bs_bs_banner
Emergency Medicine Australasia (2014) 26, 60–61
doi: 10.1111/1742-6723.12183
PUBLISHING
Past and future of journal publishing David C Cone Emergency Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
The first emergency medicine (EM) journal, Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians, was launched in January 1972, with a scant 75 pages of content, most of which was editorial and opinion in nature. Now, as we enter 2014, there are 24 journals categorised by Journal Citation Reports® under the EM list, including subspecialty journals, such as Prehospital Emergency Care, Pediatric Emergency Care, Resuscitation and Injury-International Journal of the Care of the Injured.1 Several are published in languages other than English, including Spanish, and these EM journals between them published nearly 5000 papers in 2012. There are a number of other EM journals, mostly online only, that are not recognised by Journal Citation Reports® but are publishing additional content regarding the specialty. The 40-odd years of EM journal history have seen a number of major changes and advances. From the perspective of the author, reviewer and editor, the biggest of these changes was the move to internet-based manuscript handling systems in the early 2000s. Before 1995, peer review occurred largely by mail and then fax. The advent of email with document attachments, followed by completely web-based manuscript systems, has greatly simplified, streamlined and accelerated the process of submission, peer review, revision and publication for authors, editors, reviewers and publishers alike. Most journals now boast average turnaround times of a month or less, from first submission to final decision. Another of the major changes, the growing global nature of journals, is also due largely to the internet. Frankly, it is becoming rare to see an issue of any EM journal that does not contain at least one article from outside that journal’s home country. For example, the October issue of Emergency Medicine Australasia has an article from the Korean Emergency Airway Management Society,2 two others from universities in Korea3,4 and others from authors in India5 and Turkey.6 Further, approximately 10% of the journal’s papers involve authors from more than one nation.7 This type
of collaboration, although certainly not unheard of, was logistically much more difficult to accomplish in the pre-internet era. Many things though have really not changed much at all. Most small and mid-size journals are still produced nearly entirely through volunteer labour. Although the editor-in-chief might receive a small stipend to protect enough of his or her time to provide consistent leadership, editorial board members and peer reviewers generally work for free, on the assumption that this work is part of their academic duties. Indeed, editorial work for journals is an important part of the coin of the realm that academic appointment, promotion and tenure committees consider when assessing candidates. We, and our academic department chairs, are essentially donating our valuable professional time to help ensure the quality of the scientific literature that advances our practice. One of the greatest changes from the perspective of the reader has also been a result of the internet and the many options that electronic publishing now offers. The ability to access material over the internet from nearly any location might seem the most obvious change, but the ability of articles to include large data supplements, dynamic images (such as ultrasound clips), video lectures and other digital media is also relatively new. Data sharing is being widely encouraged (and in some cases required),8 and posting datasets as online supplements is one way to accomplish this, although large agencyrun data registries might be a better option.9 What lies ahead for EM journals? The two most likely sources of evolution (both already under way) are electronic publishing and open-access publishing. Although often confused, these are two very different concepts. Most journals are already involved in electronic publishing to some degree, as the articles and other content of most journals are available over the internet. There are also a number of journals (both subscription based and open access) that are ‘e-only’, with no paper version being printed. Most of the major publishing houses are
David C Cone, MD, Professor; Editor-in-Chief, Academic Emergency Medicine. © 2014 Australasian College for Emergency Medicine and Australasian Society for Emergency Medicine
Publishing
moving towards increasingly sophisticated online platforms for articles; the ‘Article Anywhere’ platform launched by Wiley and Sons in 2012 is one example.10 Although most society-sponsored journals still use a subscription-based funding model, there is a slow but steady move towards a ‘pay-to-publish’ open-access model, where the authors fund the journal through publication fees, rather than the readers funding the journal through subscriptions (which are typically buried in the annual dues of the host society). There is nothing inherently better or worse about one funding model compared with the other. The resistance to the pay-topublish model is largely a result of the fact that we (or our department chairs) have generally already committed to funding journals through subscriptions; there is reluctance to then also pay to publish articles in other journals, thus contributing scarce academic (or personal) dollars to both funding models. It is clear that our specialty has come a long way in terms of the scientific literature and Emergency Medicine Australasia journal is an excellent example of the steady growth that we have seen. This journal currently has a h-index of 28, meaning that it has published 28 articles over its lifetime that have each been cited 28 or more times.7 This puts it slightly ahead of the European Journal of Emergency Medicine (h-index 26) and the Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine (h-index 22), both journals that also frequently publish articles with authors from multiple nations. Emergency Medicine Australasia’s articles were cited a total of 282 times in the past 3 years, with fewer than 20% of these being self-citations (i.e., papers in Emergency Medicine Australasia being cited by other papers in Emergency Medicine Australasia). The proportion of ‘citable documents’ (papers published that are deemed to be primary research for purposes of calculating citation-based metrics) has increased steadily over the past decade. All of these factors suggest sustained growth in quality and bode very well for the journal’s second quarter-century. On behalf of the editors and readers of EM literature, I wish you continued success in helping to advance the
care that the world’s emergency physicians provide to our patients in our EDs, EMS systems, disaster sites and other settings.
Competing interests None declared.
References 1.
Thomson Reuters. Science Citation Index expanded – emergency medicine journal list. [Cited 9 Jan 2014.] Available from URL: http://science.thomsonreuters.com/cgi-bin/jrnlst/jlresults.cgi?PC =D&SC=FF
2.
Cho J, Cho YS, You JS, Lee HS, Kim H, Chung HS, for the Korean Emergency Airway Management Society. Current status of emergency airway management for elderly patients in Korea: multicentre study using the Korean Emergency Airway Management Registry. Emerg. Med. Australas. 2013; 25: 439–44.
3.
Kyon YY, Choi KH. Acinetobacter bacteremia following Agkistrodon envenoming. Emerg. Med. Australas. 2013; 25: 470–1.
4.
Cha YS, Kim H, Cha KC, Kim OH, Lee KH, Hwang SO. Methaemoglobinaemia after ingestion of concrete casting antifreeze. Emerg. Med. Australas. 2013; 25: 474–5.
5.
Bagri N, Saha A, Chandelia S et al. Fireworks injuries in children: a prospective study during the festival of lights. Emerg. Med. Australas. 2013; 25: 452–6.
6.
Yesilaras M, Aksay E. Diagnosis of triceps tendon rupture with bedside ultrasonography. Emerg. Med. Australas. 2013; 25: 475–6.
7.
SCImago Journal & Country Rank, Emergency Medicine. Scimago Lab, Valencia, Spain. [Cited 18 Nov 2013.] Available from URL: http://www.scimagojr.com/journalrank.php?category =2711
8.
Miller JD. Sharing clinical research data in the United States under the health insurance portability and accountability act and the privacy rule. Trials 2010; 11: 112.
9.
Coady SA, Wagner E. Sharing individual level data from observational studies and clinical trials: a perspective from NHLBI. Trials 2013; 14: 201.
10. Toler T. Announcing the anywhere article. [Cited 9 Jan 2014.] Available from URL: http://exchanges.wiley.com/blog/2012/ 02/14/announcing-the-anywhere-article/
© 2014 Australasian College for Emergency Medicine and Australasian Society for Emergency Medicine
61
Emergency Medicine Australasia (2014) 26, 60–61
doi: 10.1111/1742-6723.12183
PUBLISHING
Past and future of journal publishing David C Cone Emergency Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
The first emergency medicine (EM) journal, Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians, was launched in January 1972, with a scant 75 pages of content, most of which was editorial and opinion in nature. Now, as we enter 2014, there are 24 journals categorised by Journal Citation Reports® under the EM list, including subspecialty journals, such as Prehospital Emergency Care, Pediatric Emergency Care, Resuscitation and Injury-International Journal of the Care of the Injured.1 Several are published in languages other than English, including Spanish, and these EM journals between them published nearly 5000 papers in 2012. There are a number of other EM journals, mostly online only, that are not recognised by Journal Citation Reports® but are publishing additional content regarding the specialty. The 40-odd years of EM journal history have seen a number of major changes and advances. From the perspective of the author, reviewer and editor, the biggest of these changes was the move to internet-based manuscript handling systems in the early 2000s. Before 1995, peer review occurred largely by mail and then fax. The advent of email with document attachments, followed by completely web-based manuscript systems, has greatly simplified, streamlined and accelerated the process of submission, peer review, revision and publication for authors, editors, reviewers and publishers alike. Most journals now boast average turnaround times of a month or less, from first submission to final decision. Another of the major changes, the growing global nature of journals, is also due largely to the internet. Frankly, it is becoming rare to see an issue of any EM journal that does not contain at least one article from outside that journal’s home country. For example, the October issue of Emergency Medicine Australasia has an article from the Korean Emergency Airway Management Society,2 two others from universities in Korea3,4 and others from authors in India5 and Turkey.6 Further, approximately 10% of the journal’s papers involve authors from more than one nation.7 This type
of collaboration, although certainly not unheard of, was logistically much more difficult to accomplish in the pre-internet era. Many things though have really not changed much at all. Most small and mid-size journals are still produced nearly entirely through volunteer labour. Although the editor-in-chief might receive a small stipend to protect enough of his or her time to provide consistent leadership, editorial board members and peer reviewers generally work for free, on the assumption that this work is part of their academic duties. Indeed, editorial work for journals is an important part of the coin of the realm that academic appointment, promotion and tenure committees consider when assessing candidates. We, and our academic department chairs, are essentially donating our valuable professional time to help ensure the quality of the scientific literature that advances our practice. One of the greatest changes from the perspective of the reader has also been a result of the internet and the many options that electronic publishing now offers. The ability to access material over the internet from nearly any location might seem the most obvious change, but the ability of articles to include large data supplements, dynamic images (such as ultrasound clips), video lectures and other digital media is also relatively new. Data sharing is being widely encouraged (and in some cases required),8 and posting datasets as online supplements is one way to accomplish this, although large agencyrun data registries might be a better option.9 What lies ahead for EM journals? The two most likely sources of evolution (both already under way) are electronic publishing and open-access publishing. Although often confused, these are two very different concepts. Most journals are already involved in electronic publishing to some degree, as the articles and other content of most journals are available over the internet. There are also a number of journals (both subscription based and open access) that are ‘e-only’, with no paper version being printed. Most of the major publishing houses are
David C Cone, MD, Professor; Editor-in-Chief, Academic Emergency Medicine. © 2014 Australasian College for Emergency Medicine and Australasian Society for Emergency Medicine
Publishing
moving towards increasingly sophisticated online platforms for articles; the ‘Article Anywhere’ platform launched by Wiley and Sons in 2012 is one example.10 Although most society-sponsored journals still use a subscription-based funding model, there is a slow but steady move towards a ‘pay-to-publish’ open-access model, where the authors fund the journal through publication fees, rather than the readers funding the journal through subscriptions (which are typically buried in the annual dues of the host society). There is nothing inherently better or worse about one funding model compared with the other. The resistance to the pay-topublish model is largely a result of the fact that we (or our department chairs) have generally already committed to funding journals through subscriptions; there is reluctance to then also pay to publish articles in other journals, thus contributing scarce academic (or personal) dollars to both funding models. It is clear that our specialty has come a long way in terms of the scientific literature and Emergency Medicine Australasia journal is an excellent example of the steady growth that we have seen. This journal currently has a h-index of 28, meaning that it has published 28 articles over its lifetime that have each been cited 28 or more times.7 This puts it slightly ahead of the European Journal of Emergency Medicine (h-index 26) and the Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine (h-index 22), both journals that also frequently publish articles with authors from multiple nations. Emergency Medicine Australasia’s articles were cited a total of 282 times in the past 3 years, with fewer than 20% of these being self-citations (i.e., papers in Emergency Medicine Australasia being cited by other papers in Emergency Medicine Australasia). The proportion of ‘citable documents’ (papers published that are deemed to be primary research for purposes of calculating citation-based metrics) has increased steadily over the past decade. All of these factors suggest sustained growth in quality and bode very well for the journal’s second quarter-century. On behalf of the editors and readers of EM literature, I wish you continued success in helping to advance the
care that the world’s emergency physicians provide to our patients in our EDs, EMS systems, disaster sites and other settings.
Competing interests None declared.
References 1.
Thomson Reuters. Science Citation Index expanded – emergency medicine journal list. [Cited 9 Jan 2014.] Available from URL: http://science.thomsonreuters.com/cgi-bin/jrnlst/jlresults.cgi?PC =D&SC=FF
2.
Cho J, Cho YS, You JS, Lee HS, Kim H, Chung HS, for the Korean Emergency Airway Management Society. Current status of emergency airway management for elderly patients in Korea: multicentre study using the Korean Emergency Airway Management Registry. Emerg. Med. Australas. 2013; 25: 439–44.
3.
Kyon YY, Choi KH. Acinetobacter bacteremia following Agkistrodon envenoming. Emerg. Med. Australas. 2013; 25: 470–1.
4.
Cha YS, Kim H, Cha KC, Kim OH, Lee KH, Hwang SO. Methaemoglobinaemia after ingestion of concrete casting antifreeze. Emerg. Med. Australas. 2013; 25: 474–5.
5.
Bagri N, Saha A, Chandelia S et al. Fireworks injuries in children: a prospective study during the festival of lights. Emerg. Med. Australas. 2013; 25: 452–6.
6.
Yesilaras M, Aksay E. Diagnosis of triceps tendon rupture with bedside ultrasonography. Emerg. Med. Australas. 2013; 25: 475–6.
7.
SCImago Journal & Country Rank, Emergency Medicine. Scimago Lab, Valencia, Spain. [Cited 18 Nov 2013.] Available from URL: http://www.scimagojr.com/journalrank.php?category =2711
8.
Miller JD. Sharing clinical research data in the United States under the health insurance portability and accountability act and the privacy rule. Trials 2010; 11: 112.
9.
Coady SA, Wagner E. Sharing individual level data from observational studies and clinical trials: a perspective from NHLBI. Trials 2013; 14: 201.
10. Toler T. Announcing the anywhere article. [Cited 9 Jan 2014.] Available from URL: http://exchanges.wiley.com/blog/2012/ 02/14/announcing-the-anywhere-article/
© 2014 Australasian College for Emergency Medicine and Australasian Society for Emergency Medicine
61
