ARS Turns Fifteen: la quinceañera bonita

D uring the last decade and a half, a large community of redox scientists stood behind the cause of raising ARS as the best performing journal in its class. The goal was to entrust ARS with the responsibility to advance the erstwhile niche field of redox biology to a more central position in mainstream biological and medical sciences. Today, the ARS manuscript central data records over 16,000 contributors. Propelled by momentous advances in redox sciences, today ARS holds its head high delivering on promises of a strong communication platform of the redox community. Ever since ARS received the first impact factor in 2003, the citation index has only gone up—never side-ways and never down (Fig. 1). In addition, it has significantly contributed to the impact factor of other journals in the discipline elevating the overall field of study to a higher level of general recognition. This is a credible milestone in our ongoing journey and reflects the extraordinary commitment of ARS authors, reviewers, the editorial board, and the publisher.* At present, ARS ranks first in the field of redox biology, it has been that way for several years uninterrupted. Of 8336 journals listed in the current Journal Citation Reports published by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), ARS ranks 205th. The next journal in the discipline of redox biology is ranked 449th. When you read an ARS publication, you cite it urgently because it helps develop your own research. ARS ranks 169th of 8336 in immediacy index. Immediacy index is a measure of how topical and urgent work published in a scientific journal is. Figure 2 depicts the immediacy index of two other prestigious journals in biomedical research. By immediacy index, the next journal in the discipline of redox biology is ranked 923rd. It is thus evident that ARS is the primary source of hot papers in redox biology and medicine because they are urgently cited. Roughly, half of all manuscripts published in ARS come from the United States. The rest of the world contributes the other half. With contributions from almost 50 different countries, ARS has established itself as a truly international journal (Table 1).

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FIG. 1.

Impact factor over time. JCR, Thomson Reuters Journal Citation Reports.

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FIG. 2.

Immediacy index over time of three reputed journals. FASEB J, FASEB Journal; FRBM, Free RadicBiol Med.

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Table 1.

Listing of Country of Origin for Manuscripts Published in ARS

Growth and success comes with increased responsibility. We are responsible to grow the ARS footprint such that it may have a much broader impact on mainstream biomedical sciences. One strategy to substantially increase the footprint is to publish a larger volume of high-quality manuscripts every year, while not substantially compromising the impact factor. No other journal in redox biology has ever broken the barrier of seven in the impact factor. ARS did and is fully committed to stay much above seven long terms. Because manuscript volume represents the denominator of the impact factor calculation, any sharp increase in volume is arithmetically predicted to proportionally lower the impact factor. Because of the robust current upward momentum, ARS will be affected less than that predicted by simple arithmetic and will maintain its top position even after such aggressive volume expansion. In the interest of our redox community who now submit a substantially larger number of manuscripts to ARS, we have nearly doubled the annual publication volume from roughly 200 to 400 (Fig. 3). ARS is now the only journal in the field of redox biology, publishing 36 issues a year, bringing three issues to your desk every month. As you will find from Instructions for Authors posted in the journal website, ARS is now published as two series of one journal (with one impact factor): ARS -Discoveries and ARS -Therapeutics. ARS -Discoveries is published 24 times a year and ARS -Therapeutics is published now on a monthly basis that is, 12 times a year. Redox biology does have the potential of major health impact. ARS -Therapeutics is the first and only forum dedicated to prove that point to the broader biomedical community. Because of this decisive expansion plan, we anticipate a transient dip in the impact factor in 2013, but will still maintain our long-standing top position in the field of redox biology by a wide margin. In 2014, we will start bouncing back as the increased number of articles would have had time to be read and cited. In 2–3 years from now, ARS will emerge as a much stronger journal than what you see today.

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FIG. 3.

Annual publication volume of ARS. Recent doubling to enhance footprint and widen impact.

Inherent strengths of ARS serve as capital to resource plans for growth. Our unusually stringent peer review system (see Instruction for Authors) is helping elevate the quality of submitted science (1). Thanks to our responsive authors who are willing to put up with the rigor of being reviewed by a community of 4–6 reviewers in most cases. Again, thank you for your co-operation in building the field through effective partnership between the wisdom of a community of reviewers that critique each submission and the authors. Extreme bias of any single reviewer is effectively managed through our reviewer community approach protecting authors and their science. The Rebound Peer Review system (1), introduced by ARS, is aimed at safe-guarding author interests and protecting innovative science from the imperfections of the current peer-review system. The peer-review process at ARS is conducted in a timely manner with our current average time to first decision being well below three weeks. This is exemplary on the part of our distinguished reviewers.

Conducting the editorial charge under current dynamic conditions has been challenging, and I have personally enjoyed every bit of it. On behalf of the ARS family, I warmly welcome your continued engagement and feedback. Let us continue to partner to raise ARS and this fascinating field of redox research and healthcare.