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The competitive environment of journal publication

1999; Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; Volume: 31; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1097/00005768-199901000-00001

1530-0315

Peter B. Raven,

scientometrics and bibliometrics research

In the "Summary Report 1996: Doctorate Recipients from United States Universities," available from National Academy Press, a record 42,415 doctorate degrees were awarded from a record 392 institutions for 1996. Of those doctorate degrees, "more doctorates were awarded in life sciences than in any other broad field" growing by a 44% increase from 1986 to 1996. The American Heart Association spent $107.5 million on research for the year 1996-1997. Receiving 1450 grant applications at the national office and an additional 3085 through affiliates, they were able to fund only 240 new grants at an initial commitment of $52 million. The National Institutes of Health received appropriations of (in thousands) $3,920,848 in 1986 compared with $8,840,800 in 1996. They, too, receive far more grant applications than can possibly be awarded. This increase in competition for grants carries over to create a greater competitive environment for the publication of manuscripts. How Does a Society Journal Manage the Growth? MSSE® published a total of 809 pages in 1988. For the year ending 1998, we published 1900, a 42.5% increase in published pages over a 10-year period. We estimate that the editorial office received 260 manuscript submissions for 1988 while for 1998 we will exceed 600: a 44% increase in submissions. As journals receive a greater number of submissions, they meet the situation on two fronts. First, to manage the increased workflow, journals tighten submission requirements. Second, they raise the standard for quality research. Submission requirements. The only way an editorial office can manage the volume of incoming manuscripts is to implement a step-by-step process that is the same for each manuscript. As with the post office, those items that require special handling will be delayed or those that do not meet guidelines will be returned. MSSE implemented new submission requirements in the 1996 Information for Authors. This was the year our review process went electronic, and the most important change was the inclusion of a disk at the time of submission. As more than half of our submissions come from non-ACSM members, i.e., researchers who may not routinely have access to the journal, we allowed a generous grace period. It was not until June 1998 that the decision was made to return manuscripts to the authors that were submitted to the editorial office without a "working" disk, i.e., a disk that is free of errors and does in fact contain the complete text of the manuscript-title page through references-in one document. [For other information concerning disk submission, please see the most current Information for Authors in this issue.] It is the author's responsibility to obtain a current copy of the journal's Information for Authors to ensure that his or her manuscript complies with our requirements before submission. This information is readily available in the January and July issues of the journal and at our homepage: www.wwilkins.com/MSSE The basic style required before a manuscript will be entered into the review process is: title page, structured abstract, written informed consent for human subjects (for all manuscripts-no exceptions), or use and care of animals, properly styled and acceptable references, copyright, and where applicable permission to reprint. A working disk must accompany all versions of the manuscript. To make it easier for authors, we include instructions for revision with each author acknowledgment; this information can also be used as a guide for submitting subsequent papers. [Again, I would direct all authors to the Information for Authors for further details.] Tips for authors If you have not received your author acknowledgment within 3 weeks from the date you mailed the materials, contact the editorial office. Remember that the date of the submission letter and the date the materials were actually mailed can be very different due to the gathering of co-author signatures. Author acknowledgments are sent via e-mail if one is provided, by air mail if no e-mail is provided. Note that the editorial office will provide status information to only the corresponding author and only when a manuscript number is provided. If you have not heard from your associate editor within 3 months, contact the associate editor. This is also stated in the author acknowledgment. Do not mail manuscripts in tightly stuffed envelopes. These have a habit of tearing while in the postal system, and the result is that either materials are missing upon arrival or the manuscript is simply never received. If your container arrives at the editorial office opened, you will be notified and asked to confirm the contents list that is sent to you. Verify your communications information on the title page of the manuscript; include the country name; make sure you are providing us with the current area code (for domestic numbers) or the most current city and country code (for international); both have changed dramatically over the last year. Verify the fax number; confirm the characters of your e-mail address; type the e-mail address in ALL CAPS if it contains numeric characters. Incorrect information on the title page may mean that we must return the materials to you without review because we could not contact you with a simple question. Scan the disk you are planning to use before you copy the manuscript to it; make sure it is formatted. You can copy a document to a disk with bad sectors, but you cannot retrieve the document from it. Make sure the word processing application you use is for English. Do not tape or fasten the disk to anything. Make sure the manuscript you send meets the journal's style requirements and that you are submitting the required materials. Look up each of the following in the Information for Authors for complete details. 1 disk; 2 copies of the manuscript with copies of tables and figures properly numbered; copyright signed by all authors; permission to reprint, if applicable; and reference materials of "in press" or other recently published material on the same subject. When returning revised manuscripts to the editorial office, use the address provided in the author acknowledgment materials. Do not use an associate editor's name on the mailing label intended for the editorial office. The official address for the journal (in its briefest form) is:MSSE Editorial Office; 3500 Camp Bowie Blvd.; Fort Worth, Texas 76107 U.S.; Attn: Revised Manuscripts [delete this line for new manuscript submissions]Make sure this is the address used on courier labels in which space is limited and someone other than the corresponding author may be issuing the label.Put the manuscript number on every piece of revised or final materials. Page charges and authorship. Another issue that bears pointing out is the responsibility of the submitting authors to arrange for funds to cover the per printed page charge of the manuscript. MSSE is one of the best buys for authors at a cost of $50.00 per printed page. Being a society journal, the financial modeling requires that $50.00 per printed page is contributed by the authors. This is a small fraction of the wholesale price charged to the organization per printed page, and should authors not meet their financial obligation, the organization-the members-will eventually bear the cost. Funds for page charges can be requested in almost any grant proposal or be paid from the authors' indirect cost funds. Authors can manage the cost of publication by reducing the number of tables and figures submitted and by writing a concise article. Shakespeare said "Brevity is the soul of wit." In this context, Pasteur needed only a page to report his work on anthrax vaccination. Herring's work on the carotid sinus reflex needed only two pages. Even Watson and Crick's discovery of DNA, surely one of the cornerstones in contemporary biological sciences, required less than two pages to report. Although we do not determine acceptability of manuscripts based on the author's ability to pay the page charges, it is a professional obligation of authors to meet this expense. The Information for Authors states that authorship be limited to "only those investigators who contributed substantially or who had a primary role in the research represented in the manuscript . . . . Manuscripts listing more than six authors should provide justification. The Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to request that the author list be reduced." Individuals involved with the study who do not meet these simple criteria should be noted in the acknowledgments. English usage. English is the language of the journal. For first-time authors who speak English as a second language, it is always advisable to have the manuscript read by a colleague experienced at preparing manuscripts for submission to English publications. I would also suggest that the same colleague be provided a copy of the Information for Authors to assist the authors in properly preparing materials for submission. SI units.MSSE requires the use of SI units. As a service to our submitting authors, we have included the latest tables for base and derived units from the National Institute for Science and Technology. This update can be located before the Information for Authors in this issue. Quality research. The second "front" for managing the increase in manuscript submissions is to raise the level of acceptable quality. The journal's contract with the publisher is for a specific number of published pages each year. As we cannot publish beyond that limit, the competition for those pages is increasing. A manuscript may be worthy of publication, but because of the competition for space, it may be rejected if it does not meet the following guidelines used by the journal's associate editors in determining the quality of submitted manuscripts: Quality research is hypothesis, or model-driven, asking a question that is worth asking or perhaps a question that addresses issues that are poorly understood. Quality research must be based on the principles of scientific methods, with a defined purpose and a defined and defensible method to attain that purpose and a defined population of database. The database should be original, and the methods of measurement should have sufficient validity and reliability to justify drawing meaningful conclusions for the reader. The study should be well controlled. Quality research uses sound statistical analysis using the best available statistical tools to minimize the chance of committing Type I and Type II statistical errors. Quality research is conducted by researchers who have a firm grasp of previous work performed in that area and who can clearly present a rational and compelling need for the present study. There is now a proliferation of journals in the broad field of sports medicine and exercise science, and occasionally authors may not be aware that a similar study has already been published. Quality research is communicated clearly so that a reader knows why it was done, how it was done, what was found, and why the findings are important or useful. It should identify strengths and weaknesses of the study and open perspective for further research. The results must be reproducible. Quality research contributes significantly to human knowledge and the body of literature and is likely to be cited by others. In particular, studies that appear to be the product of splitting larger projects into least publishable units will be reviewed at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief. The study should be extremely easy to read by almost anyone that has an interest and moderate knowledge in the area. More than anything else, the study should pass the "so what?" test. If there is not a larger question addressed that relates to the scope of MSSE, then there is merely the addition of minutia about something that has never been specifically addressed in a certain way and publication is inappropriate. Descriptive studies, case studies, interesting phenomenology, and pertinent clinical observation: these cases may be worthy of publication. However, such cases should be presented in the context of testing hypotheses, or models, that are already established. Although interesting and unique case studies can be valuable as examples of new methods of diagnosis or treatment, their presentation should focus on how they give broader understanding to what we already know about the relevant disease process. Truly unique phenomena are often discussed in terms of how and why diagnosis and treatment differed from standard care. If the question addressed is trivial or has been previously addressed, if the design lacks appropriate controls, if the measurement technique lacks validity or is imprecise, and if the paper is written in a way that cannot be replicated or fails to discuss important related work, then the research is not deemed quality research. I hope this information will prove helpful to those individuals preparing a manuscript for submission to MSSE. Following the instructions of the Information for Authors and one last proofing of the manuscript before submission will place your manuscript in a better position for review and possible publication in MSSE. Peter B. Raven, Ph.D. Editor-in-Chief