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May 2002
Volume 66 |
Number 5
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ADMINISTRATIVE UPDATE
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| Anesthesiology: 2002
Looks to Be a Banner Year |
Michael M. Todd, M.D., Editor-in-Chief
Anesthesiology
It is customary for the Vice-President for Scientific Affairs
to author this column in the May issue of the ASA NEWSLETTER.
Instead, I chose to invite a member of the Scientific Council,
Michael M. Todd, M.D., to give an update on our journal Anesthesiology.
ASA members should be proud of our highly reputable journal, and
we should recognize the excellent contributions made by the editor-in-chief
and the editorial board.
– Bruce F. Cullen, M.D. Vice-President for
Scientific Affairs
2001 was a remarkable year for Anesthesiology for many reasons.
Our submissions reached a new high. The growth of the online journal
continues, and our shift to all-electronic manuscript handling
is proceeding as planned. Finally, the 2001 royalty payment to
ASA was the second largest ever.
In 2001, Anesthesiology received 1,516 manuscript submissions
(an average of 126 papers per month). Our previous high was 1,480
in 1999. A little more than half (58.5 percent) of these submissions
arrived from outside the United States, a fact that continues
to reflect national and global changes in the academic anesthesiology
communities. Japan, Germany and France continue to lead international
submissions.
We believe that this increase in submissions is partly attributable
to our introduction of an electronic manuscript submission system
in July 2001. The software was written by our Webmaster, Tom Smith,
and permits even Web neophytes to upload text and figures via
the journal's Web site. For individuals less comfortable with
the Web, we also accept manuscripts on disk or via e-mail. As
evidence of the success of this system, 62 percent of our current
submissions arrive electronically. The advantage is that manuscripts,
which are converted PDF files, can now be electronically distributed
to reviewers everywhere without the inevitable delays (and expenses)
associated with surface mail, courier services, etc. Our publisher
also has now shifted to the electronic distribution of "galleys"
(officially known as "page proofs") to authors. Our
plan is to move to mandatory electronic submissions by this summer.
This will coincide with our introduction of a completely new,
Web-based manuscript management system. These changes hold the
promise of dramatically speeding the processing of manuscripts
and reducing the time between submission, decision and publication.
I predict that within a year, a great deal of paper will disappear
from our office and from reviewers' desks.
Consistent with these internal changes, the electronic online
journal continues to grow. Last summer, the full-text content
of Anesthesiology back to 1995 was loaded, and everything since
mid-1999 is available as a PDF. There are 3,169 people who now
receive the "eTOC," the monthly e-mail notification
of the table of contents – and 1,260 of these are not regular
subscribers. A total of 4,589 individuals and institutions have
activated their access to the electronic journal, although, surprisingly,
only 8 percent of ASA members have taken advantage of this service.
A more telling statistic is that in the months of January and
February 2002 alone, there were a total of 11,752 hits on full-text
articles (including 7,956 downloaded PDF files). We have continued
to make certain articles free of charge to all visitors to the
site, including editorials, practice parameters and the "Current
Concepts" and "Commentary" articles as well as
other selected items.
Finally, the financial status of the journal remains strong.
For the year 2001, a total honorarium of more than $1 million
was returned to ASA. This occurred despite a roughly 14-percent
decrease in commercial advertising revenue. Among other factors,
the journalšs continued financial strength is a product of the
long-expected savings from elimination of the printed Annual Meeting
abstract supplement.
The goals of the editorial board remain unchanged: to provide
the most rigorously peer-reviewed, highest quality journal of
anesthesia-related science and clinical information in the world
and to serve both the members of ASA and the international anesthesia
community to the best of our ability. As always, I welcome any
comments or constructive criticism from any of our readers. I
can most easily be reached by e-mail at <anesthesiology@uiowa.edu>.
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