We seek your submissions and suggestions for The Professional Animal Scientist journal.
I am honored to serve the next three years as the editor-in-chief (EIC) of The Professional Animal Scientist (PAS) journal. Wayne Kellogg, EIC for more than 11 years, has left big boots to fill. I appreciate his help in the next few months while transitioning into this new role. Andy Cole and Stacey Gunter will continue to serve as associate editors in 2018. An additional associate editor will be announced soon for the swine area.
We invite and strongly encourage submission of manuscripts for review and potential publication. Anyone, ARPAS members as well as nonmembers, can submit manuscripts for consideration. Submissions can be ORIGINAL RESEARCH manuscripts, SCIENTIFIC REVIEWS, CASE STUDIES, COMMENTARIES, or TECHNICAL NOTES addressing important topics that are ready or nearly ready for field application. Topics must relate to opportunities or challenges in the applied animal sciences or in animal production systems, including dairy, meat animals (beef and swine), horses, poultry, and other species. All submissions are peer reviewed and considered refereed upon publication.
A key goal of PAS is to provide science-based information of value to ARPAS members. Even if you are not the author, please suggest relevant topics for INVITED REVIEWS and all other types of submissions and potential authors for 2018–2019 directly to beede@msu.edu, Andy Cole (nacole@suddenlink.net), or Stacey Gunter (sgunte@yahoo.com).
Five basic types of article submissions. Especially in the next year, SCIENTIFIC REVIEWS are sought that integrate information and provide well-founded recommendations on the applications of research-based information in animal agriculture. Excellent REVIEWS are often more cited by other authors in other articles and therefore are especially powerful to help PAS toward the goal of securing a larger impact factor. Members of ARPAS also are encouraged to provide suggestions on topics of interest for the annual ARPAS Symposium organized by the president-elect. Symposium speakers then are asked to submit a manuscript for PAS review based on their presentations. Members also are invited and encouraged to submit COMMENTARIES on contemporary issues to PAS that provide more latitude for expression of professional opinion and dialogue with the ARPAS membership.
RESEARCH PAPERS are based on adequately replicated experiments and(or) data from original unpublished research, economic analyses, combined case studies, field trials, scientific literature, or a combination thereof. Use of data gleaned from the literature is acceptable only if pooled for the purpose of rigorous meta-analysis. CASE STUDIES must represent unique applications or situations and original unpublished research in any area of animal agriculture or a related discipline and may be biological or economic studies or surveys, well-designed field trials, documented novel observations, or studies applying new techniques. TECHNICAL NOTES are for well-designed studies related to new equipment or novel processes. Additionally, LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, POLICY STATEMENTS, or BOOK REVIEWS from ARPAS members or PAS subscribers are published in a special section for formal exchange of professional opinion and dialogue on current issues.
Full instructions and detailed information for preparation and submission of manuscripts are provided at the “For Authors” tab at the top of the PAS homepage (http://www.professionalanimalscientist.org/content/authorinfo). PAS Editorial Board members beginning with the February 2018 issue include Marit J. Arana, John D. Arthington, Kayanush J. Aryana, Mark E. Branine, Geoffrey A. H. Cochrane, Mark A. Crowe, Maurico A. Elzo, Michael S. Gadberry, Richard G. Godbee, Pablo Gregorini, Jenny Jennings, Alois Kertz, Guillermo Ortiz-Colón, John Richeson, Ryan Reuter, Adam L. Shreck, and Lawson A. Spicer. Also supporting PAS as part of their FASS publication department duties are Christine Horger (lead technical editor), Ron Keller (production and layout for PAS), Shauna Miller (support for ScholarOne Manuscripts), and Susan Pollock (managing technical editor).
In 2018, we strongly encourage ARPAS members, subscribers, and authors to continuously help us strengthen the usefulness and impact of PAS. We seek your input for potential topics and authors across the spectrum of topics and types of articles in PAS. In advance, thanks for your input!
Looking forward, Dave Beede, EIC, PAS