ES&T
EDITORIAL Manuscript processing time The utility of the refereed scientific literature is strongly related to the speed with which the results of research appear in print. This same factor is one of the vital signs of the current status of research in a par ticular field, along with the number of submitted manuscripts and their overall quality. I have to conclude that the field of environmental science is strong, as indicated by the numbers of sci entists, engineers, and other professionals engaged in research bearing on environmental issues. Other in dicators of vitality include the fact that our manuscript receipts at ES& Τ have risen from a level of 280 per year in 1977 to approximately 350 in the past two years. Also, the number of competitive environmental journals has increased as has the number of national environmental societies. Our efforts to make ES& Τ a truly useful reflection of this vitality require that it be a forum for "current" scientific deliberation. Therefore, we need to focus on reducing manuscript processing time to a minimum. Effective reduction of this time cannot be done by a single person, since the journal belongs to all of us—the publishers, the staff, the editors, the reviewers, and the authors. I am pleased to report that the management of the Books and Journals Division of ACS, the ACS staff in our Manuscript Reviewing Office and Columbus Editorial Office, and the members of the journal's Editorial Advisory Board have been actively interested in analyzing the time factors associated with pro ducing the journal. Improvements have been made in both the "receipt to acceptance" and "acceptance to publication" time categories. The bottom line is that all those working directly for the journal or the Society have succeeded in
0013-936X/83/0916-0161A$01.50/0
trimming approximately 9 to 11 weeks from the me dian processing times recorded in 1978-79. What can you do to help? The most important thing, of course, is to send us your very best work. Our experience, not surprisingly, shows that the highest quality articles are the ones that are processed most rapidly. Their value tends to be recognized immedi ately by reviewers, and revisions, if any, are minor. Another important contribution you can make is to realize that over half of our processing time is taken by reviewers' and/or authors' efforts at revision. Our requests for reviews ask that manuscripts be returned in a three-week period, and if all reviewers were at tentive to the significance of this period, our times would be dramatically reduced. The same, of course, applies to authors who have received the reviewer comments and editorial requests for revision. Since August 1981, only approximately 60% of all manu scripts accepted fell into the fastest category (accepted directly after review or after minor revision). The re mainder constitutes a significant pool from which time savings can be exacted. We are quite fortunate at ES& Τ to have a dedi cated and highly trained staff in the Manuscript Re viewing Office. Jan Fleming, Monica Creamer, Yvonne Curry, and Mary Ellen Provencher are all willing and anxious to work swiftly with authors and reviewers. Your efforts coupled with ours will move us toward the goal of keeping the journal's Research section truly current.
© 1983 American Chemical Society
Environ. Sci. Technol., Vol. 17, No. 4, 1983
161A
