Page 77 - Spring2020

Journal of the Acoustical Society of America Letters to
the Editor
Some AEs have questioned whether it is necessary for JASA to have its own Letters to the Editor section, given the exis- tence of JASA-EL. The PP discussed this issue and noted that JASA Letters to the Editor and JASA-EL have different guide- lines. The former can be used for commentary on previously published JASA and JASA-EL articles and reviews. The PP rec- ommended unanimously to keep JASA Letters to the Editor.
Impact Factor
The two-year impact factor (IF) has become an increasingly prevalent metric for assessing journal quality. JASA recognizes the importance of the IF, and strategies for increasing it have been a frequent topic for the PP. The committee has also dis- cussed how other metrics might be more appropriate for an acoustics journal such as JASA, primarily because acoustics is a relatively small field with a large time constant for papers. JASA performs very well on metrics such as a five-year IF, cited half-life, Eigenfactor Score, and Article Influence Score. An outcome of these discussions is that the metrics are now posted to a web page (see asa.scitation.org/jas/info/about).
Conflicts of Interest
The PP considered conflicts of interest involving AEs and reviewers. In particular, how do we address situa- tions involving AEs and reviewers who know the authors of papers they are handling? It was argued that, given the smallness of the community, such situations may be difficult to avoid. There was support for allowing AEs and reviewers to manage potential conflicts.
Plan S
The European initiative called “Plan S” is planned for implemen- tation by 13 national research funding organizations, starting in 2021. At this time, all research supported by public grants must be published in open-access journals. The journal of the European Acoustics Association, Acta Acustica united with Acus- tica, became a full open-access journal as of January 1, 2020. If the Plan S initiative gains momentum, it could have a substan- tial impact on JASA, which is not considered compliant. Plan S is regarded by many scientists as having major drawbacks, as described, for example, in the article by Lohse and Meiburg in Physics Today (2019; see doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.4259). In particu- lar, the pay-to-publish approach underlying Plan S may adversely
impact the quality and cost of scholarly journals. The PP has discussed the implications of Plan S for ASA publications.
Concluding Remarks
The PP endeavors to maintain and improve the high stan- dards of scholarly writing and publication quality for which the ASA journals are known. It incorporates the experience and knowledge of many people with varying backgrounds who have been authors, reviewers, editors, and publishers. Any member of the ASA is welcome to contribute to this process, and the committee greatly values your input. If you have suggestions for PP discussion topics, please reach out to a committee member. Suggestions can also be uploaded at asapublicationpolicy.org/meeting-topics.
References
Lohse, D., and Meiburg, E. (2019) Commentary: On the quality and costs of science publication. Physics Today 72(8), 10.
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