Editorial pubs.acs.org/JAFC
Future Has Tradition in JAFC, but Tradition, Too, Has a Future!
T
he landscape of scientific publishing is continually changing. A vast number of new journals are sprouting out of the ground. Many of these new journals are miniaturized in scope or limited by a narrow readership. In comparison, the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (JAFC) is firmly rooted in a long tradition of publication excellence in the broader chemistry and (bio)technology of agricultural and biobased materials all the way up to food products including bioactivity, nutritional, and health aspects. Since its foundation in 1953 with Walter J. Murphy as the first Editor-in-Chief, JAFC has become the most influential journal in agricultural and food chemistry. Over 5500 world-leading scientists serve as peer reviewers each year. In 2013, the journal had over 82000 citations, over 2 million article requests, and published more than 1500 papers, the most ever. As new Editor-in-Chief, there is no better purpose for my first Editorial than to acknowledge the contributions of Jim Seiber to JAFC. Jim successfully navigated JAFC for 15 years; under his tenure the journal developed greatly with an increase of yearly manuscript submissions by more than 300%, yearly published article content by more than 45%, total number of citations to JAFC by nearly 375%, and a rise of the impact factor to 3.107. Backed with the excellent support of the ACS, Jim decreased the time it took accepted papers to reach our global readership. Acting in wise foresight, Jim and JAFC’s passionate Associate Editors widened the scope of the journal and reacted flexibly to the ever-changing multidisciplinary arena of agricultural and food chemistry by timely introduction of new categories such as metabolomics, new formats such as Letters, and new author recognition tools such as the JAFC Research Article of the Year Award. Not only has the number of Associate Editors grown from 5 to 12, but also the global presence of JAFC has increased significantly. As cutting-edge research in JAFC continues to become more global, the composition of the team of Associate Editors is more international than ever before, and I expect this trend to continue: Hanne Christine Bertram (Denmark), ZhenYu Chen (China), John W. Finley (USA), Chi-Tang Ho (USA), Yoshinori Mine (Canada), Russell Molyneux (USA), Peter Schieberle (Germany), Taka Shibamoto (USA), Veronika Somoza (Austria), Francisco Tomás-Barberán (Spain), Elisabeth Waters (Australia), Liangli (Lucy) Yu (USA). Jim and the Associate Editors could always build on the contributions of the engaged members of the Editorial Advisory Board supporting JAFC in agenda setting and manuscript decision making. In an extraordinary show of service to the journal, Fereidoon Shahidi, Gow-Chin Yen, and Michael Clifford have provided more than 30 manuscript reviews over the past 3 years. Backed by all of these active supporters and continually refreshed with new science and innovative features, it is not surprising that JAFC retained leadership as the most cited journal in the three ISI categories “Agriculture”, “Applied Chemistry”, and “Food Science and Technology”. Jim deserves our hearty thanks for these achievements! © 2015 American Chemical Society
So, as a welcome to 2015, first let me share an Editor’s overarching goal for the coming year - that the Associate Editors and I will work hard to ensure that JAFC remains the premier journal in which to publish authors’ most impactful and innovative science. Although submissions are increasing from all around the globe, the submitted manuscripts will be handled by an Associate Editor having the appropriate expertise, no matter where the authors are from or where the Editor is geographically located. Thus, while we have an increasingly international team of excellent Associate Editors, the defining aspect of the manuscripts we publish should be their outstanding science, not the country of origin. JAFC will further expand its tradition to develop strong, largely ramified roots. These will help our fundamental knowledge to continuously flourish, while concurrently germinating internationally to reach best-in-class scientists developing and applying new molecular tools and technologies to solve global challenges in agricultural and food research. JAFC is more than ever on the spot. Here’s to an exciting 2015!
■
Thomas F. Hofmann, Editor AUTHOR INFORMATION
Notes
Views expressed in this editorial are those of the author and not necessarily the views of the ACS.
Published: January 14, 2015 1
DOI: 10.1021/jf506125u J. Agric. Food Chem. 2015, 63, 1−1
