QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Search for Related Content

---

Article

Editorial Announcements and Comments

	INTRODUCTION

TOP INTRODUCTION

 
The editorial group of The Journal of Nutrition and the Publications Management Committee of the ASNS have been involved in ongoing efforts to improve the value of The Journal of Nutrition to our readers. A number of changes in our current policies have recently been made and are initiated in this issue. The most noticeable of these is the new cover. In designing this cover, we have attempted to illustrate to The Journal of Nutrition readers the major areas of nutrition research that our journal covers: human nutrition and metabolism, experimental animal nutrition, and biochemical and molecular nutrition. This new design will allow us to place photographs or graphic art taken from papers in the current issue on the cover. Suitable manuscript-related photos may not be available for each issue, and I am inviting the membership to submit photos from their laboratories or departments that are illustrative of the general research areas of our coverage. They should be sent to me and should be accompanied by a letter granting permission to publish them and an indication of who should be credited for the photos. You will also note that beginning with this issue the cover will highlight the titles of a limited number of reviews or research reports in the issue. The number of color figures in The Journal of Nutrition has been relatively low. The editorial group has been interested in increasing the use of color in manuscripts where color provides a definite advantage in illustrating content, but realize that cost has been a barrier to the widespread use of color in The Journal of Nutrition. The ASNS Council has responded positively by approving on a trial basis a financial subsidy for the use of color in The Journal of Nutrition. For manuscripts submitted in 2001, authors will be charged $400 per color figure, a significant decrease from the current charge.

Over the years our Publications Management Committee has discussed changes in the way that references are cited in the text. Many of our authors like the current format of an author and year citation, and it has been my personal preference. This format has given a direct indication of both who was involved in the research cited and how current the data are. However, it is no longer a commonly used reference format by scientific journals, and some software reference programs do not handle it well. A major factor in the decision to make a change was that the current format takes a substantial amount of Journal space. As printing costs are approaching $200 per page, an alteration in this format can achieve a significant savings to the Society. The revised Guide for Authors printed in this issue therefore indicates that references in The Journal of Nutrition will now be numerically cited in the text in the order of their citation. The style of the reference list will not be changed except for the numerical presentation. Because of the cost of revising some of the manuscripts in the publication pipeline, this issue and the February issue may contain a mixture of both formats.

The practice of providing short commentaries on what are hoped to be high impact published papers is popular with many readers, and our Associate Editors will be working with me to highlight a limited number of publications in this fashion. If one of our Associate Editors contacts you to share your expertise with our readers, I hope that you will be willing to work with them in the short time frame that will be required. The way that ASNS-sponsored annual meeting symposia are published will also be changed. Their publication as a supplement to The Journal of Nutrition has been a popular practice, but one which will not continue. This practice delayed publication of any of the symposia until each symposium organizer had received all the manuscripts from the participants and had completed the initial manuscript editing. Beginning this year, these annual meeting symposia will be published as a supplement in regular issues of The Journal as they are made available to our editorial office. A separate supplement will not be published, and the timeliness of the published reviews will be improved.

Finally, two broader issues, electronic submission and open access to the published literature are under consideration. The editorial group is working with the Publications Management Committee and the ASNS Council and staff to move toward electronic submission and review of manuscripts. A decision on a vendor to handle the system which will be needed has not yet been made, but it is our intent to institute this option before the end of 2001. As many of you are aware, there is currently an effort underway to ask scientists not to publish in, review for, or subscribe to journals that do not make their content freely available to everyone after a six-month delay. It is also suggested that journals transfer their content to a public repository such as PubMed Central. Our current policy is to allow free access to papers 12 months after publication through our on-line publisher Highwire Press. The issues in this aspect of the publishing process are complex and all options are not yet clearly defined. We will continue to monitor the changes and opportunities in this area in our attempt to do what is best for our Society, our authors, our readers, and the scientific community. As change occurs, the ASNS membership will be informed.

J. W. Suttie Editor

The Journal of Nutrition 12/7/00

This Article Full Text (PDF) Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Search for Related Content