Chemical Education Today edited by
Norbert J. Pienta Department of Chemistry University of Iowa Iowa City, IA 52242-1294
Before We Cut the Cake... The day slipped by without much notice, another testimonial to the start of classes and the continuing activities related to academic and editorial positions in early September. It's not a big deal, the first anniversary of being the Journal editor, because most of my very able predecessors could have celebrated many times during their tenures in the position. In an academic world filled with surveys, evaluations, and assessments, we could have chosen to collect some “numbers” to see how we are doing. That may not be necessary at this stage because many people do not hesitate to write to me about items in print, timelines, or even decisions. An editor is never lonely in that regard, and aspects of both the editor and copublication transition are still sufficiently works-in-progress to be looking for opinions about final outcomes. So what have the editors and staff been doing for the last year? In many respects, if some of our constituencies have not noticed much, we might count that as good news. Our intention was to continue to produce a print version in 2010 that maintained the look from the last several years. In the background, both the JCE and ACS Publications staffs have worked diligently to convert one system into another very different one, the veritable round peg into the square hole. Tremendous progress has been made and productivity is increasing, just in time for a pdf makeover that comes in Spring 2011 supported by a much welcomed and new composition process. Of course, we still expect the print version to be around. The Journal Web version makes our content easily discoverable, either organized using the traditional print table of contents (or additional versions currently in beta testing or development), via the powerful search tools, or indirectly via your favorite browser's search engine. Applications for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch keep all of that information at your fingertips. The ASAP, or As Soon as Publishable, feature was activated earlier this year, giving access to authors' work immediately after it is completed in production, even before the contribution is assigned to an issue. Recent authors and reviewers will have plenty to report about the present state of affairs. The ACS Paragon Plus submission system currently represents the sole means to submit manuscripts and reviews to the Journal. In the first half of 2010, several hundred manuscripts, our transition legacy, were migrated into ACS Paragon Plus from the Journal's previous databases or by authors themselves via revisions. The saint-like patience of staff and some authors and reviewers is gratefully acknowledged; cranky complaining is also recognized but less appreciated. Steady progress has been made, and the benefits of an electronic system are already obvious to some of us. To those authors who think they have waited too long, we can only point to the “good old days” when it was much longer and to the middle of next year when we expect to achieve an “equilibrium” speed. There are several potential rate-limiting steps along the way and those are controlled by more than the click of a mouse. All steps involve people: editors, staff, authors, and reviewers. Most of them are volunteers. The apparent ease of submission has increased the number and rate of potential contributions. As we respond to these changes with an eye to higher quality papers,
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we encourage authors to prepare their manuscripts carefully, using specific guidelines for manuscript types and careful attention to their manuscripts' novelty, scholarship, originality, and pedagogy. To be fair and consistent, we continue to ask reviewers to evaluate those same criteria, being particularly attentive to recommendations and comments that are all consistent with your real intentions. We continue to encourage new submissions and individuals to sign up and then serve as reviewers. A common concern among editors is invitations to review that remain unanswered in e-mail inboxes. A response tells us about your willingness to review or to be asked another time. Several editorial changes that should be brought to your attention have been implemented. Four associate editors are busy working as a team with the editor, using the ACS Paragon Plus system to review and process the manuscripts. The associate editors meet regularly, discuss a variety of relevant issues, and confer with the editor in chief about details and individual cases. We continue to improve our skills with the tools and the speed with which we move manuscripts through the review steps. And those manuscripts are moving through. The testimonials about the new system will begin to filter to you; I will start with an example. A paper submitted during the first few days of ACS Paragon Plus operation with the Journal in December 2009 was reviewed, revised, re-reviewed, underwent production, and appeared in an issue at mid-year. (It was a peer-reviewed article, not one of my editorials, lest you think I am manufacturing stories.) To provide additional viewpoints from a broad range of chemical education colleagues, we have assembled an editorial advisory board (EAB) that will meet several times per year either virtually or at an ACS national meeting. The major role for EAB members will be to provide long-range planning and to serve as a sounding board for planned changes. The first EAB members have been invited and met in Boston; their names appear in the Journal masthead. We appreciate their willingness to serve our community. If you have suggestions or comments relevant to the future of the Journal, feel free to contact one of the editors or members of the EAB. This annual cycle is not as much about the Editor's anniversary or term of office as it is about providing an update to our chemical education constituencies. If you made it this far through this piece, you might still have several “What about...?” questions left. We continue to provide those answers. By several metrics, progress is being made. However, to survive in the world of journal publishing, this Editor believes that he should always keep asking, “What do we do next?”; maybe not always, but at least until another person gets to think about those questions. Don't worry. I still look forward to missing the date again next September until someone reminds me. Norbert J. Pienta Editor in Chief
Norbert J. Pienta is a professor in the Department of Chemistry, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242-1294; norbert-pienta@ jce.acs.org.
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r 2010 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc. pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc Vol. 87 No. 12 December 2010 10.1021/ed100916e Published on Web 10/15/2010
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Journal of Chemical Education
1281
