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Brain, Vol. 124, No. 1, 1,
January 2001
© 2001 Oxford University Press
Editorial |
A message from the Editor
Information technology is having an increasing impact on biomedical publishing, not least because of the benefits it can bring to authors, editors and publishers. Brain has been on the Web (http://www.brain.oupjournals.org) since May 1997, as many of our readers will know. Our web site displays the current Table of Contents, which is always available at least one day before the first of the month on which publication is due, as well as other details about the journal including the names of our (international) editorial board. Anyone accessing the site is able to download abstracts, and subscribers to the journal can download full papers and reviews as PDF and HTML files. In addition, Brain archives (issues published more than 2 years previously) are available to non-subscribers.
Brain is now planning to make online submission available by April 2001, with the assistance of Oxford University Press. The primary reason for this is to reduce the transit time involved in the reviewing process, and thus to accelerate publication. Since many of our authors and reviewers are from overseas, transit time can contribute substantially to manuscript processing time. We recently sought the views of about 550 of our authors and referees, who were randomly selected from a total of 950. I would like to thank all those who found time to reply. Of the (310) responders to date, over 75% were in favour of both online submission and online reviewing. Comments were invited, and some helpful points were made. We recognize that not all authors, or all referees, will wish to take advantage of the online facility so, at least initially, the two systems will operate in parallel. Authors not wishing to submit online will be asked to send a floppy disk, as at present, which will be converted in the editorial office for online processing. Authors will be able to upload full text and graphics over the Internet and there will be worldwide access 24 hours a day. Referees will have the online version available to them, which can of course be printed if required. It is possible that some illustrations will need to be submitted and reviewed as originals rather than as a downloaded version. Security will be assured. Details of the new facility will be given on the Brain web site early in 2001.
The scope of the papers published in the journal continues to be wide. In my editorial message 2 years ago, I drew attention to the fact that 33% of papers published in 1998 were concerned with normal structure or function. I expressed the hope that the balance might shift a little in subsequent years in favour of disease-related papers, especially those concerned with disease pathogenesis and treatment. An analysis of papers published in 2000 indicates that a swing of this kind has indeed occurred. Manuscripts focusing on pathogenesis and on the functional or structural effects of disease now each account for about 30% of published papers, while those concerned with the healthy brain have declined to about 15%. The remaining 25% are concerned with natural history, diagnosis and treatment. Authors of manuscripts concerned with normal structure or function should be reassured that it is certainly not the intention ultimately to exclude these. Brain has always published papers of this kind, particularly when they can be seen to have potential clinical relevance.
Impact factors, as all researchers know, are an imperfect measure of a journal's standing, and I pointed out some of the pitfalls of this measure in my editorial message in 1999. Nevertheless, editors prefer the impact factor to be climbing rather than falling, so I am happy to report that our impact factor for 1999 (released in July 2000) has risen again, from 6.0 to 7.4 (rounded), keeping our place securely as the second highest rated neurological journal. But authors (and editors) need to remember that, like the stock market, indices can go down as well as up, and as unpredictably. In the end, our success is a tribute to the quality of the manuscripts submitted to us and to the high quality reports we receive from our hard-working referees, whose names we published last month and whom I here warmly thank.
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