HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Free Submit a response Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Dempsey, J. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Dempsey, J.

EDITORIAL

State of the Journal 2007: Emphasis on communication and significant advances

Initiatives to enhance communication: your participation is critical.   A major new goal has been to have the journal, both in print and online version, serve as a forum for various means of communication among scientists. This is the primary purpose of the Point:Counterpoint series—especially the brief commentaries that are submitted in response to these debates. To date, we have only partially realized the hope that new, beginning investigators would participate heavily in Point:Counterpoint series; I encourage the younger scientists to take this opportunity to weigh in on these important issues. We have currently arranged our Point:Counterpoint submissions into 2008, but we need more. Please send us your ideas—including potential authors (see http://www.the-aps.org/publications/jappl/index.htm). If you have specific views on important physiological issues, this is your opportunity to voice them.

We have also recently initiated a "Viewpoint"-type article. This format will require the author(s) to offer a unique slant on a significant unresolved problem and solicits the readership to provide brief feedback commentary on this viewpoint (see website).

The hope is that these types of publications—together with the increased number of published editorial perspectives and letters to the editor on original articles—will provide a freer flow of opinions and insights. In turn, this should lead to new interpretations and more thorough understanding of already published work and, most importantly, to better ideas for future research. Again, please send us your suggestions for the Point:Counterpoint and Viewpoint articles.

We are also continuing the popular "Highlighted Topics" series at the rate of four topics per year, with six to eight mini-reviews per topic. Please look over the list of previous and future Highlighted Topics (see Journal of Applied Physiology website) and send us your ideas. Also indicate whether you would consider being a guest editor for a Highlighted Topic series.

Steps to ensure significant advances and continued diversity in Journal of Applied Physiology publications.   Since its inception in 1948, the Journal of Applied Physiology has certainly changed as science has modernized. At the same time, the journal has also continued to serve many scientific constituencies—even those in which the number of practicing scientists has declined over the decades, but in which important, worthy scientific questions remain. Indeed, many of the classic, still cited Journal of Applied Physiology manuscripts are in some of these areas of investigation, such as comparative physiology, mathematical modeling in physiology, hyperbaric physiology, temperature regulation, biomechanics, etc.

We continue this policy of inclusion as a hallmark of the Journal of Applied Physiology legacy, which recognizes a continued responsibility to its broad readership and to science. To ensure that we also improve quality and impact of the journal as we continue to serve these important constituencies, we have fine tuned some key elements in the peer review process.

Over this past year and a half, we have increased emphasis on the requirement that publishable studies not only be adequately designed, conducted, and reported but that the consensus of judgment from reviewers is that the findings also provide a truly significant advance in physiological understanding. To better meet this requirement, we have increased the number and broadened the expertise of the associate editors and revised the specific charge to reviewers. We have also increased the minimum number of reviewers to three on almost all manuscripts and are more liberal in the use of an extra reviewer in the face of mixed opinions.

A result of these measures to date is that the acceptance rate for publication of submitted original research manuscripts has averaged 30–35% over the past 18 mo. This acceptance rate is significantly below the average 40–45% acceptance rate achieved over the 3-yr period prior to 2005. Our associate and consulting editors believe that these measures have led to an increase in the number of significant advances being published in the Journal of Applied Physiology over this past year.

Please give us your feedback on these peer review policies and on our new publication initiatives. We truly need your participation so that our journal can maintain its high standing as the journal of applied physiology.

Jerome Dempsey

Editor, Journal of Applied Physiology

This Article Full Text (PDF) Free Submit a response Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Dempsey, J. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Dempsey, J.