Reports
of Publications
APS Press
Sharon M. Douglas, Editor-in-Chief
During FY2000, APS Press published eight new books, two new slide sets, and one video. The Press Editorial Board accepted seven of the ten projects that were submitted during FY2000 and has agreements for 22 other projects (in addition to eight slide sets from forthcoming Compendia). The Press sold 24,560 books, including 13,076 compendia, 576 symposia, three monographs, 84 classics, 1046 plant health management books, and 9,775 other books (non-series titles, B&C Tests, and F&N Tests). Additionally, 677 slide sets, 625 CD-ROMS, four videodiscs, and 83 video tapes were sold. As of June 30, 2000 the estimated (unaudited) gross income was $1,110,084 ($842,786 from books, $112,985 from slides, $58,133 from electronic products, and $96,180 from other sources). This figure is $107,842 below the budgeted amount. This shortfall is due in part to the absence of revenue from several titles that were scheduled to be published during that time period and to underperformance of several backlist titles. Direct expenses as of the May statement were $801,179. As of this writing, expenses for year-end FY2000 had not been calculated.
Financial issues were of key concern for the Press this year. APS Press was one of the revenue centers asked by Council and the Financial Advisory Committee (FAC) to generate additional surplus for the Society. In response to this charge, these issues were addressed by Staff and EIC Sharon Douglas. As a result of this fiscal self-evaluation, several significant changes will be initiated with the FY2001 budget beginning on 1 July 2000. Among the key changes were a customer service staff reduction, increased prices for most books and slide sets, and increased charges for domestic shipping and handling. Other savings will be realized with the completion of the image digitization project which amounted to an investment of approximately $60,000 during the past three fiscal years.
Additional savings for the FY2001 budget will be realized by a change in the status of APS Press Europe. APS Press Europe has been a substantial expense since its creation. This office opened in May 1996 and in FY1999 European income of $183,179, represented 16.8% of the total income of APS Press. However, the net gain for that same time period (FY1999) was -$36,916 Since its inception, the office has realized a -$96,139 loss for the Press, a figure which represents a substantial loss of revenue. In light of the financial self-evaluation of APS Press, FAC approved to change the status of the office from full service to “liaison”. The details of this new role for the office remain to be determined. The decision to change the status of APS Press Europe was purely financial and APS Press acknowledges and gives special recognition and thanks to Hilde Keunen for her excellent work in this office.
Total direct expenses and overhead have been gradually increasing over the years for APS Press. Increased costs are also associated with some of the new types of products that are being offered since many of these products (e.g., CD-ROMs, online delivery) require more staff time and input than traditional, camera-ready, print publications.
APS Press continues to explore new sources of revenue and recently entered an agreement with G-support.com for which the Press granted a license for nonexclusive use of information from “Turfgrass Diseases: Diagnosis and Management” CD-ROM. This agreement is for a trial period of 3 years, after which it will be re-evaluated.
The FY2001 budget for APS Press includes 25,882 books (11,312 single titles, 13,874 Compendia, 242 volume of B&C Tests, and 454 volume of F&N Tests), 360 slide sets, and 2,526 CD-ROMs for publication. The anticipated gross income is $1,318,521. The net profit for the FY2001 budget is estimated at more than $100,000 depending on assignment of overhead.
The current inventory at APS Press includes 160 book titles, 46 slide sets, three video tapes, four CD-ROMs, one videodisc, and two diskettes.
Recognizing the importance of electronic information delivery, APS Press was prepared to publish the year 2000 editions of F&N Tests (Vol. 55) and B&C Tests (Vol. 15) in both print and online formats. The online versions were offered at the same price as their print counterparts. Anticipated publication on the internet necessitated changes in the submission procedures and new guidelines for the preparation of reports were written and made available in hard copy and were also posted on APSnet. The intent of offering this new format is to eventually move to exclusive online availability and away from print versions within the next year. At the time of this report, interest in the online versions of these products was extremely low. As a consequence, B&C Tests (Vol. 15) will not be offered online as anticipated since no orders were placed. However, F&N Tests (Vol. 55) will be offered online since some orders were placed for this electronic version. In addition to online delivery, B&C Tests initiated a procedure for electronic submission, review, revision, and notification of acceptance of reports. This procedure did not require any printed materials until final submission. APS Press will evaluate the success of the online format in the coming year since the next issues will only be offered as online publications.
APS Press held a book signing at the Annual Meeting in Montreal. This successful new venture for the Press featured Tobacco Mosaic Virus: One Hundred Years of Contributions to Virology by Scholthof, Shaw, and Zaitlin and The Formative Years of Plant Pathology in the United States by Campbell, Peterson, and Griffiths. Authors were present to sign and discuss their books with meeting attendees. A commemorative book plate was distributed in recognition of Lee Campbell.
Given the success of the reasonably priced Field Crops Image Collection CD-ROM, several new image collections using the newly digitized APS images were compiled with the assistance of Dr. Bahram Grami (a member of Headquarters Staff, AACC Scientific Services) with valuable input from APS members. The three new collections are Nutritional Disorders, Small Fruits, and Vegetables. Additional image collections are planned for FY2001.
In response to a significant rise in customer interest in purchasing directly over the internet, APS Press is preparing to implement e-commerce for the APS Press Bookstore in early FY2001.
Sharon M. Douglas will complete her tenure as Editor-in-Chief after the meeting in New Orleans and Randy C. Ploetz will assume responsibilities as Editor-in-Chief for the term 2000-2003. Four new Senior Editors were also appointed to the Press Editorial Board for three year terms by Council and are Christopher Becker, Jeffrey Jones, Gareth Hughes, and Gary Moorman. They will fill the vacancies left by retiring Senior Editors Margery Daughtrey, Tim R. Gottwald, and Rosemary Loria. The service of the retiring editors over the past three years is greatly appreciated. Continuing Senior Editors are D. Michael Benson, Armando Bergamin Filho, Edward J. Braun, Wesley Chun, Ann Brooks Gould, and Karen-Beth G. Scholthof.
APS Press continues to receive excellent support from Headquarters staff. Karen Cummings was appointed APS Publications Manager and is the key contact for Senior Editors and others with questions regarding current projects and new proposals. Policy, planning, and budget issues are coordinated by Karen Cummings, Steve Kronmiller (Electronic Products Manager), and Greg Grahek (Marketing Manager). Special thanks are in order for Miles Wimer, former Administrative Director of Information and Publishing, who has been invaluable to APS Press over the years. Due to headquarters reorganization, Miles will no longer be directly involved with Press activities. APS Press would also like to acknowledge Jordana Anker who was helpful in bridging the transition between Publications Managers upon the resignation of Pam Johnson. The APS Press Editorial Board gratefully acknowledges and appreciates the continued expertise and support of all Headquarters staff.
APS Press Committee Reports
Illustrations
of Plant Pathogens and Diseases
Current Members: Chair: Immediate Past Chair: E. J. Braun. G. J. Holmes, G. W. Hudler, V. Kumar, G. W. Moorman, N. R. O’Neill, J. E. Partridge, A. C. Schilder, G. R. Stanosz, T. J. Volk, J. E. Watkins
Current Members: Chair: P. D. Peterson. Immediate Past Chair: T. D. Murray. D. W. Fulbright, C. S. Griffith, C. M. Liddell, K-B. G. Scholthof
Standardization of Common Names for Plant Diseases
Current Committee Chair: Melodie Putnam, Oregon State University, putnamm@bcc.orst.edu
Immediate Past Chair: Beth Teviotdale, University of California, betht@uckac.edu
Current Vice‑Chair: Paul Bertrand, University of Georgia, bertrand@arches.uga.edu
| Members | Appointed | Serves Until |
| Melodie Putnam | 96 | 02 |
| Mike Matheron | 98 | 01 |
| Paul Bertrand | 98 | 03 |
| Charles Averre | 99 | 02 |
| John Hart | 99 | 02 |
| Tom Zitter | 99 | 02 |
| Arvydas Grybauskas | 00 | 03 |
| Edward Podlekis | 00 | 03 |
Committee members rotating off in 2000:
| Beth Teviotdale | 95 | 00 |
| Dave Rizzo | 98 | 00 |
| Jean Woodward | 98 | 00 |
This committee oversees the compilation of lists of common names for plant diseases, which are then the official names used in journals, books, and other publications of APS Press. Lists of proposed disease names are published in Phytopathology News and are available on-line at http://www.scisoc.org/resource/common/commentc.htm. Following a comment period, the lists are then published in final form on-line at <http://www.scisoc.org/resource/common/tofc.htm.
The committee was quite active during 1999-2000. Fourteen lists of proposed common names were amended per comments received, the viral taxonomy was changed, and all were then sent to APS for final posting. Lists for three hosts (Cattleya, mango, and poinsettia) were published as proposed names. Comments have been received and forwarded to the author of the lists. We are currently waiting for the author to respond to comments and return the proposed lists to the committee chair in final form.
A new list was submitted for diseases of hazelnuts. Comments were received and incorporated, and the list is nearly ready to be sent back to APS for posting in its final form.
Efforts prior to this year have concentrated on compilation of disease names for those hosts for which there is no official list. This year the focus of the committee has been on creating and implementing a systematic process for revision of previously published lists. The lists, many of which date to 1993, require updating to correct formatting errors, reflect changes in taxonomy, and to add new diseases. The committee chair has worked with Sharon Douglas, immediate past Editor in Chief of APS Press, to provide a mechanism for reviewing revised lists. Once a list has been revised, it will be posted on the APS web site and an announcement regarding the availability of the list for review will be made in print in Phytopathology News and via e-mail in an APS News Capsule. Comments will be solicited as with a new list, but the proposed revised list will not be published in the newsletter, to save publishing costs. Anyone who does not have access to the proposed revised list on-line may request a hard copy from the chair of the committee. After the comment period and incorporation of any changes, the list will be reposted on the “final” web page. Currently eight revised lists have been returned to the committee chair, and 14 more are in various stages of revision.
There has been interest in an international effort on standardization of disease names on the part of David Teakle of the International Society of Plant Pathology, who sought input from APS on this issue. In previous years the committee has focused its attentions elsewhere. This year the chair of the Common Names committee has been in communication with David Teakle regarding a set of proposed guidelines for naming diseases, which have been modified several times. These proposed guidelines, in their most current form, were presented to the APS membership at large in an article authored by the chair and published in the August, 2000 issue of Phytopathology News.
Another item of old business was the disposition of the Douglas-fir list of common disease names. Inadvertently, two different people had been solicited separately to compile a list of disease names. The compilers of the lists had requested that they be referred to the Forest Pathology committee for consolidation and comment. These lists were first presented to the Forest Pathology committee two years ago. During 1999-2000 the Common Names chair worked with the chair of the Forest Pathology committee and with one of its members to reconcile problems that were impeding progress. The Common Names chair attended the Forest Pathology committee meeting in New Orleans and was able to address additional issues of concern, with the end result being that the completed list should be available soon. The Forest Pathology committee also expressed an interest in continuing to provide input into six additional lists that have already been compiled and forwarded to that committee.
The committee will continue, in 2000-2001, to oversee revision of old lists and to solicit new lists of common disease names. The focus of the new lists will be blueberry, garlic, plum and prune, hosts for which compendia exist, but no common names lists. We will also be in contact with authors of new compendia to coordinate the creation of common names lists. Ideally the common names list would be published before a compendium is completed so that the names in the compendium would have received the benefit of the review and comment process of the disease names lists.
Committee Self Evaluation: This committee is active year round. APS Press relies on the committee to create the official lists of common names which are used in all APS Press publications, and therefore the Press will derive significant benefits from continued activity by the committee on Standardization of Common Names for Plant Diseases
Phytopathology News
Robert Nyvall, Editor-in-Chief
Michelle Bjerkness - Staff Editor
Thank you to Heather Cronin who was our temporary staff person at Headquarters until the birth of her baby. Our new staff person is Michelle Bjerkness. Again a special thanks to Cindy Ash who faithfully contributes the titles of papers published in APS Journals each month and who seems to have all the answers to my questions.
The Phytopathology News Advisory Committee consists of Gail Schumann from the University of Massachusetts, Bob Mulrooney from the University of Delaware, Jacqueline Fletcher from Oklahoma State U., and Joyce Loper USDA Oregon State U., Miles Wimer, and Cindy Ash from the Headquarters Staff.
Phytopathology News (PN), both the hard copy and the on-line version appear to be the main means of communication information within the APS. The on-line version of PN continues to be well received. Thanks to the efforts of Jim MacDonald, the PN can now be more easily accessed than the previous circuitous route. The hard copy continues apace with an average of approximately 16 pages published each month. It is my sense that the on-line version is becoming the vehicle of choice to access news.
During the last several months, several issues have been aired in PN such as diagnosis of plant diseases by software. I would like to encourage these open discussions on "controversial issues" since this is an educational process for the membership as well. There is a cadre of graduate students who enthusiastically contributing on a regular basis to PN. I would like to encourage this kind of participation
Items of interest to membership such as OPAE, travel grant awards, scholarships, happenings of membership continues to dominate the news.
The future of PN should be examined. The on-line version, without any hard data
to demonstrate this, is becoming more "popular", perhaps the vehicle
of choice to receive news. One of the major issues to be addressed is the
accessibility of on-line PN to non members. An underlying principle is if we,
as a society, want our message to go out to the "public" we need to
make PN accessible to everyone. This issue will likely be discussed in the
future.
Phytopathology
Bradley I.
Hillman
Papers Published
During the period July 1, 1999 to June 30,
2000, Phytopathology published 169 research papers with an average
length of 7.3 pages (Table 1). The number of research papers is 7% more than
the 158 papers published in the same period of 1998-99. The average length of
papers is the same as last year, more than 2 pages longer than the average
research article 10 years ago. In 1999-00, Phytopathology also
published five Letters-to-the-Editor (24 pages), one Mini-Review (7 pages), and
907 abstracts (134 pages). The new section introduced in 1999, "Analytical
and Theoretical Plant Pathology," continues to attract many theoretical
papers previously published as letters.
The journal contained a total of 1544 pages in 1999-00 (Table 1). Although this
is down slightly from last year, it represents a substantial increase over the
average 1412 pages of the last two years. This is a more realistic comparison,
as it includes two years of abstract supplement spread over two years of
journal publication.
Manuscripts submitted
A total of 313 manuscripts were submitted to Phytopathology
in 1999-00 (Table 1), comparable to the 322 manuscripts submitted in 1998-99.
Of these, 40% were from domestic authors and 60% from foreign authors, a slight
decrease from the 45% in 1998-99 (Table 2). Countries most heavily represented
in submissions are Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Netherlands, Spain,
and United Kingdom. The overall acceptance rate was 59%, down slightly from
last year's 66%. Part of the reason for this may be a change in handling of
statistics: in the past, manuscripts deemed inappropriate for the journal by
the Senior Editor and returned to the author without review were not included
in statistics; now, only those papers that are returned for reasons of
incorrect formatting are excluded. Those returned on the basis of content are
rejections.
The editorial board and headquarters staff continues to provide rapid handling
and publication of manuscripts. On average, a manuscript is published within 89
days of acceptance, less than half the time to publication 10 years ago. The
overall time from submission to publication for 1999-00 was 262 days. Whether
or not the editorial policy change of allowing only three months for authors to
provide revised manuscripts (down from 6 months) will have the desired effect
of reducing time-to-publication should be evident over the next year.
Editorial Board
The new editorial board began serving Dec. 1, 1999, and will do so until Nov. 30, 2002. Bradley Hillman replaced Margaret Daub as Editor-in-Chief. Previous Senior Editors, Marty Carson, David Coplin, Ralph Dean, Michael Edwards, Bradley Hillman, Hei Leung, Craig Liddell, Jeanne Mihail, and David Weller, completed their three-year terms Nov. 30, 1999. New Senior Editors are David Bird, Diane Cuppels, Deborah Fravel, Robert Gilbertson, Scot Hulbert, Andrew Jarosz, Richard Nelson, Krishna Subbarao, and X. B. Yang. Mark Mazzola served as Senior Editor from Dec. 1999-Apr. 2000. We very much appreciate his service to the journal. Twenty-six Associate Editors also serve on the board on staggered three-year terms. New Associate Editors added for 2000-2002 are Nigel Grimsley, Don Kobayashi, David Schisler, Sally Schneider, Drake Stenger, Marilyn Roossinck, Tobin Peever, Jim Duthie, Tom Gordon, John Sherwood, and Chris Schardl. Associate Editors who finish their three-year terms on the board are Judith Brown, Karol Elias, Dean Gabriel, John Hammond, Robert Larkin, Michael Milgroom, Neil Quigley, and Herman Scholthof. We thank them for their service to the journal.
Status of the Journal
Phytopathology continues to be a very strong journal in terms of
scientific impact and financial contribution to the society, and is a
cornerstone of the APS. This year, the Publications Board approved a request to
bring color to the cover of Phytopathology. The Editorial Staff has been
working on new cover designs, and several mock-ups have been examined. The
electronic version of the journal continues to gain popularity within APSnet.
We are eagerly anticipating the wider distribution of the journal on-line to
universities and libraries.
Several changes to the Editorial Staff of the journal were seen in 1999-00. Pam
Johnson was replaced as Publications Manager by Karen Cummings. We appreciate
Pam's years of service to the journal and welcome Karen to this position. Two
new Technical Editors, Gwynn Hietala and Kristen Schmidt, joined the staff.
They will replace Jordana Anker and Susan Figueroa, who have moved to other
positions within APS Headquarters. We thank them for their years of service to Phytopathology.
We also thank Miles Wimer, Steve Kronmiller, and Ina Pfefer for all their hard
work in support of the journal.
Plant Disease
Gregory Shaner
Plant Disease published 1304 pages in the 12 issues from July 1999 through June 2000. Included were 182 Research papers (average 15.2 papers per issue; 980 pages total), 9 Special Reports (66 pages), 12 Feature Articles (146 pages), 180 Disease Notes (50 pages), and 12 Focus articles (12 pages). There were 62 other printed pages that included Table of Contents, Masthead, Index, Instructions to Authors, Acknowledgement of Reviewers, Salute to Sustaining Associates, Statement of Ownership, and Advertisements. The average length of a research article was 5.4 pages. The average time from receipt of a paper until its publication was 283 days; the average time from acceptance of a paper to publication was 89 days.
From July 1, 1999 through June 30, 2000, 351 manuscripts (Research and Special Reports) were submitted, for an average of 29.2 manuscripts per month. The average of manuscripts assigned per senior editor was 32 (range 10 to 43). During this period, senior editors accepted or tentatively accepted 133 manuscripts and rejected 90 manuscripts. Assuming manuscripts returned to authors for revision will eventually be accepted, the acceptance rate is 60%, compared to 66% for the prior reporting period. The median time from receipt of a manuscript until an initial decision was made by a senior editor was 78 days (range = 27 to 251 days). The initial decision was made within 105 days for 75% of the manuscripts and within 140 days for 90% of the manuscripts. Once a senior editor had received all reviews, the median time to reach an initial decision and return the manuscript to the author was 18 days (range = 0 to 112 days). The median time for review of manuscripts by associate editors and ad hoc reviewers was 27 days (range 1 to 163 days). Reviews were completed within 38 days for 75% of the manuscripts and within 53 days for 90% of the manuscripts. These times include mailing time from the editorial office to the reviewer. The median time taken by authors to revise a manuscript and return it to a senior editor was 54 days (range 13 to 244 days). Once senior editors had received a revised manuscript, the median time required to review and accept it was 3 days (range 0 to 49 days).
Plant Disease is truly an international journal. During the year,
manuscripts were received from 35 countries. The United States accounted for
62% of the submissions.
From July 1, 1999 through June 30, 2000, 239 Disease Note manuscripts were received, a substantial increase from the previous reporting period. During this same period, 179 Disease Note manuscripts were accepted for publication and 40 were rejected. Review of Disease Note manuscripts is entirely electronic. During the first half of year 2000, 98% of Disease Note manuscript submissions were electronic, 1% were on diskette, and 1% were submitted as hard copy. The average time from receipt of a Disease Note manuscript until a decision to accept or reject was made by a senior editor was 46 days. Once an author received a galley proof, it took an average of 3.3 days until the revised manuscript was returned and it appeared online.
Many of the articles published in Plant Disease now include an interpretive
summary. Interpretive summaries are included only in the online version of the
journal, and are available in the public access area of APSnet.
MOLECULAR PLANT-MICROBE INTERACTIONS (MPMI)
Jan E. Leach, Editor-in-Chief
I. Editorial Board.
Dr. Jane Glazebrook, Novartis Agricultural
Discovery Institute (San Diego, CA) will replace Jeff Dangl as the Senior
Editor for Plant Responses as of Sept. 1, 2000. Dr. Francine Govers, (Wageningen University) will begin a new
Senior Editor position created to handle manuscripts in the growing area of
Oomycete-Plant Interactions. Francine will handle manuscripts as of July 1, but
will be ‘officially’ on board as of September, 2000.
New Associate Editors were needed to replace Jane (Plant Response) and Francine
(Fungal/Plant Interactions) after their promotion to Senior Editor. The new
Associate Editors are John McDowell (Plant) and Sophien Kamoun (Oomycete).
As of January 1, 2000, a new Associate Editor position in the area of
Genomics was added. The first appointee to that position is Dr. Shauna
Somerville of the Carnegie Institute, Stanford University.
As of January 1, 2001, Herman Spaink
(Leiden University, Netherlands) will assume the position of Editor in Chief of
MPMI. Herman will submit a letter of
nominations for the new Senior Editorial Board to the Publications Board.
II. Status of MPMI.
The numbers of manuscripts submitted to MPMI are steady (Table 1), but there
has been a change in the numbers of papers submitted within research areas
(Table 2). Submissions in the area of symbioses are increasing, whereas the
numbers of papers submitted in the viral area has continued to decline.
The number of color pages published
continues to increase. In 1999, 53 published articles contained color figures
with an average of 1.8 color figures per article. Through August 2000, 54
articles were published with color, with an average of 1.6 color figures per
article. This increase in color pages is a reflection of the increased need for
authors to publish color images, the competitive cost for color publication at
MPMI and the high quality of color images in our journal.
aIn
1995, the value represents the average page length of Research and NOTEs
combined.
bthrough
6/20/00
1
Prior to 1999, fungal area included mycorrhizae.
2 Nematode and other manuscripts (those where there are conflicts of interest)
were handled by the Editor-in-Chief until 1/99; thus, these figures include
other types of manuscripts.
3 Biocontrol/Molecular Microbial Ecology was not a distinct category until
1998.
4 Mycorrhizal manuscripts were handled by the Editor-in-Chief through 10/99. A
new SE for mycorrhizae was added in 10/99.
5 A new editor for Oomycete/plant interactions was added 7/1/00.
B. Time from receipt of a manuscript to publication.
The
time from receipt to publication unfortunately has increased relative to 1999
by about 20 days. Once accepted, the
time to publication remains at 85 days, so the problem is in the review and
revision phase. Rapid publication is
important in the fields represented by this journal, thus the increase in time
from receipt to publication is an unwelcome trend.
C. International appeal strong.
Thus
far, about 66% of the papers published in 2000 originated from outside the USA.
D. Financial Status of MPMI.
As
of May 31, 2000, MPMI has a difference of +$14,405 between budgeted and actual
income and expenses.
III. Proposals to Publications Board
A.
Page Charges. (Proposal) MPMI
continues to receive complaints about the cost of publishing in MPMI,
particularly from scientists in countries where journal publication costs are
subsidized or where private houses do not charge authors page charges but do
charge high subscription costs (pay to read, not to publish). Please bear in
mind that many of the papers contain color figures, which adds considerably to
the publication cost to authors. Clearly, MPMI has no means to subsidize the
cost of publication, so we must charge. Publication of a 9 page article with no
color figures now costs an author $600 under the current price structure. One
color figure brings the cost to $1,100. Our key competitor, The PLANT CELL, has
the following policy:
“There are no page charges for publication in THE PLANT CELL. A $300
handling fee will be billed to the authors for each manuscript published in THE
PLANT CELL. Publication of an article in THE PLANT CELL is not contingent upon
the authors' ability to pay the handling fee. Authors may request that the
editorial board waive this fee under special circumstances. THE PLANT CELL
partially subsidizes the printing of color photographs. Author charges are $500
for the first illustration, $500 for the second, and $250 for the third and all
subsequent illustrations in one article. Authors will be notified of the color
charges before publication is scheduled. Under exceptional circumstances that
are explained in writing to the editorial board, authors may request waiver of
the color reproduction charges. Authors will need to justify to the editorial
board that the color figure is essential for interpreting the results presented
in the manuscript.”
Simply
adopting the page charge structure for Phytopathology and Plant Disease is not
satisfactory. We propose to the Publications Board a modified pricing
structure. Given that the average length of a research article is now over 9
pages (NOTES average 5 pages), we propose that MPMI impose a charge of $300 for
up to 10 pages, with a $150 charge for each page or fraction thereof,
thereafter. Color charges would remain the same.
B.
Senior Editorial Board. (Proposal) Herman
Spaink, the incoming Editor in Chief, requests that the Symbioses area be split
into two positions because of the increased submissions in the area. More than
26% of the papers published so far this year are in the area of symbiosis.
Please note that symbiosis is one of the areas that sets MPMI apart from other
molecular plant-microbe interaction journals, and is an important component in
the success of our journal.
As proposed by Herman, the split would have one SE handling the papers dealing
with the bacterial aspects of the symbiosis and the other the papers dealing
more with the plant aspects of the symbiosis.
A letter of request from Herman, including suggested SEs, will be
presented to the Publications Board for discussion.
C. Associate Editorial Board. (An information item only at this time) To meet the needs
of our changing and growing audience, we have added three new Senior Editor
positions to MPMI over the past few years. Only one new position has been added
to the Associate Editorial Board since the beginning of MPMI. Several Senior
Editors have commented that more AEs are needed to accommodate the diversity
and numbers of manuscripts. As Herman establishes his new Senior Editorial
Board, he will review the AE Board for needed additions/revisions.
D. Policy issues (for
discussion).
1. MPMI is receiving requests from authors for permission to post the pdf
files of their manuscripts on their websites.
APS Press's policy currently
is that only the abstract can be posted, with links to the journal for the
article. Some
authors have commented that since they paid publication
costs, they should be allowed to post the pdf file (even if it is
there is
a reprint-type charge for its use). Another way to view this is that it is
good advertising for the journal. One
issue to consider: can pdf files be
altered?
2. 'This is the first…' Policy? The question has arisen in a manuscript of
“is it appropriate for an author to claim 'this is
the first…', and should
our journals have a policy disallowing the use of this or similar phrases?
Most SEs have not
allowed strong statements, but have allowed moderate
statements of 'to the authors' knowledge, this has not been
reported
previously'.
Addendum:
Number of Manuscripts per Senior Editor from January 1-June 6, 2000
Leach (EIC; handles articles w/ conflicts) 7
Dangl (Plant) 17
Daniels (Bacterial) 14
Harrison (Mycorrhizal, 7
Lindow (Molecular Ecology) 5
Osbourn (Fungal) 22
Palukaitis (Viral) 8
Spaink (Symbioses) 28
Williamson (nematode) 6