Cells, Tissues, Organs

Report to American Editors - 2000

Summary
Manuscripts received 38*
Manuscripts accepted 19*
Manuscripts rejected   8 (50 % of those reveiwed)
Manuscripts currently under review   6
Manuscripts returned to authors – pending   5

* Includes 16 papers as part of the Special Topics Issue on TMJ.  All these papers were accepted.

Time to Editorial Decision
The average time between manuscript receipt and editorial decision was 10 weeks.  However, this time is inflated by 1-3 papers taking far too long, as seen in this chart.  Clearly the mode is around seven weeks. I feel that a comment should be made regarding these three papers. Most of the protracted review of these manuscripts was taken up with finding suitable referees.  A total of 35 potential reviewers were contacted for these three papers!  These people were contacted at the suggestion of editorial board members, and when no one would review the paper, we sought the additional input of the authors. Two of the three papers were ultimately rejected. I would like very much to stop using our efforts in this manner.  I will be contacting editors for guidance in returning manuscripts for which I cannot find referees in a timely manner.

Use of Editors
For each manuscript received, I consult with an editorial board member or Associate Editor to help find appropriate referees.  For the 18 papers not part of the TMJ issue, the following editors were consulted to solicit reviewers of manuscripts.
 
 

Editor Times  Consulted
Caplan
2
Cunha
0
 
Enders
1
 
Farnum
1
 
Gibson
0
 
Glickstein
0
 
Hall
3
 
Hermanson
3
 
Herring
1
 
Jacobsen
1
 
Lichtman
0
 
Porter
0
 
Roy
1
 
Schoenwolf
3
 
Segal
0
 
Widmer
3
 
TOTAL
19

Impact
The only data available to me at this time is for 95-96.  There is a lot, and I have condensed it to the following table of journals with whom we might compete.
 
Rank Impact Percentile
Cell 3 39.19 99.933
Neuron 13 18.35 99.708
GENES & DEVELOPMENT 15 17.33 99.663
 JOURNAL OF CELL BIOLOGY 33 12.15 99.258
DEVELOPMENT 66 8.06 98.516
DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY 183 4.47 95.884
Developmental Dynamics 464 2.48 89.564
Evolution 497 2.35 88.821
Cell and Tissue Research 610 2.07 86.280
Journal of Experimental Biology 743 1.82 83.288
Anatomy and Embryology 796 1.75 82.096
Anatomical Record 1115 1.38 74.921
Journal of Experimental Zoology 1244 1.25 72.020
Journal of Anatomy 1764 0.87 60.324
Journal of Zoology 1977 0.77 55.533
Journal of Morphology 2052 0.74 53.846
Tissue & Cell 2190 0.68 50.742
Acta Anatomica 2251 0.64 49.370
ANATOMISCHER ANZEIGER 2375 0.59 46.581
Journal of Paleontology 2951 0.40 33.626
Surgical & Radiologic Anatomy 3287 0.31 26.068