Journal of Dairy Science® 2015 Editorial Report (2016)

We had an excellent 2015—we published a record number of pages in our 98th volume while reducing our time from submission to publication. The goal for 2016 is to continue our long history as the leading source of scientific publications in dairy science. As editor-in-chief (EIC), I am honored to be part of the large team, including editors, authors, reviewers, and staff, that maintains the historical excellence of this prestigious journal. It would be impossible to produce such a high quality and important journal without the outstanding team that we have in place. The FASS office staff include Susan Pollock (managing editor), Louise Adam (lead technical editor), and Shauna Miller (editorial assistant). I typically interact daily with at least one of these individuals and value their unwavering dedication to the Journal of Dairy Science. I do not interact as often with others on the FASS publications staff, but Chris Davies, Sharon Frick, Christine Horger, Ron Keller, and Lisa Krohn should be recognized for their efforts in helping to make the journal a success. We could not publish such a large volume of scientific information in a consistently readable format without the dedication of the FASS employees mentioned. Section editors do the heavy lifting for the Journal of Dairy Science. Their decisions dictate the quality of the science that we publish in our journal. I am continually amazed at the dedication that is displayed by these individuals. Behind every decision is a section editor who cares about the quality of the science that appears in Journal of Dairy Science. Two section editors completed their terms in 2015: MaryAnne Drake (North Carolina State University) from Dairy Foods and Christa Kuhn (Leibniz Institute for Farm Animal Biology) from Genetics and Breeding. Both individuals were senior editors when they completed their terms in 2015. They provided unselfish service to the journal and the dairy science community as a whole. MaryAnne Drake will continue as an overflow section editor to handle manuscripts when the need arises. In addition to section editors Drake and Kuhn, senior editor responsibilities were handled by Kerst Stelwagen (SciLactis Ltd.; Physiology and Management), John Vicini (Monsanto; Nutrition, Feeding, and Calves) and Filippo Miglior (Canadian Dairy Network/University of Guelph; Invited Reviews). The leadership provided by these individuals is important toward meeting our goal of uniform publication quality with the shortest possible time in peer review. Remaining section editors include Phil Tong (Cal Poly State University) and John McKillip (Ball State University) in Dairy Foods; David Beede (Michigan State University), Helga Sauerwein (University of Bonn), Normand St-Pierre (The Ohio State University), and Tanya Gressley (University of Delaware) in Physiology and Management; John Roche (DairyNZ), Masahito Oba (University of Alberta), and Paul Kononoff (University of Nebraska) in Nutrition, Feeding, and Calves; and Jennie Pryce (Department of Primary Industries, Australia) and Christian Maltecca (North Carolina State University) in Genetics and Breeding. Each of these editors continues to make valuable contributions to the success of the journal. The editorial board included 63 members in 2015, an expanded number from previous years. Editorial board members are expected to have additional expertise and to review considerably more manuscripts than the traditional reviewer for the journal. Their service provides a second layer of excellence directly below the section editors. We sent out approximately 2,000 letters to thank and recognize the reviewers who served the Journal of Dairy Science in 2015. This effort is implemented by the FASS staff and is very much appreciated by our reviewers. I received many personal replies to these letters and I would like to quote one here:“Dear Dr. Lucy, I would like to tell you that I was immensely pleased to receive your letter. You do not need to thank me for peer reviewing manuscripts for the Journal of Dairy Science during 2015. I do not consider this assignment as a burden. On the contrary, it is an honor for me, not only for the journal’s high Impact Factor, but for offering the authors the shortest time from submission to first decision among agriculture, dairy, and animal science journals.” Our reviewers play a big part in keeping the time from submission to first decision short while providing excellent feedback to our authors. Their efforts ensure that our excellent time to publication and high scientific standards for accepted manuscripts will continue. The time that our reviewers have so generously contributed is very much appreciated. The Journal of Dairy Science ranked second by Impact Factor (2.573) and second by 5-Year Impact Factor (3.071) among 55 journals in the Agriculture, Dairy, and Animal Science category. The Impact Factor statistics and ranking did not change appreciably from the previous year. We published 9,102 pages in the Journal of Dairy Science in 2015 (Table 1). This number of pages exceeded the 2014 total by over 1,000 pages. Average time from submission to having an article in press was 6 days shorter in 2015 than in 2014. The average total publication time was 5 d shorter in 2015 than in 2014. All metrics of time to publication with the exception of “average time in press” were lowest in 2015 compared with all other years. In my opinion, most authors are very happy with the timeliness of the review process in the Journal of Dairy Science. Credit for these very good numbers goes to our editors, reviewers, authors, and staff.Table 1Journal of Dairy Science statistics for 2015 compared with previous years1201520142013201220112010200920082007Average papers received/mo1291171121029787868579Average papers accepted/mo766664635556494846Average papers published/mo706565625552534452Pages published9,1028,0588,1347,4666,2986,0646,3065,1345,849Average review time (d)129137139141144140127141127Average production time (d)9289871059394107102106Average total time (d)221226226246237234234243233Average In press (d)50494760————— Open table in a new tab Most papers in 2015 (about 83%) were published as research articles (Table 2). The next largest publication type was “Short Communications,” followed by “Our Industry Today.” Very few “Invited Reviews” and “Technical Notes” were published. Invited reviews comprised less than 1% of papers but typically have a high number of citations.Table 2Journal of Dairy Science manuscript and page statistics by article type for 20151Table does not include hot topics, letters, errata, news, or editorials.MonthResearchOur IndustryTodayInvitedReviewsShortCommunicationsTechnicalNotesNo.PagesNo.PagesNo.PagesNo.PagesNo.PagesJanuary58643220——954——February50525437126634219March53607331139422212April59647442——1163——May54612344——116415June49562666——741212July63719112——53418August5971111212174017September61726442——743——October59681335120741——November60719335120105616December68737——11573817Total6937,8893437661419153011761 Table does not include hot topics, letters, errata, news, or editorials. Open table in a new tab About 34% (down 1 percentage point from 2014) of the papers that we published in 2015 were in the Physiology and Management section (Table 3). The second largest section (about 27% of papers; down 3 percentage points from 2014) was Nutrition, Feeding, and Calves. The Dairy Foods section comprised about 28% of papers, a 6-percentage-point increase from 2014. About 11% of our papers published (up 1 percentage point from 2014) were in Genetics and Breeding.Table 3Journal of Dairy Science research manuscripts and page statistics by science section1DF=Dairy Foods; PM=Physiology and Management; NFC=Nutrition, Feeding, and Calves; and GB=Genetics and Breeding. Table does not include Our Industry Today manuscripts or invited reviews. for 2015MonthDFPMNFCGBPapersPagesPapersPagesPapersPagesPapersPagesJanuary141172221224288780February9762727815154770March232641920412135538April232332223316156988May211921414122277971June161471922014164984July16149212272227010115August141542527323273666September191992427317208889October131313032020238444November202042426718216994December323032224416176659Total2202,1692692,8922192,555898981 DF = Dairy Foods; PM = Physiology and Management; NFC = Nutrition, Feeding, and Calves; and GB = Genetics and Breeding. Table does not include Our Industry Today manuscripts or invited reviews. Open table in a new tab The journal received 1,549 new submissions in 2015, an increase of 152 over the number of new submissions in 2014 (an approximately 11% increase in the number of submitted papers). In 2015, 912 papers were accepted and 583 papers rejected (61% acceptance ratio). The acceptance ratio for 2014 was 59.7%. The total number of accepted papers increased by 14% in 2015 compared with 2014. We continue our efforts to recognize authors. Research papers from each section are highlighted through the monthly “Editor’s Choice” selections. Papers are selected by the EIC when the issue is proofed before publication—selected papers are novel, topical, and contain solid science. Editor’s Choice articles are featured on the Journal of Dairy Science homepage for one month, and authors receive a letter from the EIC recognizing their submission. Awards for the most highly cited manuscripts continued during 2015. Four authors of papers published in 2012 were recognized at the 2015 ADSA Awards Ceremony for having the most-cited papers in each section of the journal. Papers published in the Journal of Dairy Science during the calendar year 2013 are eligible for recognition at the 2016 ADSA Awards Ceremony. We continued the member-author loyalty reward program. This program recognizes ADSA member-authors who publish and review for the Journal of Dairy Science. Authors meeting the specific criteria receive a waiver for page charges (10-page limit) that can be used for their next Journal of Dairy Science publication. Several new initiatives began in 2015. Most of these arose from a Journal of Dairy Science strategic planning session held in Orlando, Florida, in February 2014 and were further refined and implemented through meetings with the FASS staff involved in publication of the journal. The following initiatives were implemented in 2015:•Development of new sections for the Journal of Dairy Science and online materials that specifically define the topic areas within each section;•Addition of new section editors to the Journal of Dairy Science to handle the greater number of submissions;•Addition of overflow section editors to handle additional submissions during peak times;•Reassignment of existing section editors and assignment of new section editors to respective sections in a manner consistent with their expertise;•Creation of training materials (written materials and videos) for section editors;•Major revision of the Journal of Dairy Science Instructions to Authors, so that we now have a “Policies” document as well as a “Style and Form” document;•Development and promotion of article collections (www.journalofdairyscience.org/) that include selected papers curated by experts in dairy science;•Re-initiation of the long-standing tradition of the publication of symposia papers from the annual meeting.In addition to the above list, several new initiatives were developed but had not been completely implemented by the end of 2015. These initiatives are a priority for 2016:•Expansion of the Invited Reviews section through more active solicitation of articles;•Development of procedures to recruit highly cited authors to publish their research in the Journal of Dairy Science;•Creation of instructions (guidelines) for Journal of Dairy Science reviewers;•Expanding efforts to enhance our presence on social media;•Creation of additional material to enhance our content beyond the traditional print publication (e.g., audio files, graphical abstracts). In addition to the initiatives listed above, we continue to work toward reducing the time in peer review and increasing the Impact Factor for the journal. Our primary focus on reducing the time in peer review is to reduce the amount of time that papers spend in the hands of the section editor (e.g., making decisions) and in the hands of the author (e.g., making revisions). We have developed guidelines for timeliness in the performance of section editor tasks. We have also developed a strict policy for the amount of time allowed for revision. Increasing the Impact Factor can be achieved by soliciting high-impact authors to publish in our journal and by considering our content and modifying our scope to reduce the number of articles that receive very few citations. It is a great pleasure to serve the Journal of Dairy Science as the EIC. I am looking forward to the continued success of the journal.