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2002 Publications Committee Report
APS Journal Impact
The Journal Impact Factors made a strong showing again
in 2002, with four of our journals (PRV, AJP-Renal, Physiological Genomics,
and AJP-Cell) ranking in the top 10 Physiology journals. Physi-ological
Genomics jumped from 3.352 to 4.667 in one year.
The Publications Committee requested that the APS
Council write a letter to the leadership of ISI, asking them to develop
measures of journal quality alternative to the Impact Factor, especially
those that take longevity of articles into account. A letter was sent from
the APS President, Barbara Horwitz.
Reports—New Type of High-Impact Article. A new category
of papers called “Reports,” developed to encourage the submission of
high-impact articles, replaced “Rapid Communications” in 2002. Papers
submitted to this category are designed to present the best original
scientific research having broad significance, but are not designed to be
short versions of regular full-length papers. Manuscripts judged lacking in
originality, scientific importance, and broad interest are declined even if
the experimental work is technically sound. These articles include a short
abstract and introductory paragraph, and are limited to no more than three
printed journal pages (~2,500 words). From January 1 to June 1, 2003, 69
“Reports” have been submitted and 26 have been published across all the
journals.
Improving citations. Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs),
the standard for tracking information on the Web, began appearing on all
articles in 2002. Links to other journals in ISI’s Web of Science were made
to articles in our reference lists online. Also, the length of all article
titles was extended to 160 characters to allow authors to write more
descriptive titles and the length of all abstracts was extended to that
allowed by Medline (250 words).
Publication Efficiency
Articles in Press. All original research journals,
including Journal of Neurophysiology in July 2002, started publishing
Articles in PresS, which allows online publication of manuscripts within a
week of their acceptance. It was decided at the Spring 2003 Council Meeting
to discontinue the still-popular APStracts feature on the Web, because
Articles in PresS meets the same need with better functionality. Starting in
2004, users will be redirected to Articles in PresS from the APStracts page.
S-Proof. S-proofs remain a popular feature that helps
speed production of individual articles. The authors receive an Email
directing them to a secure site that allows them to view and download a pdf
of their paper. They mark up the paper and return it to us via express mail.
An upgraded version of the software was implemented in March 2003.
Financial Stability and Increased Accessibility
Subscription Prices. Subscription prices for 2004 were
set with the same pricing model as last year, which unbundles prices so that
subscribers can choose print only, print plus online, or online only. The
Committee and Council approved a price increase of 8.5%, with increases in
page charges to $70 per page and color charges to be increased to $300 from
$250 per figure for non-members. We will charge authors $150 ($250 for PRV
articles) for “toll-free links,” which allow authors to put a link on their
own web sites to their articles on the HW site. Visitors to the authors’ web
sites who click on the link can get to that author’s article for free.
Open Access. The Committee also suggested and the
Council approved that we employ an author-based payment option starting July
1 for Physiological Genomics, giving authors the following choice: paying
$1,500 for published articles with open access to the public immediately
upon publication; or paying nothing, with the article being published under
subscription access.
Legacy Content. The first phase of Legacy Content,
going back to 1986, was put online in 2002, and the second phase, to 1966,
is almost complete. The Legacy Content, which will go back to 1898 by the
end of 2004, is being sold as a product with a one-time price of $1,500
until the end of 2003. The price will increase to $2,000 in 2004.
Archiving. APS continues to be involved in two
archiving initiatives developed at HighWire. LOCKSS is an archiving system
that uses multiple electronic copies of the content to automatically back up
and refresh any corrupted online content. It has received a grant from the
Mellon Foundation, and has been spun off from HighWire. APS has volunteered
to be one of the sites that monitors a cache of this system, and we are in
the process of setting that up right now. The other archiving initiative is
a prototype of a very large archive of digital content. Unlike LOCKSS, the
content is protected by being hidden; this system is designed to preserve
static copies of the content for a very long time.
Reducing Member Costs
APS members started receiving free online access to all
journals in 2002. APS members continue to take increased advantage of the
free color policy. In 2002, $315,000 of free color was given to members, up
from $225,750 in 2001.
Innovative Use of Electronic Publications
Supplemental Material. Eighty-four data supplements
total have been published as of June 1, 2003. Fifty percent of these were
published in Physiological Genomics.
HighWire Portal. HighWire has redesigned their home
page to be a portal to all the journal content on their site, called the
HighWire Library of the Sciences and Medicine. It is the largest online
collection of high impact science journals. An article appears in almost
every issue of The Physiologist describing the features of the portal to
readers.
Classic Articles Collection. As an outgrowth of the
Legacy Content project, a Task Force was formed to develop a list of classic
physiology articles from the APS original research journals. Chaired by
Hershel Raff of the Publications Committee, the other members of the Task
Force are Christian Bauer, Dale Benos, Alfred Fishman, Gerhard Giebisch,
Susan Hamilton, Eve Marder, Bodil M. Schmidt-Nielsen, Gary Sieck, Stanley
Schultz, Daniel C. Tosteson, and John West. A review of the list of articles
is being done by the journal Editors, the History Book subcommittee, and the
History of Physiology interest group. These articles will be made free
online, and will be accompanied by editorials describing their significance.
The goal is to have the collection finished in 2004, when all of the legacy
content is online.
Bundling Review Articles. It is now possible to go to
the journal home page and link to a table of contents of all review articles
in that journal across time, and a list of review articles across all the
APS journals (except NIPS and PRV).
STKE and SAGE. APS continues to participate in AAAS’s
Knowledge Environments, allowing APS journal content to be part of the
Signal Transduction Knowledge Environment (STKE) and giving our members the
same AAAS membership discount to its subscriptions. APS also allows our
journal content to be linked to the new Science of Aging Knowledge
Environment (SAGE) at a pay-per-view price for non-subscribers.
Translational Research
Call for Papers. A Call for Papers on Translational
Physiology has run since the June 2001 issues of all the APS research
journals. The papers will be published as they are accepted under a special
heading in the Journal it was submitted to. Across all the journals, 71
papers were submitted and 20 papers were published under the Translational
Research heading in 2002. From January 1 to June 1, 2003, 35 have been
submitted and 24 have been published.
“Physiology in Medicine” (PIM). An agreement was made
in 2001 to publish the “Physiology in Medicine” series in Annals of Internal
Medicine, with D. Ausiello as the Editor of the series, and Benos serving as
Deputy Editor. So far, articles have been published on April 15 and June 17,
2003. We have posted pdfs of the Annals PIM articles on our web site
(http://www.the-aps.org/publications/journals/pim/index.htm). The articles
are freely accessible to all.
Other Items of Significance
Editor Appointments
Marshall Montrose will become Editor of AJP-GI, Allen
Cowley will become Editor of Physiological Genomics, and Walter Boron will
become Editor of News in Physiological Sciences in July 2003. The Editor of
AJP-Endocrinology will be evaluated at the Fall 2003 meeting of the
Publications Committee.
Ethical Issues. All of the following changes have
been implemented as of the July issues of the journals:
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Conflict of Interest. A check box has been added to
the online submission form, for authors who need to be more explicit
regarding disclosure. If the author checks the box, they will be sent a
conflict of interest form to fill out.
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Editor-in-Chief Submitting Article to their own
Journal. Language has been added to the Information for Authors explaining
that the Editor is blinded to the process. Language will be added to the
Reviewer instructions and invitation letter discouraging reviewer
conflicts (eg, recent collaboration with the author).
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Personal Communication. A statement has been added to
the Information for Authors that citation of Personal Communications
should be discouraged, and if used, the author must have a letter granting
permission from the communicant in his or her files to send to APS if
requested.
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Bioterrorism Policy. It was decided that rather than
adopt a formal policy such as that adopted by PNAS and other journals, the
Committee would raise the awareness of the Editors to the danger of
allowing potential bioterrorism information to be published. If there is
doubt, the Editor should contact the Publications Committee chair through
the Director of Publications.
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Retraction Policy. If a published article is
retracted due to fraud or other reason, a Retraction statement will be
published as a corrigenda, and the article will be tagged online as
Retracted.
Dale Benos, Chair
Council Actions
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