"If only 'I'd known about Scott!"
Editors' Column Computer-Aided Editorial Operation ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
John Dalton had been able to order Scott gases when formulating his law of partial pressures, he could have spent more time philosophizing about those little things he called atoms. Today's chemist is better off by far. He need only pick up his Scott Specialty Gases Catalog to obtain any one of 32 pure gases in 5 "different grades. Not to mention 129 2-component and 19 3-component mixtures in an infinite number of concentrations.
Or, if one doesn't want to b o t h e r w i t h l a r g e , heavy cylinders, one can order Scotty® gases in disposable containers: 17 pure gases and 99 stock gaseous mixtures, some with as many as 9 components. And having called Scott, one can r e t u r n to t h e b e n c h f o r continuing researches into one's o w n m o d e r n v e r s i o n of "chemical calculus." If you have never thought much about who supplies your gases, thjnk about Scott. Scott is a specialist in research gases, calibration gas standards arid mixtures, and gas handling equipment. Request your free copy of the 160-page Scott Specialty Gases Catalog today. You will find it a useful tool.
s Scott Specialty Gases a division of Scott Environmental Technology Inc.
Plumsteadville, PA 18949 · 215: 766-8861 San Bernardino, CA 92411 ·714: 887-2571 Troy, Ml 48084 · 313: 589-2950
is setting
up a microcomputer system to improve all phases of its editorial operation. The system was initially devel^ oped for Biochemistry by Lorrin Garson of the Research and Development Department, ACS Books and Journals Division, and has been in operation there since 1979. Since editorial offices of all peer-reviewed journals have many common features, the system is being adopted with,a few minor modifications and improvements to meet some of our unique requirements. The purpose of automating is to streamline essentially all phases of the peer review operation. But we hope to improve particularly two important areas. With more than 2800 reviewers in our files, it now is almost impossible to make the best use of the information in these files. Inevitably some reviewers who are familiar to the editors are overused and others who are not so familiar are underused. We hope the system will allow a wider choice of reviewers, and thereby relieve overused reviewers. Secondly, the system will enable us to better scrutinize a reviewer's performance. On a weekly basis, it will automatically generate a list of overdue reviewers for prodding. This will be a tremendous improvement over the current practice in which the entire file is manually checked weekly. The system will also allow us a look at a particular reviewer's entire review history. As a first step, we have developed a classification scheme for the specialty areas of analytical chemistry. The specialty areas are divided into five major designations of: (1) electroanalytical chemistry, (2) separations, (3) spectrometry, (4) other techniques, and (5) applications. And these are subdivided into 197 categories. All of ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY'S reviewers have been asked to fill out a questionnaire consisting of a listing of these 197 categories. Reviewers were asked to designate a maximum of 15 areas of expertise in order of competence. The letter accompanying the questionnaire was mailed on May 4,1981, and responses are still being received as of this writing although at a somewhat diminished rate. We plan to send a second mailing to nonrespondents as well as to reviewers whose names have been added since the first mailing. Contributors who have not been sent
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the questionnaire are urged to contact the editorial office for a copy if they wish to participate in the peer review process. The information provided in the questionnaire will be processed and stored in the system to allow a "close matching" of a reviewer's expertise with the subject areas of a given manuscript under review. "Close matching" here should not be confused with straightforward oneto-one matching. What it means is that the editor in choosing reviewers will be able to recall all reviewers with closely matching expertise. The final selection from the list will as always depend on many factors such as work load, availability, conflict of interest, promptness, familiarity with editorial goals, etc. The computerized reviewer file will include names, addresses, telephone numbers, area of expertise, editor's comments, dates not available for reviewing, and reviewer recommendations concerning manuscripts. It will also include the manuscript number and dates sent and returned. The manuscript file will include the manuscript number, the abbreviated title (up to 88 letters), the names and addresses of the corresponding author, the manuscript receipt date, the names of reviewers assigned, the dates sent and returned from the reviewers, the type of revision required, dates sent for revision and returned after revision, and finally, publication date. We will be able to store up to 13 000 manuscript records. A program will be developed in the near future to access manuscript records via any author and not just by the corresponding author. Some of the other programs we plan to develop after the system is in full operation include a capability to access an individual author or reviewer's publication records for papers published in ANAL Y T I C A L C H E M I S T R Y and a capabili-
ty to provide keyword indexing for all papers received. While the system is being installed and for at least a full year after its implementation, we intend tp maintain our current hard copy files. We have no doubt that there will be an initial period of trial and error, but we are confident that ultimately this new system Will improve the editorial operation for the benefit of all contributors. Barbara Cassatt
