JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995 VOLUME 8, NUMBER 1 0 Copyright 1995 by the American Chemical Society
Editorial Eight Issues a Year The American Chemical Society is increasing the frequency of publication of Chemical Research in Toxicology to eight issues per year. This is a reflection of increased manuscript submissions and a desire to speed up our publication time. Our eventual goal is to be published monthly, but we will not sacrifice quality to increase the acceptance of manuscripts. Although more frequent publication will certainly shorten our publication time, it is worth considering some facts about the current speed of publication in Chemical Research in Toxicology. The average turnaround time in our editorial office from receipt to first decision is 5 weeks. After revision, accepted manuscripts are forwarded to the American Chemical Society for typesetting. The average time from first receipt to final acceptance is 12 weeks. In our experience, a significant amount of time in the overall publication process is the period that a manuscript spends on the desks of authors during the revision process. Once a manuscript is accepted, it usually appears within 10 weeks. Thus, the average turnaround time from original submission to publication is 22 weeks. This has been pretty standard in our seven years of operation. The reason we are sharing these statistics is that there is a perception that bimonthly publication means slow publication. As our numbers show, this is not necessarily the case. For example, consider the statistics for a large journal published weekly. Manuscripts submitted to such a journal can be handled quickly, but usually the heavy manuscript load slows the review process a bit. Then, once an article is accepted for publication, it must queue up with many other manuscripts waiting for publication. Thus, the actual turnaround time from submission to publication is frequently the same for Chemical Research in Toxicology as for large journals that are published much more frequently. Although this is the reality of publication, we must deal with the perception; and the perception is that bimonthly publication is too slow. A move to eight issues per year will help
deal with that, and a move to monthly publication should dispel the notion completely. Increased frequency should also bring with it increased submissions as judged by the experience of our sister startup journals published by the American Chemical Society. The start of a new year is a good time for reflection on the development of a journal. We believe Chemical Research in Toxicology is the premier journal in the field of toxicology and the statistics seem to back us up. Since its first year of publication, Chemical Research in Toxicology has had the highest impact factor of any primary journal in the field of toxicology as reported by the Institute for Scientific Information. Our latest impact factor moved from 2.526 to 4.064, which places us among the top five nonreview journals published by the American Chemical Society. Of course, impact factors are just numbers that are of more value to marketing people than scientists. Our readers are the best judges of quality and on that score we are doing well. Subscriptions to Chemical Research in Toxicology continue to increase in both libraries and on the desks of ACS and ISSX members. As part of our five-year evaluation, the American Chemical Society conducted an extensive reader, author, and reviewer survey of Chemical Research in Toxicology,and we are pleased to report that the opinions were very favorable. In addition, our readers provided some solid suggestions for improving the Journal and we are implementing them. The primary strengths of Chemical Research in Toxicology are the high quality of the manuscripts it receives and the speed with which they are published. The Journal is particularly strong in the areas of DNA modification, xenobiotic metabolism, and analytical methodology. However, we believe the scope of the Journal has been a bit narrow and we would like to expand it. In particular, we are interested in publishing manuscripts at the interface between chemistry and toxicology. Some areas we would like to publish more of include the use of site-specific methodologies for studies of replication,
0893-228x/95/2708-0001$09.00/00 1995 American Chemical Society
2 Chem. Res. Toxicol., Vol.8, No.1, 1995
repair, and mutagenesis of DNA adducts in vitro and in vivo; exploration of the structure and mechanism of action of protein toxins; determination of the structure of toxin-protein conjugates and carcinogen-DNA conjugates; identification of the critical intracellular targets for toxic molecules; and the biochemical and molecular biological basis of toxicity of individual agents. We are adding a number of scientists to the Editorial Advisory Board to reflect the expanded scope of the Journal. Thus, we invite you to submit manuscripts in these and other
areas and to solicit your colleagues on behalf of the Journal. Since Chemical Research in Toxicology will be published more frequently, your articles and communications will appear even faster. Thank you very much for your support.
Lawrence J. Marnett Editor TX940458C
