Baishideng’s century goal: Editing and publishing high-quality articles

Abstract

Baishideng’s goal over the next few years is to edit and publish high-quality articles through the open-access model, to maximize the benefits to members of the editorial board, authors and readers, as well as achieving social and economic benefits.

Key Words: Access to information; Baishideng; Maximization of the personal benefit; Editorial policies; Open access; Periodicals; Publishing

INTRODUCTION

Beijing Baishideng BioMed Scientific Co., Ltd was established on November 20, 2007. Its predecessor was The WJG Press, and its main task is to edit and publish biomedical journals. The predecessor to the currently published Shijie Huaren Xiaohua Zazhi (World Chinese Journal of Digestology) was the Xin Xiaohuabingxue Zazhi (New Journal of Gastroenterology), which was launched in Shanxi on January 15, 1993. The predecessor of the weekly publication World Journal of Gastroenterology was the China National Journal of New Gastroenterology, which was launched in Shanxi on October 1, 1995. We are also preparing to publish the World Journal of Hepatology, World Journal of Gastrointestinal Oncology, World Journal of Diabetes, World Journal of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, World Journal of Stem Cells, World Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery, World Journal of Gastrointestinal Pathophysiology, and World Journal of Gastrointestinal Pharmacology and Therapeutics which will be launched successively in Beijing after September 15, 2009. Our goal is to edit and publish high-quality articles through the open-access (OA) model[1], to maximize the benefits to members of the editorial board, authors and readers.

MAXIMIZATION OF THE PERSONAL BENEFITS OF EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS

Our editorial board comprises 1126 invited experts in 60 countries, which means that we have access to outstanding scientists around the world, because first-class publications require a first-class editorial team[23]. Member of the editorial board should: (1) have attained a high level of scholarship and respect in their respective fields; (2) have a rigorous academic attitude and integrity; (3) participate actively in academic conferences and activities; (4) carry out peer review of six articles for the journal every year; and (5) write a commentary article or organize a series of “Highlight” articles for the journal every 2 years. Maximization of the interests of members of the editorial board is mainly reflected in the following.

Members of the editorial board review articles

(1) Responsibility to their own fields. A member of the editorial board rigorously evaluates a manuscript within a specified time; (2) Responsibility to the author. After agreeing to peer review a manuscript, a member of the editorial board makes a scientific evaluation of its accuracy, clarity, importance and its contribution to the scientific community; and (3) Responsibility to the journal. When a member of the editorial board cannot complete the review within the time set by the journal, he/she should decline the review and explain the reason. Once a member of the editorial board agrees to review a manuscript, he/she is under an obligation to send their comments to the editorial department within the specified time. If the member of the editorial board cannot complete the review on time, he/she should inform the editorial department and ask whether to return the unreviewed manuscript or request for an extension of time. When a member of the editorial board receives a manuscript involving an apparent conflict of interest with his/her own research work or point of view, the member of the editorial board should decline to review the manuscript and explain the specific conflict of interest. The most common conflict of interest is private or professional relationships between the member of the editorial board and the organization undertaking the research or the author(s) that may affect the impartiality of the review, or competition between the member of the editorial board and those undertaking the research. When a member of the editorial board cannot return a reviewed manuscript to the editor for some reason, he/she can recommend one or two peer reviewers familiar with the topic of the paper to help the editor process the manuscript accurately and quickly. As a qualified member of the editorial board, he/she must abide by certain rules, deal with problems fairly and impartially, and avoid abuse of his/her position[4]. We publish all relevant information, including the conclusion of the peer review and the name and organization of the reviewer, along with the article. This is to control the quality of the peer reviewers, editors and publishers, ensure that each article is published after peer review, and reflect peer reviewers’ responsibility.

Members of the editorial board publish commentary articles

Almost all the 1126 members of the WJG editorial board are leaders in their own fields. To mobilize the enthusiasm of the editorial board and maximize their interest in the journal, we set ourselves the following tasks. (1) We publish a list of members of the editorial board at a fixed location in the printed and online editions of each issue of the journal; (2) We express thanks to members of the editorial board whose reviewed manuscripts have been accepted, publish relevant information such as the name and organization of the reviewer along with the author’s article, and send a PDF copy of the article to them; (3) We also express thanks to members of the editorial board whose evaluated manuscripts have been rejected; (4) We send a summary list of articles published to members of the editorial board each year, and invite them to write commentary articles for the coming year; and (5) We offer 50 US dollars for the author of every “Highlight” or “Observation” article. However, the majority of the members of the editorial board do not take the payment for articles solicited. A Canadian member of the editorial board, Professor H Freeman, University of British Columbia, said at the outset of the “Observation” articles that: “We need the spirit of Bethune to run WJG successfully”[5]. Professor Freeman has published 20 commentary articles in the observation column of which he is the chief editor. Scientists contribute to the international community and they do not publish articles for economic gain. WJG published a variety of 1203 articles in issues 1-48 in 2008, of which there were 265 commentary articles written by members of the editorial board, which accounted for 22.08% of the published output. According to Journal Citation Reports published from 2006-2007 for WJG included in the Science Citation Index Expanded, the top three categories that contributed published articles in terms of the average number of times cited were reviews (8.63), editorials (6.24) and highlights (5.83)[6].

Members of the editorial board are ambassadors for the journal

From 2007 to 2009, the editorial board of WJG had 1126 members in 60 countries. Where there are members of the WJG editorial board, there are also authors and readers of WJG. We decide on candidate members of the editorial board according to their citations in the ISI Web of Knowledge. Whether a person can be finally accepted as a member of the editorial board depends mainly on his/her resumé and job title. Only experts holding a rank higher than associate professor can serve as members of the WJG editorial board. International members of the editorial board are ambassadors who help with the global dissemination of our journals. They are also liaison officers who recommend persons in the same field as their own to contribute to WJG.

MAXIMIZING THE BENEFIT TO AUTHORS OF PUBLISHING ARTICLES

One of the biggest advantages of open access publishing is that people around the world can have immediate access to peer-reviewed articles via the internet. This provides a new platform for the international community to have equitable access to the latest scientific developments, and to play a positive role in advancing scientific knowledge.

Qualifications of authors for publishing articles

We require authors to declare that they all meet the eligibility criteria below, no author who meets these criteria has been left out, and contributors and sponsors have been duly thanked. The eligibility criteria for authors proposed by the international committee of medical journal editors are[7]: (1) authors must have made a significant contribution to the concept and design of the research and the acquisition, analysis and interpretation of data; (2) draft articles and critically revise the article for important intellectual content; and (3) approve the final version of the article to be published.

Editing and publishing quality of published articles

Whether the editorial department of the journals receives high-quality international articles hinges on many factors. The editing and publishing quality of every article published in the journal needs to be guaranteed. Our approach is as follows. (1) We give our journals an international appeal, e.g. containing the word “World” in the title, to attract international authors to contribute articles; (2) We accept online contributions, so that authors can submit a manuscript from any place that has an internet connection. The system replies automatically or the editorial department returns acknowledgement of the manuscript within 24 h; (3) Members of the editorial board participate in online peer review, which generally takes 2-4 wk; (4) Reject manuscripts or send those that are accepted back to the authors for revision; (5) Edit and ReleaseProcess manuscripts in a scientific manner; (6) Authors revise their articles; (7) Formal acceptance or rejection of manuscripts; (8) In processing manuscripts, the language editor solves common errors, including grammar, syntax, spelling, punctuation and logic; (9) Return manuscripts to the author for final revision; (10) The editorial director organizes the production; (11) Electronic editing and production, including redrawing of charts, graphs and automatic checking by the software Heima; (12) The electronic editor in charge carries out editing and typesetting; the science editor in charge carries out proofreading, including Heima proofreading; (13) The author carries out proofreading; (14) The editorial director and editor-in-chief carry out proofreading; (15) Produce and proofread films; (16) Printing; (17) Create the online edition; (18) The editorial director checks the online edition; and (19) Release the online edition. Every aspect of every article published through the above process is original. For example, charts and graphs are re-drawn, references are re-formatted using software, and Word documents are converted into XML format automatically to avoid human errors. In the entire process from editorial personnel receiving the manuscript to online publishing, we put service and quality first, and aim to establish the reputation of the journal so as to attract international contributors.

Comments accompanying original articles

The accompanying comments for each article are written in an easy-to-understand manner to enable professional scientists, the public and media to understand more broadly the relevance of the article, and to play a role in promoting science to a wider audience. Accompanying comments cover the following. (1) Background information: summarizes relevant background that will give readers a better understanding of the article in an easy-to-understand manner to enable professional readers, the public and the media to understand more broadly relevant knowledge of the article and have a better understanding of the meaning of the article; (2) Research and development: aims to help readers understand how the article relates to the key areas of research in the field; (3) Relevant reports: references to other relevant papers that may help with understanding the article, or as pointers to wider reading on the subject of the article; (4) Inventory of innovations: summarizes the innovative aspects of the article, so that readers can see how the new study differs from and is related to previous work; (5) Main points of application: summarizes the practical applications of the article, and how it may improve existing or develop future applications. Hopefully, this may lead to the article being cited extensively; (6) Glossary: a simple, straightforward and clear explanation of the terms in the article that are important for its understanding, as many readers may not be familiar with these terms of have a full understanding of them; and (7) Peer review: the editorial department summarizes the opinions of the peer reviewers, to demonstrate the significance of the article.

The core interests of authors in publishing articles

Members of the editorial board publish a wide range of commentary articles in the form of invited papers. The purpose of these is to comment on the status quo, progress and problems in fast-developing fields, in an attempt to play a role in guiding clinical or basic research. Other contributing authors submit original articles for publication. The purpose of these is to report the latest developments in scientific research, which are innovative, of a high standard, and have considerable scientific significance in their own field. The core interests and values main purpose of members of the editorial board and contributing authors in publishing articles is to disseminate their peer-reviewed research results around the world, and hopefully, to have them cited by others in the same field, thereby contributing to scientific progress. If journal articles written by members of the editorial board and contributing authors do not achieve the above-mentioned core interests and values, the science editor and peer reviewer’s judgment of the quality of the article will be considered to be at fault, which is caused mainly by subjectivity and bias. In this case, subjectivity means that all manuscripts are evaluated by peer reviewers based on their own expertise. Academic research can be controversial, and within a given subject area, the opinions of peer reviewers may be not be exactly same and may even be diametrically opposed. Some peer reviewers are relatively tolerant, while others are relatively harsh. These are all important factors affecting peer reviewers’ opinions. Therefore, the review of manuscripts cannot be completely free of subjective assumption. Bias refers to non-academic influencing factors that result from the peer reviewers’ different preferences or prejudices, including the authors’ nationality, mother tongue, sex and organization for which they work[4]. WJG published 2506 articles in 2006-2007, of which 1963 (78.33%) have been cited in another 1597 journals. The self-citation rates for articles in WJG in 2006 and 2007 were 22.16% and 11.34%, respectively[6].

International profile of articles published

It is very disappointing for an author to see no reaction after his/her article is published in a journal. A major reason for this is the particular journal’s lack of international profile. High-quality journals are an important indicator of a country’s achievement in terms of scientific and technological research, therefore, we aim to create high-quality academic journals of global significance to increase our international profile. Influential high-quality scientific journals are an important platform for academic exchange around the world and an effective vehicle for cultivating innovative talent. They also provide authoritative leadership in their particular discipline and give a lead in developing new areas of research[8]. To achieve these ends, we have adopted an OA publishing model with the following objectives. (1) Release the online edition of WJG on time. Up to July 12, 2009, the number of visits was 33 947 050, the maximum number of times an article was viewed was 50 454, and the maximum number of times an article was downloaded in PDF format was 7653; (2) Upload PubMed abstracts on time. From 1998 to 2009, PubMed included 7977 articles from WJG. The number of visits by international readers in October 2008 was 76 358; (3) Upload PMC full texts on time. From May 1, 2009 to June 11, 2009, 689 articles were included. The number of dedicated IP addresses visiting articles was 31 491; the number of times articles were downloaded was 22 133; and the number of times XML articles were viewed was 35 479; (4) Upload EurekAlert! press releases on time. A total of 198 WJG scientific press releases were published from 2007 to 2009. The number of times press releases were viewed was 441 128; and the maximum number of times a single press release was viewed was 4126. Through the above methods, WJG has increased greatly its international profile and has attracted more contributions from international authors. WJG published 1203 articles in issues 1-48 in 2008, which originated from 62 countries, and international authors accounted for 70.25% of the articles published. Editing and publishing high-quality articles and distributing them on time to various media is one of the important methods of increasing the international profile of the authors’ work. We award 500 RMB to the electronic editor in charge of each issue for publishing on time and have achieved significant results, thus ensuring on-time publication of each issue in various media.

MAXIMIZING THE BENEFITS TO READERS BY OBTAINING KNOWLEDGE

At present, universities and scientific research institutions have to spend vast sums of money to obtain access to academic scientific papers, and many small institutions cannot afford the high fees for access licenses. Implementation of the open access model around the world can increase the access of researchers and the general public to information about achievements in scientific research. The research report compares three kinds of publishing models. The open access model has the greatest advantage because research institutions or those funding the research have paid the publishing costs, therefore, papers can be obtained free of charge[9]. The competitive edge of scientific journals depends on the commitment and loyalty of readers. The more readers, the bigger the market share for any given journal. We must establish a reader-centered service so that they accept and come to value our journals[10]. We make the online edition of 7977 articles published by WJG available to readers around the world. The full text of the articles is available for free download and > 20 000 visits are received from readers each day. Readers around the world currently can read and download the latest articles published by WJG free of charge, through PubMed and PMC of the United States National Library of Medicine.

CONCLUSION

The only way for Baishideng to achieve a lasting reputation and continue to develop is to publish high-quality articles and make the full text freely available around the world. This will allow us to develop a commercial publishing model that maximizes the interests of the editorial board, authors and readers.