Editorial pubs.acs.org/ac
Cite This: Anal. Chem. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
Where Do Our Manuscripts Come From? nalytical Chemistry is publishing its 90th volume this year, and many aspects of our journal have changed during these 9 decades, including the countries being represented by our articles. In 1929, we did not publish a single manuscript listing China as the lead country. In 2014, I wrote an editorial stating that it was the first year that Analytical Chemistry received similar numbers of manuscripts from North America, Europe, and Asia, with China and the U.S.A. tied for the most submissions.1 Over the past 3 years, the number of manuscripts from China has continued to increase and in 2017, for the first time, China surpassed the U.S.A. Congratulations to China for having the largest number of published articles in Analytical Chemistry! More specifically, last year about 29% of our articles were from China and 26% from the U.S.A., with overall submissions divided between Asia, Europe, and the Americas and too few articles from Africa. Measurement Science certainly has become a global enterprise. This geographic diversity is also reflected in our talented pool of Associate Editors. We have added editors from Asia and Europe, and with the continued growth of the journal, we will be adding more in the next year. We select our editors based on their outstanding science credentials and expertise. Keep in mind that we assign manuscripts to our editors based on topic and not according to the manuscript’s country of origin. The science will always be the criteria by which we judge submissions to the journal. While I am reporting this geographical milestone for Analytical Chemistry, it is interesting that similar trends are impacting all fields of science. According to the National Science Board’s 2018 report,2 in 2016 China had more published articles indexed in Scopus than the U.S.A., and this upward trend continues. The EU continues to lead other “countries” in terms of published manuscripts, although I wonder if the U.K. articles will continue to be counted in those numbers. From my perspective, the globalization of research is a positive trend, but others are worried about a decline in American science. An interesting Washington Post article published in June3 reported that although the U.S.A. spends about a half-trillion dollars a year funding research, China is on track to surpass us this year. I am not surprised that research spending and publication output track each other. In other words, if China is spending more money on research, is it surprising that they are publishing more science? I see another striking trend in the countries performing the research we publish. I find it difficult to categorize manuscripts submitted to Analytical Chemistry by a single country of origin as so many are collaborative. Scan any recent issue and you will find articles listing authors from multiple departments, institutions, and countries. Research is truly becoming global, not just in an overall scope, but also in terms of the individual research articles. It is a positive development that much of the work published in Analytical Chemistry is hard to categorize. I also find it interesting that American authors on scientific
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© XXXX American Chemical Society
papers are more likely to collaborate with Chinese scientists than with colleagues from other countries.2 Taken together, I am convinced that these current trends mean the future is bright and will remain so as long as we all cooperate and collaborate. Times certainly have changed since our first issue was published in 1929.
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Jonathan V. Sweedler AUTHOR INFORMATION
ORCID
Jonathan V. Sweedler: 0000-0003-3107-9922 Notes
Views expressed in this editorial are those of the author and not necessarily the views of the ACS.
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REFERENCES
(1) Sweedler, J. V. Anal. Chem. 2014, 86 (9), 4067−4067. (2) National Science Board. Overview of the State of the U.S. S&E Enterprise in a Global Context, https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/2018/ nsb20181/report/sections/overview/research-publications, downloaded on August 2, 2018. (3) Guarino, B.; Rauhala, E.; Wan, W. China increasingly challenges American dominance of science. Washington Post, June 3, 2018.
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.8b03710 Anal. Chem. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
