If it's Good for Authors, it's Good for Readers Too
Editor in Chief, British Occupational Hygiene Society 5/6 Melbourne Business Court, Pride Park, Derby DE24 8LZ, UK
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: ogden{at}ogs.org.uk
OUR PERFORMANCE
The year 2006 was our third record year in succession as far as the number of submissions is concerned. Authors are taking advantage of the following.
- Fast decision. For papers received in the first 10 months of 2006, the median time for sending a first decision to authors was 7 weeks from submission of the paper, with 85% of first decisions within 11 weeks.
- Fast production. Papers are usually published on-line about 6 weeks after acceptance, and can then be cited as publications, as explained at http://annhyg.oxfordjournals.org/misc/papfaq.dtl, and are listed on Medline and other indexes at that stage. At the time of writing, papers are appearing in print about 3–5 months after acceptance. All papers carry the receipts dates of the first and final versions (not the date of acceptance), so readers can keep track of our performance.
- Intelligent peer review. All papers and significant correspondence items are peer reviewed. We aim to invite reviewers who are expert in the field of the paper rather than drawing them from a static database, and to supply editorial guidance rather than just acting as a post-box for reviewers' comments.
- Flexible publication. We encourage authors to be concise, and to put detailed background material and data in supplementary files which appear in the on-line edition only. These can include audio and video material.
- Versatile on-line edition. This has a flexible search facility which can be applied to the full text of papers back to 1972, soon to be extended to the journal's beginning in 1958.
- Optional open access. When a paper has been accepted, authors can opt to have to paper published free of charge in the traditional way, or to pay a fee which makes their paper free to access on-line from the date of publication. (All papers become free to access after two years.).
- Prospective authors should also consult the Aims and Scope in each issue (also on the website), and, of course, submit in accordance with the Instructions to Authors at http://www.oxfordjournals.org/our_journals/annhyg/for_authors/general.html.
DEVELOPING EDITORIAL CAPABILITY
Our success owes a lot to Steve Rappaport, who resigned as North American Editor at the end of 2006, after 9 years' service. During that time he was editor for almost 300 papers, he contributed his wisdom and experience to the journal's development, and he saw a growth in number and range of North American submissions. Steve is also a co-author of several of the all-time top Annals papers by number of citations, a testimony to the importance of his contribution to the subject.
Instead of directly replacing Steve, we are expanding our team of assistant editors, and have just appointed two from the US, David Bartley and Noah Seixas, to bring the number to 7. 2006 has shown that this spread of the editorial load can be achieved without introducing significant delay. It certainly strengthens the corporate wisdom of the Editorial Board, and helps us prepare for what we hope will be an exciting future.
Received February 8, 2007; in final form February 9, 2007
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