free access for covering the costs of publishing scientific literature. Again at Jean’s urging, JDS joined 16 other scientific societies to form the Nonprofit Journals Group to encourage libraries to include and retain subscriptions to our Journals, including JDS, which constitutes an important source of revenue to ADSA and ensures that our research is provided to the widest possible audience.
Likewise, the JDS editors, JMC, and ADSA Board members continue to consider additional features to add to the Journal to make it more useful for our readers, and a more attractive medium in which our contributors can publish their best research results. For example, during 2004, the gap filling process was completed to ensure that all papers published from 1995 to present could be accessed through HighWire. Thanks to ADSA Executive Director Brenda Carlson, JDS is now negotiating a contract with HighWire to proceed with the retroconversion process, which will make available all published manuscripts from the inception of our Journal to present; this contract should be signed sometime in the current calendar year. Most importantly, the JDS production staff has toiled tirelessly this past year to eliminate all backlogged manuscripts. As a result, the average time from manuscript acceptance to publication (referred to as time in production) during the last quarter of 2004 was down to 99 days! So, they are really making progress and we really appreciate their hard work.
For 2004, JDS published 484 manuscripts and 4562 numbered pages, of which 3929 pages were research papers (Tables 1
, 2, 3, and 4). At this rate, JDS continues to be the major source of revenue for ADSA, providing well over 50% of our Association’s gross income. This is the second consecutive year that JDS has published more than 4000 pages! These totals include 6 Invited Reviews, 13 Symposia, and 35 Our Industry Today papers. Of the published papers, 109 were in the Dairy Foods section, 154 in Physiology and Management, 139 in Nutrition, Feeding, and Calves, and 82 in the Genetics and Breeding section. A total of 777 manuscripts was received in 2004, which was up 106 from 2003, and 463 of these papers were accepted. Collectively, these numbers reflect the healthy status of JDS with a continued high submission rate. The Journal is increasingly becoming international, and for 2004, the total number of submissions from outside of North America was over 50% of the total received.
The average time from receipt of manuscripts to publication was 267 days, and an average of 132 days was used in the review and revision process (Table 1
). It is noteworthy that the average production time for the year was 135 days, which was down from last year (151 days), but as emphasized above, this figure is down to 99 days for the last quarter of 2004.
Special gratitude is expressed to retiring Senior Editors Z. Ustunol (Dairy Foods), G. Rogers (Genetics and Breeding), and D. J. Schingoethe (Nutrition, Feeding, and Calves). Gary Rogers has agreed to stay on as a Section Editor of Genetics and Breeding through 2005 while training for his future position as Editor-in-Chief, effective January 2006. Similarly, Zey Ustunol and Dave Schingoethe have agreed to serve another term as Section Editors of their respective sections. Pete Hansen will serve one more year as Symposium Editor. Finally, we welcome newly appointed or reappointed Senior Editors M. Mangino (Dairy Foods), L. M. Sordillo (Physiology and Management), R. A. Kohn (Nutrition, Feeding, and Calves), and M. M. Schutz (Genetics and Breeding).
Appreciation is expressed to Journal Management Committee members P. J. Hansen (2004 Chair), R. C. Grummer, M. B. Hall, R. Jimenez-Flores, G. E. Shook, H. E. Swaisgood, and Board Representative E. Jordan for their skilled leadership last year. Best wishes to H. E. Swaisgood and M. B. Hall, who rotated off at the end of 2004, and we welcome new JMC members J. K. Bernard (Production Division) and J. A. Lucey (Dairy Foods Division), as well as our new JMC Chair, Rafael Jimenez-Flores, who replaces Pete Hansen (2004). We also extend our thanks to members of the JDS Editorial Board as well as to all of our ad hoc reviewers for their continued dedicated service in evaluation of manuscripts. This function is essential for timely publication of a quality journal, and we do appreciate their efforts.
The year 2004 has been another rewarding one for me as Editor-in-Chief. I applaud all of our volunteers serving as reviewers, editors, officers, and advisors who are able to find time in their busy schedules to accommodate requests from JDS, which remains a premier science and technology journal. Similarly, I thank the production crew at our headquarters office for assembling a top-notch periodical under conditions of a constrained budget and work force; we appreciate all that you do!
