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2008 CONSERVATION BIOLOGY EDITOR'S REPORT

by Gary K. Meffe, Editor

Overview

In 2007, six issues of Conservation Biology were published on time. The number of manuscripts submitted in 2007 (711) decreased from the previous year by 11.7%, the first decrease since 2002, but still among the four heaviest submittal years in the journal's history. A total of 1680 pages was published, including two special sections: The Value of Long-term Research: Conservation Science and Practice in Tanzania (91 pages, and published to coincide with SCB's 2007 annual meeting in South Africa), and Systematic Conservation Planning in the European Landscape: Conflicts, Environmental Changes, and the Challenge of Countdown of 2010 (82 pages), as well as a Conservation Focus on Policy Advocacy and Conservation Science (24 pages). The impact factor for 2007 was 3.93, up from 3.76 in 2006 and the second highest in the journal's history.

Submissions

The submission rate for this journal year (711) decreased from 2006 (805), which we consider a good thing (Table 1). We have repeatedly requested that authors do more self-selecting before submitting to Conservation Biology and it may have finally worked in 2007 (after more explicit instructions to prospective authors).

We also received and processed 172 preliminary manuscript inquiries, down slightly from the previous year's total of 190. These consist of an abstract and an inquiry as to the manuscript's suitability for the journal. These inquiries typically are responded to within one to three days of receipt.

We used 79 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 they 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 Conservation Biology's review process; I thank them for their contributions.

Decisions and Rejection Rates

Of the 711 papers received in 2007 (Table 2), 270 (38.0%) were rejected by the editor without review, usually within 3 days of submittal and usually due to inappropriateness of subject matter or low quality; 411 (62.0%) were sent for review, most through Assigning Editors and a few directly by the Editor. I note that the percentage immediately rejected by the Editor without review declined significantly from 50.6% last year, another indication that authors are self-selecting more.

Of the 411 manuscripts sent for review, 230 (56.0%) were rejected, 174 (42.3%) were accepted, and no decision had yet been reached as of late May 2008 on 33 (8.0%), which are still in review or in revision with authors. Of the total number of papers submitted (711), 500 (70.3%) were rejected (less than last year's 77.7%), 174 (24.5%) were accepted (up from 16.4% last year), and no decision was yet reached on 33 (4.6%), compared with 5.8% last year. Of the 678 papers for which decisions have been made, 500 (73.7%) were rejected, a decrease from last year's 82.6%. Most of these changes in percentages can again be attributed to fewer submittals of inappropriate papers.

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 somewhat in 2007, from 59 to 66 days (Figure 1). As always, we try to reduce this figure but ultimately are at the mercy of volunteer reviewers and Assigning Editors. Time from acceptance to publication (Figure 2) dropped somewhat in 2007, 188 to 181 days. Total time from submission to publication (Figure 3) increased from 302 to 312 days.

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 174 papers submitted and accepted in 2007, the proportion of first authors from the U.S. decreased to 41.8% from 48.8% 2006 (Figure 4), following the previous years' trend. Other regional changes from 2006 to 2007 include increases in accepted papers from Asia (2.3% to 9.3%), Australia (6.9% to 8.1%), Central/South America (3.0% to 5.7%), and Europe (23.0% to 25.6%) and small decreases in accepted papers from Africa (6.1% to 4.6%) and Canada (9.9% to 5.4%).

In 2007 our Production Editor at Blackwell, Rosemary Farmer, moved to a new position and is greatly missed. We have transitioned to a new Production Editor, Amanda Martinez, relatively seamlessly, though of course with adjustments to be made and a learning curve to be climbed.

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