€SLrl EDITORIAL
A Progress Report By various measures of the scientific publishing business, ESbT continues to improve. In its 26th year, one of hard times for many scientific journals, circulation of ESbT has increased to more than 13,000subscriptions. This makes it the second largest scientific publication of the American Chemical Societv [not c o u n t i n g C ~ hEe w s , which is distributed to all ACS members as a part of their membership fees). We have now surpassed the Journal of the American Chemical Society's circulation; only Analytical Chemistry's is larger. Moreover, ESbT continues to be the best buy for a scientific publication in its area of coverage, even for a nonmember of ACS. The price per word of printed material was 14.4 cents in 1990,lower than other environmental journals such as Atmospheric Environment, Environmental T o x i c o l o g y a n d C h e m i s t r y , Ch e m o sphere, and Water Res e a r c h by factors of 286%, 141%, 256%, and 426%, respectively. Even more important, ESbT is rated number one among 86 journals of its type in impact factor. a measure of the number of citations of an averaee " article in a specific year. . Thus, articles published NEAL CLODFELTER in ESbT have a higher Drobabilitv of beinn cited than those in any other environm;?ntal joUrnd. Largely as a result of the fine work of staff in the ACS Manuscript Office in Washington, the editorial staff in Columbus, Ohio, and our associate editors, the processing time for research manuscripts is decreasing. In 1989,the average time from rer 3 l
0013-936X/92/0926-413$03.00100 1992 American Chemical Society
ceipt of a research article to acceptance was 39.2 weeks. In 1991,this dropped to 24.7 weeks-still too long, we feel, but an improvement. The number of pages of research articles published during this period increased by 42%, from 1050 in 1989 to 1484 in 1991,but the acceptance rate was no higher than in previous years. The improvement in our processing time has been accompanied by greater attention to quality of the research manuscripts as whole, largely the result of the work of an excellent group of associate editors. Over the past two years, E S b T technical editors have assumed a larger role in the choice of reviewers, the interaction with authors, and in he revision of manuxripts than ever before. We now have a sixth associate editor, Dr. Cass T. Miller from the University of North Carolina, with expertise in processes occurring in the subsurface environment and i n environment modeling, two vital areas of research covered by this journal. The front section of ES&f also continues to improve. In 1991,the del' sign and type font were modified to make readine and reference easier anYd livelier. A third staff editor, Alan Newman, joined ESbT from the staff of Analflical Chemisfry. The increase in staff makes it possible for ESbT to report more news of environmental significance, cover more scientific conferences and meetings, and to interact more effectively with authors of features and other articles in order to improve the quality of writing and scientific credi~
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Environ. Sci. Technol., Vol. 26.
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bility of submitted articles in the front section, The 25th anniversary issue of ESbT, published in April 1991, continued the recent practice of publishing one special issue each year. In 1992, we will publish a special issue commemorating the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Advertising revenue in ESbT was up last year, an indicator of remarkable vitality during a recession which has adversely affected advertising in all other Society journals and in publishing as a whole. ESbT advertising pages increased by 25% in 1991 as compared to 1990. There is still room for improvement, of course. In 1992, the editors and staff of ESbT have several objectives to make the journal better. Our technical editors will continue to strive for rapid processing of manuscripts: we hope to shorten the time from receipt to publication even further. We will also continue to nurture and cull our corps of reviewers. The need for more critical and thorough reviews continues to be one of the limiting factors to quality control in the journal and to rapid processing of manuscripts. We will continue to encourage our reviewers to respond as quickly as their colleagues who review for the basic journals of ACS, and to use the highest standard for their reviews. Our front section staff in Washington, led by
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Stanton Miller, will continue to look for the very best subjects and authors for features and series. We will expand coverage of international environmental issues, not only in Europe but also in the Pacific Rim and on a global scale. It is increasingly clear that ESbT can play an important role in communication of news, technical information, and policy analysis on local, regional, and global scales. So we will make an attempt to get ESbT into the hands of more foreign readers through increases in personal and library subscriptions, and to make it more significant to these readers through better coverage of the global environmental scene. ESbT has a grand tradition of excellence, established through the leadership of Jim Morgan and Russ Christman, its editors during the majority of its existence, and propagated by the current staff and editors. Ultimately, however, it is to our readers that we are responsible, and it is to you that we turn periodically for counsel. We do that now, asking that you communicate with me directly or through one of the other editors. Tell us how ESbT can be even better, and we will give it a try.
Regulation of Agrochemicals A Driving Force in Their E v o s m h i s new volume presents a history of their use It also look to the future with an examination of the consequences of regulations and their influence in shaping the pesticide market and the future role of chemical pest control Particular attention is given to reregistration and the ensuing controversy, which requires that each of 30,000 to 40,000 products on the market must be reviewed Perspectives from parties on both sides of the controversy that reregistration has engendered are presented Regulatm of Agrochem/ca/sis important reading for agrochemists, regula tory personnel, federal, state, and local government officials. and anyone inter ested in the recent history of pesticide development and use Contents Agrochemicals and the Regulatory Process Before 1970 0 The Persistent Seventles Impact of Regulations on the ACS Division of PesticideChemistry 0 Consequences of Reregistrationon Existing Pesticides 0 A Short History of Pesticide Reregistration0 Pesticide Regulation in Developing Countries of the Asia-Pacific Region 0 Pesticide Registration in Europe 0 Academic and Government Research Input to the Registration Process 0 Trends in Agrochemical Fourmulation 0 Analytical Chemistry and Pesticide Regulation 0 influence of Regulations on the Nature of Newer Agricultural Chemicals 0 Biotechnologyand New Directionsfor Agrochemicals 0 The Fate of Pesticides. the ReregistrationProcess and the Increasing Public Concern about Exposure 0 Agrochemicals In the Future
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Gino J:Marco, Robert M. Hollingworth, and Jack R. Plirnrner, Editors 192 pages ( 1 991] Clothbound ISBN 0-8412-2089-1
Paperbound, ISBN 0-8412-2085-9
