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Stem Cells Vol. 24 No. 1 January 2006, pp. 1 -2
doi:; www.StemCells.com
© 2006 AlphaMed Press

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EDITORIAL

Stem Cells Journal: Robust Growth in 2005

Curt I. Civin, Editor-in-Cheif, Alan M. Gewirtz, M.D., Senior Editor, Robert G. Hawley, Ph.D., Senior Editor, Margaret A. Goodell, Ph.D., Senior Editor

As we close the book on a banner year, I want to present a picture of STEM CELLS’ remarkable and ongoing growth, and thank those responsible for it.

Nowhere is the currency of STEM CELLS more evident than in our online journal. At about 90,000 views a week, it connects the research world to the papers we publish (figure 1Go).


Figure 1
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  		Figure 1. Top green line: 2005. The first quarter’s peak in readership reflects interest in STEM CELLS’ papers generated by California’s Proposition 71 that founded the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

 
Since May, we have published peer-accepted articles within two weeks of acceptance in our publish-ahead-of-print modality, STEM CELLS EXPRESSTM, lowering the gestation period to first publication from months to days. We are providing authors the option of open access for even greater accessibility, and we will now welcome peer-accepted concise reviews to be open-access without an author’s share of cost.

The rate of submissions to STEM CELLS has increased 84% over last year (figure 2Go) – an indicator of the extraordinary growth of the field, and of the currency of our journal. In the midst of this "perfect storm" of submissions, we continue to work toward our goal of less than 30 days’ average time to first decision for new manuscripts.


Figure 2
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  		Figure 2. Growth in number of submitted manuscripts to STEM CELLS.

 
One of the ways we have added focused power to this endeavor is by adding more than a dozen new members to our Editorial Board (listed at the end of this editorial). Board members are the dedicated Lead Reviewers who have made it possible for STEM CELLS to review the 900+ original and revised manuscripts of the past year. The members of this outstanding Board have led an average of 6.5 manuscripts each in 2005, assisted by an army of external reviewers—more than 600 as listed in our last issue of 2005. We thank these scientists sincerely for their efforts and care.

Another approach to lowering review times is rapid rejection. This mechanism, in which a manuscript deemed to be inappropriate for STEM CELLS does not undergo external review, involves both a Lead Reviewer and a Senior Editor. Its use has increased fourfold in the past year, to the rate of 11% of rejections. The journal’s acceptance rate is about 46% of submitted manuscripts. It is our intention that rapid rejection benefits the authors of those papers by dramatically decreasing the turnaround time. We are targeting an increase in the use of this mechanism to approximately 20% of rejected manuscripts in 2006.

We also want to provide increased visibility to published papers and authors. The current issue introduces our new cover—a particularly appealing figure from within the issue, with an explanatory caption at the top of the Table of Contents. This month’s cover photo is from the article by Yokota et al. (Figure 3Go. Bone marrow lacks a transplantable progenitor for smooth muscle type alpha-actin expressing cells. STEM CELLS 2005:24:13–22[Medline]).


Figure 3
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  		Figure 3. New cover of STEM CELLS.

 
In 2006, we will invite brief statements from authors of accepted articles as to why their articles might be the focus of an Editor’s column. Brief commentaries by a Senior Editor or Guest Editor will appear in the same issue, for selected articles.

We thank the authors, Editorial Board members, external reviewers, and you, our readers, for making 2005 a banner year for STEM CELLS Journal, and for pledging the energy and dedication needed to carry this remarkable growth to new heights in the coming year.

Curt I. Civin, Editor-in-Chief

Senior Editors:

Alan M. Gewirtz, M.D.

Robert G. Hawley, Ph.D.

Margaret A. Goodell, Ph.D.





This Article
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