Off -Shore Authors Are
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few months ago an article in a popular science magazine made the claim that authors living outside the United States have special difficulty publishing their science in U.S. journals. The proportion of articles published in American Chemical Society journals by non-U.S. scholars suggests that this premise is incorrect. In 1989,3696and, in 1994,45% of the papers published in ACS journals were by nonresident authors. (Here, nonresident author refers to a corresponding (i.e., senior) author at an institution outside the United States; the above percentages would be much larger if the contributions of foreign students working at U.S. institutions were included. ) For Analytical Chemistry, the comparable numbers were smaller but still considerable; 26%and 37%of the papers published in 1989 and 1994,respectively, were by nonresident authors. The proportion of foreign senior authorship is increasing; in 1994,Analytical Chemistry papers included research from 32 countries, signifying a broad geographical distribution of high-quality measurement science. This means to me that Analytical Chemistry is publishing an increasing worldwide portion of excellent analytical chemistry research. That's good. Publication in Analytical Chemistry, and other ACS journals, is substantially guided by peer-review evaluations of submitted research manuscripts. My perception of reviewers is that there are no "favorite" countries. "Cutting-edge" analytical chemistry has no nationality. Reviewers are often non-U.S. residents. Our editorial responsibility is to identify and disseminate to our readership the most significant advances in chem-
ical measurement science. For those fine scholars and potential authors at non-U.S. institutions who suspect that Analytical Chemistry has a national bias, I would like to persuade you that is not the case. It is important to realize that a potential author, anywhere, who is unfamiliar with a journal can best come to understand its requirements and standards with regard to quality of experiments, novelty of concepts and theory, and significance of the applications only by a careful reading of articles published in the journal, as well as its published instructions to authors. A potential author can be handicapped by lack of equipment or proper facilities, but in the above respect can be especially handicapped by a poor library resource. I examine each paper submitted to Analytical Chemistry before assigning it to an Associate Editor (or myself) for peer evaluation. Several times a month, I see papers submitted by non-U.S. authors that clearly reflect an incomplete and out-of-date awareness of the current literature and state of intellectual development of the subject at hand. To those authors I can only say try harder to find and read copies of Analytical Chemistry and other sources of good chemistry, and show this editorial to the local authorities who, if they wish to s u p port analytical chemistry research, should provide the means for better access to the chemical literature.
Analytical Chemistry, November 1, 1995 641 A
