I am pleased to announce that, as of April 2023, PSA’s editorial boards are reaching decisions and providing feedback on articles submitted to Poultry Science® and The Journal of Applied Poultry Research (JAPR) faster than ever. Authors may now expect a first decision on their submissions to both journals in as little as 30 days after initial submission.
This reduction in editorial turnaround time accompanies an overall increase in submissions to both journals over recent years and reflects an overall effort to ensure we make the publication process as smooth and swift as possible without sacrificing peer-review integrity. As the field of poultry science advances, we are committed to meet the changing needs of authors and readers while maintaining our rigorous standards and record of excellence.
As Managing Editor of both journals, I of course play a part in this process, but this has always been and will always be a collaborative endeavor. These improvements would not be possible without the efforts our editorial boards, and particularly our Editors-in-Chief. I’d next like to share some words from them:
“Since my appointment as EIC, I have made a concerted effort to decrease the time from submission to first decision by:
- Emphasizing to the Section Editors the importance of keeping up with the submissions in their dashboards, i.e., a more regular check of each; maybe 2-3 times/week instead of once.
- Since the Section Editors are all active researchers and teachers that keep them busy on a daily basis, I routinely (2-3 times/week) check the All Assigned Submission Dashboard to see when the required number of reviews have been submitted and if a couple of days pass without a decision being made, I will take over the editing of the submission to hasten the decision making process instead of waiting until the SE can do so. I think that this has helped with the more rapid turnaround.”
Mike Kogut
Editor-in-Chief, Poultry Science®
“The JAPR editorial board is committed to having papers submitted reviewed thoroughly and in a timely manner. There are several things that can be done to contribute to a paper moving through the review process in good time. These include making sure the paper has been prepared according to the JAPR Instructions for Authors, as well as carefully selecting the section of the journal that you are submitting the paper to and ensuring that your paper’s content falls within that topic area. Most of the time papers that are submitted will fall under the paper types of either Research Report, Field Report or Applied Research Note, and failure to submit papers correctly slows the review process.
A request to reviewers would be to make timely decisions on whether they will review a paper. We get a lot of reviewers who are invited to review a paper and never reply to the email invitation. The system waits seven days for a reviewer to accept or decline an invitation to review, so if reviewers do not reply promptly, even to decline, it may be a week before the subject editors invite another person to review the paper.
There are no words to fully express my appreciation to the JAPR editorial board. I would like to acknowledge my gratitude to the Section Editors for their time and the expertise they bring to the review process. In addition, I thank everyone who is reviewing for the journals; without you the papers will not get published.”
Brian Fairchild
Editor-in-Chief, The Journal of Applied Poultry Research
I’d like to reiterate Dr. Fairchild’s point on manuscript preparation. From my own perspective, few things hold up a paper (at least in the early stages of review) more than improper formatting and unclear writing. Closely following the Instructions to Authors is a simple, relatively easy first step every author can take to help their manuscript get assigned to reviewers sooner rather than later. You can find these guidelines for Poultry Science® here and you can find the same guidelines for The Journal of Applied Poultry Research here. The Association is also pleased to provide a series of Journal Author Resources that hone in on topics from the guidelines.
The EICs and I would like to encourage all PSA members to participate in the journals as much as possible. Anyone interested in reviewing for either journal should fill out the PSA volunteer form and/or contact me or the EICs directly.
Q1 2023 PSA Journal Metrics
Poultry Science®
430 new submissions (up from 348 in Q1 of 2022; 335 in Q1 2021)
234 revised submissions (up from 174 in Q1 of 2022; 196 in Q1 2021)
31-day average turnaround from submission to first decision (down from 59 days in Q1 of 2022; 65 in Q1 2021)
2,327 reviewers invited (up from 1,806 reviewers in Q1 of 2022; 1,621 in Q1 2021)
575 completed reviews (up from 532 reviews in Q1 of 2022; 569 in Q1 2021)
15-day average review turnaround (down from 16 days in Q1 of 2022; 18 in Q1 2021)
215 accepted submissions (up from 178 acceptances in Q1 of 2022; 194 in Q1 2021)
The Journal of Applied Poultry Research
42 new submissions (up from 33 in Q1 of 2022; 36 in Q1 2021)
35 revised submissions (down from 36 in Q1 of 2022; 48 in Q1 2021)
23-day average turnaround from submission to first decision (down from 50 days in Q1 of 2022; 82 in Q1 2021)
145 reviewers invited (down from 180 reviewers in Q1 in 2022; 172 in Q1 2021)
64 completed reviews (down from 76 reviews in Q1 of 2022; 89 in Q1 2021)
16-day average review turnaround (down from 19 days in Q1 of 2022; 33 in Q1 2021)
21 accepted submissions (down from 24 acceptances in Q1 of 2022; 31 in Q1 2021)
David Busboom
Managing Editor
Poultry Science® and The Journal of Applied Poultry Research