The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences 56:M2-M3 (2001)
© 2001 The Gerontological Society of America
Editorial: The State of the Journal
John E. Morley, MB, BCha
a Editor, Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences Division of Geriatric Medicine, Saint Louis University and GRECC, St. Louis VAMC January 2001
FROM January 1 through November 10, 2000, this editorial office received 244 new manuscripts. In addition, 20 manuscripts that were in various revision or review stages were forwarded to this office by the former editor. Thus, the total number of manuscripts under active consideration by the Journal during the first 10 months of 2000 was 264. We have been receiving approximately 24 articles per month.
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Acceptance Rates
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Because of the volume of manuscripts received, it was decided by the editorial board that there was sufficient reason to give "priority rejections" to those manuscripts deemed by the editor to have a low priority rating for publication even if any potential reviewers might find the manuscript acceptable with revisions. This was done for manuscripts that were of a subject matter that either had been found not of interest to the Journal or that had already been covered extensively by recently accepted manuscripts. The hope is to provide varied topics for the Journal's readership that more closely matches their interests. At present our acceptance rate is 35.6%.
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Editorial Time
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Mean time for an initial decision for manuscripts in 2000 was 11.6 days. No review took longer than 44 days to the initial decision in 2000. Most of the requests for reviews are sent out via e-mail or phone, which has received a quick response. We ask the reviewers to complete the review within 2 weeks. If they indicate they will be unable to complete the review within that time frame but give a 3-week time frame, we usually accept it. If the reviewer indicates it will take 4 weeks to complete the review, we move on to another potential reviewer. Because many of the manuscripts are submitted by e-mail, we are able to attach them to an e-mail message once we have a positive response for a reviewer, further saving turnaround time by avoiding express mail. The reviewers are encouraged to send their reviews as an attachment by e-mail, again saving lag time.
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Publication Lag
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The lag between acceptance and publication will be running 10 months by January 2001. This is being addressed by maintaining a low acceptance rate and by temporarily printing more pages per issue, which should lead to a more rapid publication rate. The hope is to decrease the time to publication to 4–5 months by the end of the year 2001. We also are giving priority to certain manuscripts in which rapid publication is justified.
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New Features
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The Journal has begun to run editorials in each issue since May (1). In addition, review articles will appear monthly starting in December 2000 (2). Future history articles have been difficult to obtain and only three have been received to date. As of 2001 we will be adding a section called "Clinical Pearls." This will predominantly take case series that illustrate an important clinical point together with a review of the area. It will also consider geriatric grand rounds presentations of a single case with a literature review such as Dr. Katz's article in the October issue (3). In general, these new features have been received positively as they have been introduced and will also result in an increase in the citation rate. We have yet to receive any letters commenting on published work.
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Conclusion
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This has been a challenging year for the new editorial group. We believe however that the Journal is on the right track. I especially would like to thank my editorial assistant, Valerie Rincker, for her outstanding service. In addition, I need to thank my associate editors, the editorial board, my reviewers, and the editorial staff at GSA.
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References
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Morley JE, 2000. Diabetes Mellitus: A major disease of older persons. J Gerontol Med Sci. 55A:M255-M256. [Free Full Text]
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Roubenoff R, 2000. Sarcopenia: current concepts. J Gerontol Med Sci. 55A:M716-M724. [Abstract/Free Full Text]
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Katz MS, 2000. Geriatrics grand rounds: eve's rib, or a revisionist view of osteoporosis in men. J Gerontol Med Sci. 55A:M560-M569. [Abstract/Free Full Text]
This article has been cited by other articles:
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J. E. Morley
Editorial: Drugs, Aging, and the Future
J. Gerontol. A Biol. Sci. Med. Sci.,
January 1, 2002;
57(1):
M2 - 6.
[Full Text]
[PDF]
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Acceptance Rates
Editorial Time