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ARPAS Newsletter

ARPAS Newsletter

Report on Applied Animal Science

David K. Beede, PhD, PAS, Dipl. ACAS Nutrition, Editor-in-Chief of AAS

Categories: Reports, Summer 2020

This report is divided into three parts:

  1. performance data about the submission-review-editorial-production-publication process of Applied Animal Science (AAS) for the first half of 2020 compared with the previous four years
  2. activities and changes in 2019–2020
  3. anticipated work and activities for 2020 and forward

The journal can be found at https://www.appliedanimalscience.org via the ARPAS member/JBS webpages or the Elsevier/Science Direct webpage.

  1. Performance data about submission-review-editorial-production-publication process in 2020 (January to June 4) compared with the previous four years. The 2020 data are after the first 3 of 6 issues for 2020 were published.

    Table 1. Journal Submissions, Review, and Publication Data (compiled by S. Pollock, FASS).




    Table 2. Published Articles by Manuscript Type (compiled by S. Pollock, FASS).
  2. Activities and changes in 2019-2020
    1. Support and marketing
      1. Associate Editors: Eric van Heugten (North Carolina State University; swine/nonruminants) continued from 2018; Glenn Duff (New Mexico State University; beef feedlot and food science) continued from 2018 (stepped down in December, 2019); Stacey Gunter (USDA/ARS; beef cattle/ruminants) continued from 2018; and Kristin Hales (Texas Tech University; beef feedlot and food science) commenced duties in January 2020.
      2. Social Media Editor Miriam Snider (University of Vermont) began in July 2019 and continues.
      3. FASS staff working with AAS are Susan Pollock (managing editor and FASS director of publications), Christine Horger (lead technical editor), Shauna Miller (ScholarOne Manuscripts support), and Ron Keller (production).
      4. Becky Collins is the publisher from Elsevier, continuing for 2019.
      5. A new publishing contract was negotiated with Elsevier commencing in 2020 through 2024 with an option to renegotiate early in 2023. (Al Kertz lead, et al.).
      6. The online journal can be found at https://www.appliedanimalscience.org via the ARPAS member/JBS webpages or the Elsevier/Science Direct webpage.
      7. Print issues were discontinued beginning in 2020.
      8. New cover design for AAS to illustrate science and interaction of people with animals in the animal sciences and production systems instituted in 2020; cover pictures will remain the same without change since print issues are discontinued in 2020.
      9. Information for Authors (Policies and Instructions for Authors documents) for AAS webpages were edited, updated, and reposted in early 2020.
      10. Marketing: worldwide call for manuscript submissions was made by Elsevier marketing twice in 2020 using their databases and networks to prospective animal scientist authors (including the United States).
      11. Marketing: Elsevier developed and broadcasted globally an Early Career Investigator campaign to highlight three authors who had published in AAS and described their reasons for and positive experience with the process. These highlights are currently available on the front page of the ARPAS webpage or are linked below in number 13 (Daigle, Harstine, and Ríus).
      12. Invitations were made to selected individuals to write and submit invited reviews for AAS. So far in 2020 eight Invited Reviews or Reviews have published; this compares with twelve in 2019 and three in 2018.
      13. So far in 2020, twelve press releases have been issued:
      14. Fourteen press releases about AAS articles were issued in 2019:
      15. Official letters of thanks and public posting of reviewers’ names were made to journal webpages for all reviewers for 2019.
      16. Official letter of thanks sent via email to each reviewer of 2019 manuscripts; over 200 different volunteer experts reviewed one or more manuscript submissions (these names are posted on the ARPAS webpage).
      17. Discussions and planning to position AAS for application of an Impact Factor continued in 2019–2020.
      18. A common member complaint is not being notified of a new issue by email alert or not being able access the journal online at the Elsevier site. In reality this is due to lack of understanding and action by members (member’s responsibility) to achieve secure Internet access; any member can/should opt in to receive the table of contents email alert, with links to the articles, each time an issue is posted online (Opt In Here) to complete a two-step registration. Registration is necessary to ensure Internet security for ARPAS members and permits access to view the table of contents, abstracts, and full articles. If not able to register or needing assistance, contact ARPAS administrative assistant, Brittany Morstatter, verify membership status, membership number, and email address and then Register Here for full access to the ARPAS journal. Or go to www.arpas.org, log in as a member, and access the journal from the society website and Publications tab. Also, the full instructions are listed in the green box at the end of this report.
    2. Review and Publication Updates
      1. Began collecting ORCiDs from corresponding authors via the ScholarOne site; updated letters to authors to encourage addition of ORCiDs to their accounts. For authors that have ORCIDs in their accounts, the ORCiDs are published on final articles. More about ORCIDs (www.orcid.org):
        • ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier (an ORCID iD) that you own and control, and that distinguishes you from every other researcher. You can connect your iD with your professional information—affiliations, grants, publications, peer review, and more. You can use your iD to share your information with other systems, ensuring you get recognition for all your contributions, saving you time and hassle, and reducing the risk of errors.
        • It also is a benefit that AAS can offer its authors.
      2. iCal (calendar reminders) added to S1 letters with due dates to help authors, reviewers, and editors meet deadlines from the peer-review system.
      3. CRediT taxonomy added to manuscript submission process. Authors can use tick boxes to designate co-author contributions (type and level) to their submitted paper.
      4. FundRef module added to the manuscript submission process. This allows authors to include funding agency and grant numbers during the submission process. This information is collected at author proofs if not submitted before then (and published on final papers), so this should assist the technical editor in collecting the information further upstream.
      5. In early May 2020, Clarivate notified Elsevier and AAS that we have been accepted for the Web of Science™: Emerging Sources Citation Index™. This is separate from applying for an Impact Factor, but this is a good (necessary) initial step toward successful application for an Impact Factor.
      6. Invitations and acceptances to join the AAS Editorial Board were completed in June 2002. The updated board (n = 42 volunteers) will be listed in the August 2020 issue.
    3. Social Media Efforts and Metrics (report by Miriam Snider, social media editor, University of Vermont)

      Background
      Since July 2019, ARPAS in conjunction with Elsevier has launched a social media campaign to draw attention to ARPAS and the journal Applied Animal Science. Plans were made during the July 2019 meeting to launch a Twitter account highlighting the journal as well as related journals, articles, and conferences.

      Current Efforts and Analytics
      As of July 2019, ARPAS has launched the account Applied Animal Science. Typically, the most traffic is noted when we post original content and tag the corresponding universities or researchers. I have been trying to form collaborations and network with other journals (Journal of Dairy Science, Journal of Animal Science, and so on) and universities by following them on Twitter and retweeting some of their more high-profile tweets.

      I also put out a weekly article from the journal, press reviews, conference reminders, workshops, policy news, member highlights, and AAS submission guidelines when possible. I try to interact and draw attention to our page by tagging people, universities, and industries involved in the research published in AAS.

      Finally, I use social media analytics to give me an idea of our demographic, what works and what doesn’t, and to tweet out prewritten tweets if I’m away from my phone or computer for an extended period of time. Overall, everything is based on promoting the journal. ARPAS has put out Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts. Facebook and Instagram have been difficult to use; our Facebook account might be more engaging if we drop the account focused on finding friends and just use the account driven by “likes.” LinkedIn and Twitter have proven to be more engaging.
      • We currently following 350 accounts and have 188 followers of AAS.
      • We have tweeted and retweeted content around 195 times.
      • Our tweets have earned 247 impressions in the past 28 days (or 8 impressions per day).
      • Our most influential month was September with an engagement rate of 1.9%, 5 link clicks, and 445 impressions over 30 days.
      • Since January 2019, we have had 129 tweet impressions, 7 profile visits, and 6 new followers.
      • ARPAS (Twitter) is following 304 accounts with 50 followers
        • 14 tweets
        • We have connected with ADSA, the Journal of Dairy Science, and with the ADSA Graduate Student Division, which have proven to be extremely useful.
          • Formed a relationship with ADSA to retweet graduate student articles as well as advertise ARPAS exams.
        • We should continue to pursue these relationships, as well as one with the Northeast ASAS-ADSA.
      • LinkedIn appears to have over 1,000 followers.
      User Demographics
      Our biggest reach (28% of the audience) has been professionals and technical personnel, followed by homemakers (24%) and self-employed individuals (20%). Our top follower has been Andy Vance from the podcast Feedstuffs. It might be a good idea to reach out to him since he has a decently large following and might be able to help promote the journal to extension professionals and other interested parties.

      Conclusions and Moving Forward
      Students were our lowest reached audience (6%). Therefore, efforts should be made to reach a younger audience. More effort and ideas should be put forth to earn attention and get retweets. It might be a good idea to have our account promoted, although this does cost money. Finally, I also think it would be a good idea to highlight some of the regional chapters/members through photos or even small interviews. That might be well received and help us gain a larger following as it puts faces to names.

      For the coming year (2020–2021) we may want to think about developing a graduate division. It also has been shown that highlighting graduate student papers has produced the most engagement; we might want to think about producing a special edition featuring graduate students as first authors.
  3. Anticipated Work and Activities in 2020 and Forward Activities and Changes in 2019–2020
    1. The decision was made by ARPAS Executive Committee in 2019 to discontinue the print version of the journal in 2020 as a cost savings and because of the low number of print subscribers.
    2. Continuing Associate Editors in 2020: Eric van Heugten (North Carolina State University; swine/nonruminants) and Stacey Gunter (USDA/ARS; beef cattle/ruminants). New Associate Editor Kristin Hales (Texas Tech University began January 1, 2020, beef cattle/food science/environmental; replacing Glenn Duff who asked to be replaced).
    3. Consider and develop special issue(s) of AAS on selected topics (e.g., swine science and production systems; others?).
    4. Continue quarterly invitations from the editor-in-chief to write and submit invited reviews to AAS.
    5. Three review-type manuscripts from the 2020 ARPAS symposium are expected.
    6. Continue press releases monthly or quarterly based on journal articles in each issue and any other associated industry or ARPAS events.
    7. Continue letter of thanks to each and all reviewers in 2020.
    8. Apply for an Impact Factor with help of Elsevier in mid to late 2020.
    9. Elsevier (Rebekah Collins) to apply for PubMed indexing of AAS in 2020.
    10. We will continue to social distance and wear face masks for the remainder of 2020; a virtual journal meeting including editors, editorial board, FASS staff, and Elsevier publisher will occur in August or September 2020; the ARPAS Governing Council and Executive Committee will be invited to join the meeting.
    11. Post the following reminder to ARPAS members quarterly via email:

AS A DUES-PAID MEMBER OF ARPAS YOU ARE ABLE TO ACCESS
THE APPLIED ANIMAL SCIENCE (AAS) JOURNAL

To access issues, you MUST COMPLETE this one-time, two-step process to activate online access using your ARPAS member number, which is the same as your FASS member number.

If you do not know your number please contact Brittany Morstatter (brittanym@assochq.org)

  1. REGISTER
    • Click Activate Online Access in the navigation bar at www.appliedanimalscience.org
      • If you have previously registered on the PAS website (or another journal website hosted on Elsevier’s platform), enter your username/password to Login.
      • If you are new to the PAS site, click the Create Account button and complete the account registration form.
  2. CLAIM ONLINE ACCESS
    • On the next screen, click the box “I receive my subscription through a society membership”
      • Enter your ARPAS Membership Number and Last Name and then click Activate Claim
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