analytical chemistry t d i t o r Herbert A. Laitinen
tDITORlAL HEADQUARTERS I 1 5 5 SiKtearith S t , N W Wdhhirigton D C 20036 Phone 202-8;?-4570 Teletype. 710-8220151 h:,iiidyi/ig €ditor Josephine M Petruzzi A s ~ ~ , c i , itditors tz Andrew A Husovsky. Barbara
C,issatt A s w c i a t e €ditor. Easton. Elizabeth R Rufe Assistar?t Editor. Stuart A Borman
tdiroria1 Assistant: Andre D Arcangelo
A ~ s o ~ i ~tdrtor. i t e editing: Nancy J Oddenino Profjiicrioii Manager. Leroy L Corcoran A i r Dirwtor John V Sinnett
Drsigrier Alan Kahan
Advisory Board: L. S . Eirks. Peter Carr. David F irebione Kurt F J Heinrich. Philip F Kane. Barry L Karger. J. Jack Kirkland. Marvin Margoshes Robert S McDonald. James W Mitchell. Royce W Murray. Harry L Pardue. G d r y A Rechnitz. Walter Slavin. John P
\n;a It el 5 Instrumentation Advisory Panel: Gary D Christian. Catherine Fenselau. Gary M Hiefile. Tornas Hirschfeld. Peter T. Kissinger, C. Davld Miller. Carter L Olson. Sidney L Phillips. Thomas H. Ridgway Regulations. Analytical Division A d Hoc Committee: Robert A. Libby (Chairman) \Yarren B Crummett. William T Donaldson Donald T Sawyer Controutiny Editor Claude A Lucchesi Departmen: of Chemistrv Northwestern Universitv Evanston Ill 60201 Published by the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY 1 1 5 5 16th Street N W Washington. D C 20036
Books and Journals Division Dirt Ltor D H Michael Bowen . / o r i r ~ ~ iCharles /~
R Bertsch
Building the Quality of a Scientific Journal T h e quality of a scientific journal is. of course. determined by the papers it contains. These papers, however. are the distillate from two refining processes. namely the rejection of' unsuitable manuscripts and the equally important one of revision as the result of peer review. T h e quality of the distillate is also related to the quality of the raw material. and the question is how can that be improved. Good manuscripts are attracted by a journal of good reputation, and a good reputation rests upon high quality. It would seem that with such a regenerative feedhack loop, quality would build itself, given a reasonably competent editorial function. To a degree this is true. but there are outside influences to distort the picture or. in electronic jargon, to introduce noise and losses into the regenerative loop. Every journal has cuinpetitors. and this is as it should be, to allow authors an alternative outlet in the event of human errors in the selection and revision process. Besides, each field is a dynamic and changing system, so operational rules must constantly be in a state of revision. A journal does not create research, but s e r \ w in a relatively passive role as a disseminator o f kno\vledge. I n this latter respect, .AN.AL,YTICAL. CHEMISTRYenjoys an advantage over most journals in that the A pages and special Review issues can influence the research community through invited and staff-created articles. In addition. its editorial staff traditionally interacts closely with the professional community through the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry. There is still the human element to be considered, namely that we all want to be associated with an operation of high quality. hut may be reluctant to pay the price. Not cJccr>fpaper by a given high-quality scientist should necessarily appear in our pages, because some o f these will be more appropriate to other journals, for example, more specialized ones. It is therefore necessary for a spirit o f cooperation and good will as well as scientific objectivity to pervade the entire publicat,ion process. We feel that such a spirit does exist within the analq.tica1 research community and that as a result the quality of our .JoLltisxr, will continue to improve for the foreseeable future.
hl,q,iriw mid Production Bacil Guile) h't~se,irctia i d Deveiopment Seldon
W
Ter rant c'iic
d i l r i o n Development Marton Gurfein
hl,tiib,iript
requirements are p u l i l i s k d in the
JctiiuLitI 1979 issue page 1 7 1 Mandscripts for
Cu:'IiLc>!ion ( 4 copies) should be submitted to ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY at the ACS Washiit$!vtl dclilre5s
r t w 4meric,rti Chemical Society and ,ts editors 3 w r i i s 110responsibility for the statements and vc1'>iutis .idvanced by conrributors Views e x prt+%d In the editorials are those of !he editors dnJ 'Ju not necessarily represent the official position o f the American Chemical Society
A N A L Y T I C A L CHEMISTRY, VOL. 51, NO. 9, A U G U S T
1979
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