AC - The Plant Phenome Journal Editorial Board (AC317)
2021 Annual Report
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The Plant Phenome Journal continues to grow and expand its submissions, audience and reach [ See Emily Mueller Managing Editor report [below] for details of the journal], although slowly. We are seeing the area of plant phenomics and plant phenotyping growing immensely since the journal began, which supports that the ASA and CSSA took a leadership position in founding this journal in 2016 and providing visibility to our societies. Notably we are attracting engineers and scientists from outside of the tri-society membership and increasingly from other countries; this can fit with the tri-societies strategic goal of increasing membership, if we can capitalize on it. Although no hard data is available, these submitters tend to be ethnically, gender and age diverse which fits with the strategic goal of increasing diversity, equity and inclusion. Finally, the journal provided and provides unique member services to highlight the accomplishments of our members.
Webinars
No TPPJ webinars were offered in 2021 but we now have a large number of published papers we can draw from to conduct these webinars in 2022. Past webinars posted on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/ThePlantPhenomeJournal remain popular. As of 12/30 we now have 323 subscribers, and the 21 videos range from 74 to 422 views.
Awards
The Plant Phenome Journal outstanding paper was “FIELDimageR: An R Package to Analyze Orthomosaic Images from Agricultural Field Trials”, by Filipe Inácio Matias, Maria V. Caraza-Harter, and Jeffrey B. Endelman. This was chosen, in part, for the very large number of reads and was especially notable for the early career contributions of the first author to the field of phenomics.
Special Issue – Dan Northrup and Saoirse Tracy
The TPPJ Special Edition: Below Ground Phenotyping was organized by Dan Northrup (dan@northrup.ag) and Saoirse Tracy (saoirse.tracy@ucd.ie) and increased our submissions (9) and will increase our number of papers with most submission likely being accepted (7), including a couple that make large contributions to the field. We thank Dan and Saoirse greatly for their leadership.
Promotion
TPPJ was a Gold Sponsor of the 2021 North American Plant Phenotyping Network (NAPPN) meeting which replaced the Phenome meeting (led by ASPB). This exceeded marketing budget by ~$1500 so Seth used part of his unclaimed Editorial stipend to cover the difference. Promo videos were recorded and there were other promotions.
Looking forward and challenges to overcome
Grants and presentations suggest phenomics remains a hotly growing field that will increase publications going forward. We perceive that our four biggest challenges to growth remain: 1) a lack of an impact factor; 2) the competing journals and special issues, including at least one giving gold-tier open access for free for articles; 3) high costs, whereas our ASA-CSSA backed journal charges $2000 + pages charges; and 4) the most easily remedied is the lack of name recognition internationally but we are working on this through the Wiley partnership, selection of new editors and sponsorship at meetings.
Board Meeting
We had our annual board meeting on November 18, 2021 1:00 PM-2:00 PM (UTC-06:00) Central Time using Zoom. All Editors and Staff were in attendance.
Board terms
This is the final term of Seth Murray serving as Editor, Mike Gore will take over as Editor in 2022. Carolyn Lawrence-Dill resigned early in 2021 due to other commitments.
Valerio Hoyos-Villegas is being added as TE for
Seth Murray – Editor, 2020 - Dec. 2021 (off TPPJ completely by 2023)
Michael Gore – TE, 2020 - Dec. 2022 to TPPJ Editor in 2022
Dan Northrup – TE, 2020 - Dec. 2021 (could be reappointed in 2023)
Carolyn Lawrence-Dill – TE, 2020 – Jul. 2021 (resigned early)
Valerio Hoyos-Villegas – TE, 2022 – 2025
Emily Mueller’s Managing Editor’s Report follows
AC318 The Plant Phenome Journal Editorial Board
1 | MANAGING EDITOR'S REPORT—EMILY MUELLER
1.1 Production Summary
A summary of papers published and the article length for 2021, as compared with 2018 through 2020, is presented in Table 1.1 below. We published 2 review articles this year (in 2020, we published 1 review article). We have thus far published 2 more articles than in 2020, and still have ~2 months to add more content.
TABLE 1.1 Summary of papers published in TPPJ
Contribution | 2021a | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 |
Original Research | 8 | 6 | 7 | 6 |
Science Notes | 3 | 4 |
| 2 |
Review and Interpretations | 2 | 1 |
|
|
Commentaries |
|
| 2 |
|
Total articles | 13 | 11 | 9 | 8 |
Total pages | 173 | 127 | 88 | 82 |
Average length/paper | 15.3 | 12.7 | 9.8 | 8.0 |
Average length, Sci Note | 6 | nab | na | na |
aData as of 2 Nov. 2021.
bna, not available.
1.2 | Submissions and Peer Review
Table 1.2 shows the number of submissions in 2021 (January–October), location of corresponding author (US, international), and the number of each paper type. Submission are up in 2021, back to 2019 levels. In addition: our acceptance rate for the year is currently at 100%, up from 75% in 2020.
TABLE 1.2 Submissions report and average number of days from original submission to final decision
US submissions | International submissions | Total | % International | Avg. days from submission to final decision | |
2021a | 16 | 4 | 20 | 20 | 154 |
2020 | 9 | 5 | 14 | 35 | 165 |
2019 | 18 | 2 | 20 | 10 | 142 |
2018 | 9 | 1 | 10 | 10 | 119 |
| SUBMISSIONS BY PAPER TYPE | ||||
| Original Research | Science Notes | Review and Interpretation | Commentaries |
|
2021a | 14 | 2 | 2 |
| 2 |
2020 | 8 | 5 | 1 |
|
|
2019 | 16 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
|
2018 | 7 | 2 | 1 |
|
|
aData as of 2 Nov. 2021.
Additional submission numbers can be found below. Table 1.3 lists submissions by month. As this metric is provided by Wiley, we only have data thus for for 2020 and 2021. I’m hoping in future years, as we compile additional data, we may be able to track patterns and use the data to plan ahead throughout the year. Table 1.4 provides the top submitting countries to The Plant Phenome Journal.
TABLE 1.3 ScholarOne original submission data, 2020 and 2021
Submission month | No. manuscripts, 2020 | No. manuscripts, 2021 |
Jan | 1 | 0 |
Feb | 1 | 3 |
Mar | 0 | 0 |
Apr | 2 | 2 |
May | 0 | 2 |
June | 1 | 2 |
July | 2 | 1 |
Aug | 0 | 6 |
Sept | 1 | 4 |
Oct | 3 | 0 |
Nov | 0 | -- |
Dec | 3 | -- |
Total | 14 | 20 |
Note. --, not available. Data for 2021 is through 2 Nov. 2021.
TABLE 1.4 Top ScholarOne submissions by country, 2020 and 2021. Number in parentheses is number of submissions from that particular country
Rank | 2020 | 2021 |
1 | USA (9) | USA (16) |
2 | Canada (2) | Ireland (2) |
3 | Bangladesh (1) | Germany (1) |
4 | Brazil (1) | UK (1) |
5 | Madagascar (1) |
|
Note. Data for 2021 is through 2 Nov. 2021.
Some additional peer-review metrics of note:
- Time to first decision (all manuscripts), 79 days (2020: 130 days)
- Final decision (all manuscripts), 154 days (2020: 165 days)
- Accepted (accepted only), 154 days (2020: 158 days)
- Reviewer turnaround, 59 days (2020: 34 days)
The time to decision decreased overall this year, averaging 11 days saved when compared to 2020. This is more impressive given that the reviewer turnaround time increased by 75%.
1.3 | Site Downloads
Our total site download number in 2020 was 25.85K. This number decreased slightly in 2021, to 25.12K.
2 | REPORT FROM THE PUBLICATIONS DIRECTOR—MATT WASCAVAGE
Publications Update – see separate file, containing detailed end-of-year reporting from Matt Wascavage.
3 | MAGAZINE AND PODCAST PROMOTION
Our Science Communication Editors (SCEs) and journal Editors as well as our Crops & Soils Editorial Board help staff select journal papers and books to be promoted in the magazines (CSA News and Crops & Soils) and our podcast (Field, Lab, Earth). Article promotion in the magazines includes feature stories and 200-word summaries. See Table 3-1 for a summary of the number of magazine and podcast promotions. (Note that the total only includes content derived from a journal article, special section, or book and so it does not reflect the total number of magazine articles/podcast episodes produced in a year)
TABLE 3-1. Summary of magazine and podcast promotions (1 Oct. 2020 – 30 Sept. 2021)
Journalb | Total promotions | Magazines | Podcast | ||
CSA News (for scientists and students) | Crops & Soils (for certified professionals and students)a | Field, Lab, Earth (for scientists, certified professionals, students and others) | |||
Feature | 200-word summary | Features (for CEU credit) | |||
AJ | 28 | 2 | 21 | 5 | -- |
AEL | 6 | 1 | 5 | -- | -- |
AGE | 8 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 |
Crop Sci | 40 | 7 | 31 | -- | 2 |
CFTM | 11 | -- | -- | 11 | -- |
JEQ | 27 | 5 | 20 | -- | 2 |
JPR | 3 | 1 | 1 | -- | 1 |
NSE | 4 | 1 | 2 | -- | 1 |
TPG | 7 | 1 | 6 | -- | -- |
TPPJ | 1 | 1 | -- | -- | -- |
SSSAJ | 18 | 2 | 16 | -- | -- |
UARF | 2 | -- | 2 | -- | -- |
VZJ | 14 | 5 | 9 | -- | -- |
Books | 6 | 4 | -- | -- | 2 |
Total promotions: 175 | |||||
Note: The promotions above do not reflect the total amount of science highlighted in our magazines and podcasts as some articles/episodes feature our sciences/members but are not directly related to a particular journal article or book.
a In addition to the CEU Feature stories in Crops & Soils magazine, 60 of the above CSA News stories were also promoted to CCAs in the monthly Crops & Soils “new articles” email.
b Journal abbreviations: AJ, Agronomy Journal; AEL, Agricultural & Environmental Letters; AGE, Agrosystems, Geosciences & Environment; Crop Sci, Crop Science; CFTM, Crop, Forage & Turfgrass Management; JEQ, Journal of Environmental Quality; JPR, Journal of Plant Registrations; NSE, Natural Sciences Education; TPG, The Plant Genome; TPPJ, The Plant Phenome Journal; SSSAJ, Soil Science Society of America Journal; UARF, Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems; and VZJ, Vadose Zone Journal.
3.1 | Social Media
Most of the articles promoted in the magazines are also promoted via the Societies’ social media accounts. The Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts for the Societies are constantly growing and are a platform to engage with an audience beyond membership.
Field, Lab, Earth has its own Twitter account (@fieldlabearth), which regularly posts content to promote each episode, including sneak peek “audiogram” videos, links to the articles featured on the show, and other relevant content. Each episode is also promoted on the Society Twitter and Facebook sites as well in both its own e-newsletter and those sent out to Society members and certificants (e.g., News Flash, The Adviser, and The Profile).
A snapshot of the reach and engagement of our posts is provided in Table 3-2 and Figure 3-1 for Facebook. Our Facebook reach (the estimated number of people who saw the post) per post on average more than tripled in 2021 compared with 2020. Data for Twitter are shown Table 3 and Table 4 for LinkedIn.
TABLE 3-2. Engagement and reach for each Publications Department post to Facebook (averaged across ASA, CSSA, and SSSA accounts) from Oct. 2020 through Sept. 2021
Reachb | |
39 | 2,454 |
a Measures total action taken on a post (e.g., clicking a link, “reacting” to the post, commenting, or sharing).
b The estimated number of people who saw the post.
FIGURE 3-1. Average Facebook reach from October 2020 through September 2021 for Publications Department posts.
TABLE 3-3. Average engagements and impressions for each Publications Department post to the ASA–CSSA–SSSA Twitter account from Oct. 2020 through Sept. 2021
Impressionsb | |
72 | 2,915 |
a Total number of times users interacted with a Tweet (e.g., clicks, retweets, replies, likes, etc.).
b Total number of times users have seen the Tweet on the platform.
TABLE 3-4. Average reactions and impressions per post in LinkedIn from February–September 2021
Reactionsa | Impressionsb |
16 | 1,162 |
a Response to a post in which a person chooses one of several emoticons to indicate their feelings about the content.
b The total number of times users have seen a post.
3.2 | Videos
CSA News magazine produces one video/month based on a feature story. These videos are then posted to our social media channels. Table 5 shows how widely they are viewed.
TABLE 3-5. CSA News magazine video total views per month from Oct. 2020 through Sept. 2021
300 | 270 |
Link to the playlist—all CSA News videos on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHCAIed9eN7ybpfrh-kJaCznordhX1rP7
3.3 | Additional Promotion
Recommendations are also used to identify papers for promotion to the media or public by the Public and Science Communications Department. The flowchart below provides a simple overview of how recommendations are used at headquarters.
3.4 | Contact Us
If you have any questions about promoting an article in our magazines, please contact DJ McCauley (Science Editor/Writer for CSA News) at dmccauley@sciencesocieties.org or Matt Nilsson (Managing Editor of Magazines) at mnilsson@sciencesocieties.org. For more information about our podcast, please contact Abby Morrison (Operations Specialist) at amorrison@sciencesocieties.org.
4 | 2021 IN REVIEW, TRENDS
4.1 | 2021 Outstanding Paper Award
This year we awarded our second Outstanding Paper award for an The Plant Phenome Journal paper. This year’s winner is, “FIELDimageR: An R Package to Analyze Orthomosaic Images from Agricultural Field Trials”, by Filipe Inácio Matias, Maria V. Caraza-Harter, and Jeffrey B. Endelman.
This year’s winner (as well as the 2020 winner) were both recognized at the ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City. The awardees will receive framed copies of the front page of the publication with a commemorative citation.
In addition to the recognition at the Awards ceremony, we have promoted the Outstanding Paper by (i) highlighting it on the The Plant Phenome Journal website, (ii) on The Plant Phenome Journal twitter account, (iii) in our society News Flash email, and (iv) we have a poster of the Outstanding Paper to be included with other recognized awards at the annual meeting. The Twitter account posting received quite a bit of attention, with 38 reshares and ~140 Likes in less than a week of posting.
4.2 | Production Updates
Journal layout and style. We have struggled a bit with Wiley’s communication in the past year regarding changes to our journal style. When they make small adjustments they often affect a minor style point, but ACSESS is not made aware (usually these are things we note later at galley proofing, when things have shifted or changed). We have been doing our best to communicate these changes to authors, copyeditors, and noting with Wiley that we should be notified ahead of time before these changes are made in the future.
Galley Proofing/Production. This year The Plant Phenome Journal saw a decrease in proofing and production times. Our galley proofing stage saw a decrease in 9 days (34 to 25 days), likely due to the move to html proofing.
4.3 | Special Sections and Reviews
This year we have continued work on one special section for publication in The Plant Phenome Journal, ‘Belowground Phenotyping”. The special section was promoted in the society News Flash, posted to social media accounts, and posted on the journal Call for Papers page. The organizers of the section are Dan Northrup (dan@northrup.ag) and Saoirse Tracy (saoirse.tracy@ucd.ie). We extended the submission window to include all interested authors, and closed in October 2021. All submissions are currently in peer review, and we plan to publish the special section in 2022.
This year we also published two Review papers. Published in 2021:
- Picturing the future of food, Casto et al., 4:1–17.
- Images carried before the fire: The power, promise, and responsibility of latent phenotyping in plants, Feldmann et al., 4:1–16.
4.4 | Overall Trends and Looking Forward
Journal Growth.The Plant Phenome Journal saw an 18% increase in journal size this year. For a journal of our size, that equates to 2 articles, and is a healthy growth for us. We should aim for a minimum same size growth (preferably, higher) looking ahead to 2022.
Special Sections. We currently have one special section in peer review, as noted above. Special sections are beneficial to a journal’s health as they are flexible in what timely or critical topics we choose to cover, and they bring a high amount of readership to the journal. We should plan to have at least one special section in the works each year.
Invited Reviews. Commissioning invited reviews are one means to grow our journal, as our Reviews always well cited and highly read. As a general rule, we should aim for 2-3 Review articles per year. Our Annual Meeting presentations and posters have good potential for future invited content.
Peer Review. Looking over numbers, we may need to discuss the increased length of peer review, and where we see his coming from, and how to solve this situation. Emily Mueller has materials that she can share regarding increasing the reviewer pool. Please reach out if you’d like a copy of these materials.
New Board Initiatives. With our move to Wiley to handle the majority of the production workflow, we are looking to the changes to the Managing Editor position and the Board’s overall goals going forward. This year, we have started (or re-started) a few intiatives: (a) having an Editorial Board member attend (as a journal representative) the CSSA/ASA Division business meetings; and (b) reaching out to potential invited papers or future special sections from presentations/posters at the society Annual Meeting. In addition, we will start providing quarterly metrics updates to the Editorial Board.
Publication Updates. In an effort to increase transparency in the journal publishing process, we included three mandatory elements to our articles: (a) author contribution statements are now required and published, (b) Associate Editor names are included in each article, and (c) all articles include mandatory Conflict of Interest statements.
Wiley Webinars. This year we were invited to several Wiley webinars, with topics such as growing your reviewer base, the evolving publishing environment, attracting early career researchers, and creating special sections. If you were unable to attend, Emily Mueller attended these webinars on the journal Board’s behalf, and have extensive notes to share; please reach out if you are interested.
5 | HEADQUARTERS STAFF CONTACTS
Matt Wascavage, Publications Director: mwascavage@sciencesocieties.org; 608-819-3916
Emily Mueller, Managing Editor: emueller@sciencesocieties.org; 608-268-3988
Lauren Coleman, Publications Operations & Marketing Manager: lcoleman@sciencesocieties.org; 608-268-3970
Abby Morrison, Publications Operations Specialist: amorrison@sciencesocieties.org; 608-268-3974
6 | ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you to Seth Murray, editor; Dan Northrup, Michael Gore, and Carolyn Lawrence-Dill, technical editors; and the volunteer reviewers for making publication of this journal possible through hard work and dedication.
Emily Mueller, Managing Editor, The Plant Phenome Journal
Last update: 15 November 2021
Items Requiring Board Attention:
Members of the Committee:
Susan Ernst (TPPJ Journal Manager)
Nicholas Goeser (Member, Ex Officio)
Michael Gore (TPPJ Technical Editor)
Carolyn Lawrence-Dill (TPPJ Technical Editor)
Lauren Matthews (Member, Ex Officio)
Daniel Northrup (TPPJ Technical Editor)
Matt Wascavage (Member, Ex Officio)
Jeffrey Volenec (ASA Editor-in-Chief)
C. Wayne Smith (CSSA Editor-in-Chief)
Seth Murray (TPPJ Editor)
Attachment:
Prepared By:
Murray, Seth C.