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2007 CONSERVATION BIOLOGY EDITOR'S REPORT

GARY K. MEFFE, EDITOR

Overview

In 2006, six issues of Conservation Biology were published on time. The number of manuscripts submitted in 2006 (805) increased from the previous year by 3.2%, once again setting a new high for submissions, although the rate of increase slowed. A total of 1850 pages was published, including three special sections: The Northwest Forest Plan: a Global Model of Forest Management in Contentious Times (89 pages), 20th Anniversary of Conservation Biology (82 pages), and The Ecological Effects of Salvage Logging after Natural Disturbance (159 pages). The impact factor for 2006 was 3.76, a decrease from the previous year's record high of 4.11.

Submissions

The submission rate for this journal year (805) increased from 2005 (780) but at a slower rate of increase than in previous years (Table 1).

We also received and processed 190 preliminary manuscript inquiries, nearly identical to the previous year's total of 189. These consist of an abstract and an inquiry as to its suitability for the journal. These inquiries typically are responded to within one to three days of receipt.

We used 56 ad hoc assigning editors this year. These are individuals who handle one or more manuscripts but are not on the editorial board. Ad hoc editors were used when a manuscript did not fall within the expertise of existing editors, when the ad hoc editors had special expertise in the area, or if the appropriate assigning editor was particularly busy with other manuscripts. This system has worked very well and will continue to be employed. Ad hoc editors are acknowledged in the December issue of each year and are an integral part of this journal's review process; I thank them for their contributions.

Decisions and Rejection Rates

Of the 805 papers received in 2006 (Table 2), 407 (50.6%) were rejected by the editor without review, usually within three days of submittal and usually due to inappropriateness of subject matter or low quality; 398 (49.4%) were sent for review, most through assigning editors and a few directly by the editor.

Of the 398 manuscripts sent for review, 219 (55.0%) were rejected, 132 (33.2%) were accepted, and no decision had yet been reached as of early May 2007 on 47 (11.8%), which are still in review or in revision with authors. Of the total number of papers submitted, 626 (77.7%) were rejected (slightly more than last year's 75.0%), 132 were accepted (16.4%, down from 20.9 % last year), and no decision was yet reached on 47 (or 5.8%, compared with 4.1% last year). Of the 758 papers for which decisions have been made, 626 (82.6%) were rejected, an increase from last year's 78.2%.

Turnaround Time

See the 2003 report for a discussion of how turnaround statistics are calculated (i.e., these are relative but not absolute times because they are right-truncated due to manuscripts still in process).

Mean turnaround time for manuscript review increased slightly in 2006, from 57 to 59 days (a 3.5% increase; Figure 1). We continue to work to reduce the review time further. Time from acceptance to publication (Figure 2) dropped significantly in 2006, from 218 to 188 days; this is largely attributable to Online Early being in full effect. Total time from submission to publication (Figure 3) decreased from 323 to 302 days, and again this is largely attributable to Online Early.

Region of Authorship

Region of authorship is determined by the address of the first author at the time the work was done and only partially reflects sovereignty of contributions. International participation in authorship is actually higher than indicated by these statistics due to secondary authorships. Of the 132 papers submitted and accepted in 2006, the proportion of first authors from the United States decreased to 48.8% from 54.0% in 2005 (Figure 4). Other regional changes from 2005 to 2006 include modest increases in accepted papers from Africa (3.1% to 6.1%), Canada (3.7% to 9.9%), and Europe (19.5% to 23.0%) and small decreases in accepted papers from Australia (8.6% to 6.9%), Asia (4.9% to 2.3%), and Central / South America (6.1% to 3.0%).

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