Archivos de Zootecnia. Editorial report 2009

Archivos de Zootecnia. Informe editorial 2009

 

 

Gómez Castro, A.G.¹*, López de Bustamante, M.C.¹, Perea Muñoz, J.¹ y Arcos Castejón, J.¹

¹Editorial Office of Archivos de Zootecnia. Animal Production Department. University of Cordoba. Campus Rabanales. 14071 Córdoba. España. *pa1gocag@uco.es

 

 

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SUMMARY

The editorial process of Archivos de Zootecnia during 2009 is reported below. A total of 342 manuscripts were received from 24 countries, mainly from Brazil (75.8%). Consequently, the language most frequently used in the manuscripts was Portuguese, followed by Spanish and English. The mean time between submission and publication of a manuscript was 690.7 days. The rejection rate was 53.5%. In 2009, 44 articles, 72 short notes and 9 reviews (total 125) were published by authors from 29 countries.

Key words: Scientific journals. Scientific manuscripts.

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RESUMEN

Se analiza el proceso editorial de Archivos de Zootecnia durante 2009. Se recibieron 342 manuscritos procedentes de 24 países, principalmente de Brasil (75,8%). Consecuentemente, el lenguaje más frecuentemente usado fue el portugués, seguido del español y el inglés. El tiempo medio entre recepción y publicación de un manuscrito fue elevado (690,7 dias). La tasa de rechazo fue del 53,5%. En 2009 fueron publicados 44 artículos, 72 notas breves y 9 revisiones (125 trabajos en total) cuyos autores pertenecían a 29 países diferentes.

Palabras clave: Revistas científicas. Trabajos científicos.

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Introduction

In the 2008 editorial report, it was highlighted that reviewing times were excesive, reaching 657 days, from submission to publication. Budgetary reasons, in a crisis climate did not allow the increasing of number of pages published yearly.

Therefore, to achieve shorter editorial times we can either reduce the length of the manuscripts or increase the rejection rate.

 

Methodological considerations

The editorial report of 2009 follows the same methodology described in the 2008 editorial report (http://www.uco.es/organiza/servicios/publica/az/php/img/web/23_10_21_01Informe_editorial.pdf) (Gómez Castro et al., 2009).

 

Received manuscripts

Figure 1 shows the annual progress of manuscripts received since the creation of our web site (May 2005). The annual number of manuscripts received and managed by Archivos de Zootecnia has remarkably increased ever since.

 

The number of manuscripts received went from 294 received in 2008 to 342 manuscripts in 2009, which suggests an increasing appeal of Archivos de Zootecnia among researchers. The 342 manuscripts received in 2009 were classified in 267 original research articles, 28 short notes, and 47 literature reviews. Most of the manuscripts submitted (75.8%) came from Brazil, which is in agreement with the previous year. The reason for this is partly due to the positive evaluation that Archivos de Zootecnia received in Qualis. Studies originating from Mexico, Nigeria, and Spain, represented an additional 15.7%, and the remaining 8.5%, came from other 20 countries, in proportions very similar and generally within the scope of projection of the journal. As shown in table I, the origin of the manuscripts reflects the language used. However the Portuguese represents 66.3%, which is lower than the percentage of items of Portuguese origin. Spanish was used in 17.0% of the manuscripts and English in 15.6%, which is similar to the previous year. Only very few manuscripts (1.6%) were written in French. As in previous years, there were no articles in Italian.

 

The topics covered in the manuscripts received by Archivos de Zootecnia (table II) are classified as follows. The animal species studied were mainly, cattle (11.1%), poultry (5.7%), sheep (4.9%) and goats (4.8%). Aquaculture and swine also received some attention. The studies often focused on nutrition and food (13.7%), coarse foods (6.6%) and reproduction (5.2%). Regarding the various animal products, most attention was focused on milk (3.7%) and also carcass and meat (3.3% in total). Genetics, conservation and improvement of breeds were covered in 9.4% of the received manuscripts.

 

Reviewing

Each manuscript submitted to Archivos de Zootecnia is first reviewed by members of the Editorial Board and Advisory Council. Subsequently, the Editorial Board at its plenary session, analyzes each submitted manuscript and decide if it must be reviewed (in which case at least two and up to four reviewers are assigned) or rejected. Reviewers are chosen from a repertoire of nearly 700 international experts from many different countries.

Archivos de Zootecnia is grateful to the 290 experts to whom at least one manuscript was sent to for review during 2009, as indicated in annex 1.

As shown in table III, the average review time of 114.4 days improved as compared to 133.6 days in 2008 and 260.9 days in 2007. However, the time from acceptance to publication has increased from 414.2 in 2008 to 491.3 days. Consequently, the time between submission of a manuscript and its publication has increased to 690.7 days, which means a delay of almost 30 days over 2008. These waiting times are too high and, although causes for this are attributed to all stages. Frequently the authors themselves caused large delays during the correction of their manuscripts. However, the constraint in the page number that can be published yearly, and the growing number of manuscripts received, are the principal reasons for this delay. A more detailed analysis of these data shows that the management of the reviews and feedback from reviewers has substantially improved, however, there is still a lot that can be done to further decrease delays. The accumulation of delays during the publication phase originates from the large number of manuscripts received and approved, which far exceeds the number of articles included in the manuscript edition strictly due to budgetary reasons. The potential to shorten the waiting time to publication is scarce, especially in the current economic climate. A solution, which Archivos de Zootecnia is currently implementing, is the uploading of an early online publication. At the moment this early online publication, is being released on average three months before the manuscript edition.

 

The acceptance and rejection rate of manuscripts received in 2009 reached 23.4% and 53.5% respectively. While the acceptance rate has decreased compared to 2008, the rejection rate has increased. The sum of these rates (76.9%) does not imply that only 23.8% of the manuscripts received during 2009 are pending a decision, since in fact there are many more manuscripts in revision received during precedent years. As the decision delay is shorter, more approved or rejected manuscripts, accumulated in 2009.

Published papers

The journal Archivos de Zootecnia published 125 manuscripts during 2009 (table IV), 43 more than those published in 2008, as a result of an increase in short notes. The manuscripts were published mainly in Portuguese (55.1%) and Spanish (33.8%). Regarding the manuscripts received, the Portuguese ones decreased as the Spanish ones incremented (table I). About 56.3% of the authors were Brazilians. The second largest group is formed by Spanish authors (16.4%), and finally Mexico and Portugal, in comparable proportions, represent 13.1% of the authors. The remaining authors are from other 25 countries (table V). Interestingly, as shown in table VI the percentage of manuscripts in which at least an author comes from the University of Cordoba (the publisher) or is any of the 24 members of the Editorial Board, or Advisory Council does not exceed 1.1% or 1.2%, respectively.

 

The topics of the published manuscripts were distributed in the same manner as described for manuscripts in table II with only minor differences, except for breeds and equine production, which increased from 4.5% to 9.5% and from 0.5% to 5.9%, respectively.

 

Difussion. Online and paper editions

Archivos de Zootecnia is included in about 400 directories or electronic databases (Agricultural BIOSIS, CAB abstracts, Latindex, Scopus, Scielo ...), making the journal readily found. If the word zootecnia is used as search criterion in the search engine Google: Archivos de Zootecnia appears as the second entry of 2 130 000 results. If the query is Archivos de Zootecnia there are 112 000 results, and if the search is done by Arch. Zootec. there are 12 400 results listed, most of which are citations of manuscripts published in the journal.

There are 1775 manuscripts available at the Archivos de Zootecnia website. During 2009, the online edition of Archivos de Zootecnia received more than 400 000 hits (compared with 342 385 in 2007), reaching 1 457 478 (since 2005). This represented a total of 524 267 page views in 2009 with an average of 1138 visits (almost 1456 page views) per day. Volume 58, in its electronic version contains 9 reviews (144 pages) that have been downloaded 1642 times. This is expected to increase more than proportionally in coming years. Most visits (82.7%) to the web page of Archivos de Zootecnia are of unknown origin (.com .net, .org, etc. domains). Among the countries that can be identified, Russia is the country with the highest number of visitors (5.2%) followed by Brazil (2.2%), Mexico (1.3%) and Spain (1.5%), and followed by about 110 other countries (7.2%).

In conclusion, during 2009 Archivos de Zootecnia has reinforced its role as an outlet for scientific research, regardless of the increase in editorial times. Furthermore, international acceptance of the journal increased and it was included in databases as Scielo. The problems detected in the 2008 report regarding the delay in publication remain (have increased), however, the management time has been shortened.

 

References

Gómez Castro, A.G., López de Bustamante, M.C., Perea Muñoz, J. and Arcos Castejón, J. 2009. Archivos de Zootecnia. Editorial report 2008. Arch. Zootec., 58: 3-10.         [ Links ]

 

Annex 1. 2009 Referees

From Argentine: Dr. D. Colombatto, Dr. D. Rochinotti, Dr. E.F. Viglizzo, Dr. E. Morici, Dr. E.R. Genero, Dr. J.C. Vázquez, Dr. R. Luzbel de la Sota, Dr. S. Sánchez and Dra. O.M. González;

From Bolivia: Dra. A. Stemmer;

From Brazil: Dr. A. Carneiro Leao de Mello, Dr. A. Cássio Magalhaes, Dr. A. Catella, Dr. A. da Silva Mariante, Dr. A. Ferriani Branco, Dr. A.J. Vieira Pires, Dr. A.L. Rodrigues Magalhaes, Dr. A. Nunez de Madeiro, Dr. A. Pott, Dr. A. Sanpaio Carrijo, Dr. A. Silva, Dr. A. Soares Ferreira, Dr. C. Boa-Viagem Rabelo, Dr. C. de Souza Lucci, Dr. C.F. Martins, Dr. C. Scapinello, Dr. D.A. Berto, Dr. D. Benitez, Dr. D. do Nascimento Júnio, Dr. D. Emygdio de Faria, Dr. D. Miranda da Fonseca, Dr. D. Pazzanese Duarte Lanna, Dr. D. Sábio Campos Paciullo, Dr. D. Ydoyaga, Dr. E. Alexandrino, Dr. E. Gonçalves de Araújo, Dr. E. Mendes Ramos, Dr. F. Guilherme Perazzo, Dr. F. Porto, Dr. G. Días Gonçalves Ferreira, Dr. G.E. Freneau, Dr. G.L. Colnago, Dr. G. Leal García Araújo, Dr. G. Moraes, Dr. G. Porto Barreto, Dr. G.R. dos Santos, Dr. H. Almeida Butity, Dr. H. Mattana Saturnino, Dr. J. Aparecido Povh, Dr. J. Benedito Trovo, Dr. J.C. Batista Dubeux, Dr. J.C. Pereira, Dr. J. de Paula Oliveira, Dr. J.H. Leonhardt, Dr. J.H. Stringhini, Dr. J.H. Vilar da Silva, Dr. J.L. Rocha, Dr. J. Marques Pereira, Dr. J. Neuman Mirando Neiva, Dr. J. Pereira Neves, Dr. J.R. Correia, Dr. J. Ribamar Marques, Dr. J. Silva e Oliveira, Dr. L.A. de Miranda Gomide, Dr. L.E. Pezzato, Dr. L. Paes Barreto, Dr. L. Pimentel Riveiro, Dr. M.A. Rotta, Dr. M. Ayres Carvalho, Dr. M. Azevedo, Dr. M.C. Ludke, Dr. M. de Andrade Ferreira, Dr. M. de Andrade Lira Junior, Dr. M.J. de Oliveira Almeida, Dr. M. Machaim Franco, Dr. M. Nascimento de Oliveira, Dr. M.R. de Borba, Dr. M. Simao da Rosa, Dr. M. Vieira da Cunha, Dr. N.M. Lopera Barrero, Dr. N. Pereira Stamford, Dr. O. Cavalcanti, Dr. O. Gomes Pereira, Dr. O.M. de Moura, Dr. P. Alves de Souza, Dr. P.B. Ferraz Filho, Dr. R.A. Caetano Correa Filho, Dr. R. Andrade Reis, Dr. R. de Oliveira Roças, Dr. R. de Paula Lana, Dr. R. Germano, Dr. R.L. Caraciolo Ferreira, Dr. R. Lazzari, Dr. R. Lopes Oliveira, Dr. R. Olivera Cavalli, Dr. R. Veras, Dr. Ricardo A. Cardellino, Dr. S.A. do Carmo Araújo, Dr. S. de Campos Valadares Filho, Dr. S.L. Salomón Cabral Filho, Dr. S.M. Crispim, Dr. W. Dutra, Dr. W.R. Boscolo, Dra. A. de Souza Martins, Dra. A.L. Costa Cruz Borges, Dra. A.M. Vieira Batista, Dra. A. Moreira de Carvalho, Dra. A.S. Chaves Veras, Dra. B.R. Cunha dos Santos, Dra. C. Bressan, Dra. C.J. Veríssimo, Dra. C. Marques, Dra. C. Pereira, Dra. C. Vaz, Dra. D. Machado Fracalossi, Dra. D. Marques, Dra. E.C. Modesto, Dra. E. Jerônimo, Dra. E. Resende, Dra. L. de Alencar Coelho, Dra. L. Galvao Alburquerque, Dra. L. Gomes da Silva, Dra. L.H. Brasil, Dra. M. Aparecida Lara, Dra. M.C. Thomaz, Dra. M. da Conceiçao Silva, Dra. M. da Graça Morais, Dra. M. do Vale Barreto Figueiredo, Dra. M. Dode, Dra. M.L. Pires Bianchi, Dra. R.M. Brito Lima, Dra. T. Domiciano Dantas Martis and Dra. V. Penna;

From Colombia: Dr. C.J. Tobón, Dr. G. García, Dr. P. Cuesta, Dr. R. Martínez and Dra. A.R. Poveda Parra;

From Costa Rica: Dr. P.J. Argel;

From Chile: Dr. J.G. Muñoz, Dr. N. Sepúlvera and Dra. P. Toro Mujica;

From USA: Dr. G. Carneiro and Dra. Ia Gómez García;

From Spain: Dr. A. Abecia, Dr. A. Arguello Henríquez, Dr. A. Calleja Suárez, Dr. A. de la Serna, Dr. A. de Vega García, Dr. A. Francesch Vidal, Dr. A. González, Dr. A.L. Martínez Marín, Dr. A. Martínez Teruel, Dr. A. Méndez Sánchez, Dr. A. Molina Alcalá, Dr. A. Muñoz Luna, Dr. C. Barba Capote, Dr. C.C. Pérez Marin, Dr. C. Castrillo González, Dr. C. Sañudo Astiz, Dr. D E. Ruíz di Genova, Dr. D. Yañez, Dr. E. Espinosa Velázquez, Dr. E. Martínez, Dr. F.A. Arrebola Molina, Dr. F.I. Hernández García, Dr. F.J. Mesías Diaz, Dr. F. Padilla Alvarez, Dr. F. Puerta Puerta, Dr. F. Pulido García, Dr. F. Ruíz de Huidobro A. de Villapadierna, Dr. I. Abdel Gálvez, Dr. I. de la Rosa Lucas, Dr. J.A. Guada Valle Puga, Dr. J. Altarriba Farrán, Dr. J. Balcells, Dr. J.C. Domínguez Fernández Tejerina, Dr. J.C. Gutiérrez Estrada, Dr. J.C. Navarro, Dr. J. Cañón Ferreras, Dr. J. Dorado, Dr. J.F. Aguilera Sánchez, Dr. J.F. Pérez Gutiérrez, Dr. J.F. Pérez Hernández, Dr. J. González Cano, Dr. J.J. Pascual, Dr. J. Jordana Vidal, Dr. J.L. Ares, Dr. J.L. Vega Plá, Dr. J.M. Afonso López, Dr. J.M. Castel Genis, Dr. J.M. Flores Serrano, Dr. J.M. León Jurado, Dr. J.M. Serrano Caballero, Dr. J.M. Vázquez Rojas, Dr. J. Martos Peinado, Dr. J. Peláez García de la Puerta, Dr. J.R. Riba, Dr. J.S. González Alvarez, Dr. L. Alabart, Dr. L. Bermejo, Dr. L. F. Gosálvez Lara, Dr. L. Gallego Martínez, Dr. M.A. Toro Ibáñez, Dr. M. Benavente, Dr. M. de la Higuera González, Dr. M. Delgado Pertíñez, Dr. M. Escribano Sánchez, Dr. M. Fernández, Dr. M. Fondevila Camps, Dr. M. García Gallego, Dr. M. Gómez Fernández, Dr. M. Ibáñez Talegón, Dr. M. Jover Cerda, Dr. M. Joy, Dr. M. Juarez, Dr. M. Lainez Andrés, Dr. M. Luque Cuesta, Dr. M. Pérez Enciso, Dr. M. Sánchez Rodríguez, Dr. O. Pintado, Dr. P. García Herradón, Dr. P. González Redondo, Dr. P.L. Rodríguez Medina, Dr. P. Pérez, Dr. R. Caballero, Dr. R. Celaya, Dr. R. García González, Dr. R. Lizardo, Dr. R. Santiesteban Valenzuela, Dr. R. Vivo Rodríguez, Dr. V. Fernández Cabanas, Dr. V. Rodríguez-Estévez, Dr. X. Manteca Vilanova, Dra. A. Estevez, Dra. A.I. Garzón Sigler, Dra. A. Martínez Fernández, Dra. A. Martínez Martínez, Dra. A. Sanz Rus, Dra. Ana Barroeta Lajusticia, Dra. C. Rodellar Penella, Dra. D. Carro, Dra. E. Camacho Valle-jo, Dra. F. Hernández Rupérez, Dra. I. Vázquez González, Dra. M.C. Hidalgo Jiménez, Dra. M.D. Megías Rivas, Dra. M.D. Pérez Guzmán Pasamontes, Dra. M.J. Alcalde Aldea, Dra. M. Jodral Villarejo, Dra. M.O. Cherequini Fernández-Maquieira, Dra. M.P. Flores Mengual, Dra. M.R. Fresno Vaquero, Dra. M. Rodríguez Ventura, Dra. M. Valera Córdoba, Dra. O. Barrantes Diaz, Dra. P. García Rebollar, Dra. P. Gaspar, Dra. P. Molina Pons, Dra. P. Recuerda Serrano, Dra. P. Zaragoza Fernández, Dra. R. Acero de la Cruz, Dra. R. Carabaño, Dra. R.M. Nieto, Dra. R. Moyano Salvago, Dra. S. Serrano Jiménez, Dra. T.J. Roy Pérez, Dra. Victoria Blanes Vidal and Dra. Y. Mena Guerrero;

From France: Dr. P. Sans;

From Greece: Dr. M. Lazaridou-Dimitriadou;

From India: Dr. A. Kumar Srivastav;

From Italy: Dr. G. Gabaldo, Dr. S. Gigli and Dr. V. Landi;

From Mexico: Dr. M.A. Galina Hidalgo, Dr. M. González Alcorta and Dr. M. Meneses-Mayo;

From Portugal: Dr. A. Horta, Dr. A. Pereira, Dr. A. Teixeira, Dr. C. Pereira Matos, Dr. E.A. Lenfioni Titto, Dr. J.P. Barbas, Dr. L.M. Mendes Ferreira, Dra. A.S. Santos and Dra. M.I. Carolino;

From Dominican Repubic: Dr. D. Valerio Cabrera;

From Venezuela: Dr. F. Pariacote and Dra. Z. Chirinos.