Improving our services

We have always set high standards for JSAP and over the past few years have made significant changes to the systems for submission and reviewing. The benefits of these changes to readers and authors alike are only just becoming obvious. In both 2007 and 2008 the journal’s impact factor increased and now stands at 0.908. The impact factor is a measure of the frequency with which articles in the journal are cited in subsequently published papers and so it gives some indication of the relevance of papers published in JSAP to those working in similar fields. In the league table of veterinary titles, JSAP is now ranked 48th out of 133 (a rise of 13 ranking places from last year). The impact factor of a journal is certainly not the only measure by which a journal should be judged, but an increasing impact factor does stimulate increased submissions (and hopefully better quality submissions) from which reviewers can select the articles to be published. The online submission system and increasing recognition of the journal overseas has resulted in the receipt of more submissions from other countries. We are actively encouraging the best submissions from all around the world and have developed an international editorial board to raise the profile of the journal in other countries. Whilst the majority of papers published in JSAP continue to be from the UK, case reports are now regularly submitted from around the world. In 2008, articles were published from authors representing 16 different countries. This issue reflects the truly international nature of the journal with submissions not only throughout Europe but also from the USA (Lynn 2009), Scandinavia (Pettersson 2009) and Australia (McGill 2009). Whilst we welcome the opportunity to share information across the globe the Editorial team remain focussed on the fact that the BSAVA membership is our core audience and reports are carefully selected for their relevance to the veterinarian in practice in the UK. Reviewing is overseen by a group of 12 Associate Editors, each representing a single specialism. These are supported by a broad-based Editorial Board, comprising more than 30 specialists from around the world. The full list of Associate Editors and Editorial Board members is published in each issue of the journal. The Associate Editors make an initial assessment of each submission and then personally select at least two appropriate reviewers. During the submission process authors are given the opportunity to identify preferred (and non-preferred) reviewers and the Associate Editors take this information into account when making reviewer selections. Once review reports are complete they are appraised by the Associate Editor who makes a recommendation to the Editor, who inevitably makes the final decision. Those submissions approved by the reviewers are accepted for publication subject to the authors addressing all editorial and production concerns. We believe that this system offers a fair and constructive peer review service to authors. Manuscripts are usually processed in the order they are received. Time from final acceptance to publication in the paper journal remains around 5 months. However, most material is now published online (from where it can be cited) in advance of print publication within 3 months of acceptance. If you need to keep up to date with the latest research then Early View can be accessed on the Wiley-Blackwell journal site. JSAP also operates a fast track system whereby reviewers can nominate submissions for accelerated publication where appropriate. In research fields with a short half-life (notably physics) information goes out of date extremely rapidly. Something that was published last year may no longer be relevant and future studies will not refer back to work more than a few months old. In such fields time to publication is of the essence and the important thing is what is happening now. In clinical medical fields research does not move so rapidly. Citation statistics make it clear that articles in JSAP have a long half-life– which, in this context, means that they continue to be cited for many years after publication. The top cited article in JSAP during 2008 was one published in 2001 which continues to be important almost seven years later. We know that many practices keep back copies of the journal and refer to these when they come across challenging cases that have previously been reported. As a service to BSAVA members we have now made all issues of JSAP (from 1960) available online. These can be accessed on the Wiley Interscience site by using the usual link from the BSAVA website. Hopefully this facility will make it much easier to search back copies of the journal for relevant articles. JSAP publishes papers of immediate clinical importance and therefore we do not consider any studies in which experimental animals have been used. Nonetheless, as the journal has become more international we have been receiving increasing numbers of submissions from countries with different cultural attitudes towards animals and we are working to revise the guidelines on animal welfare. The work described in all published manuscripts must conform to UK standards pertaining to animal welfare. Where experimental studies have been performed on pet animals (such as Phase 3 clinical trials of new drugs), the authors must include a statement within the text indicating that the appropriate licence/ethical approval was obtained prior to performing the study. If the study was performed outside of the UK, it should be reasonably expected that investigators would be granted a Home Office licence if this study were to be performed in the UK. Manuscripts that fail to meet these requirements are rejected. Work involving unnecessary pain, distress, suffering or lasting harm will not be considered and inappropriate experimental design and methodology, including inappropriate methods of anaesthesia and analgesia are also grounds for rejection. JSAP tries to publish only material that demonstrates best practice – clearly this also applies to levels of anaesthesia and attention to analgesia in painful conditions. This policy does result in the rejection of a number of papers in which the work was considered to be of scientific merit and would perhaps have been published otherwise.

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