Naturwissenschaften: recent advances, changes and challenges
Sven Thatje
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) National Oceanography Centre
, Southampton, European Way,
University of Southampton, Ocean and Earth Science
, Southampton SO14 3ZH,
UK
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In this editorial, I want to take the opportunity to summarise
some of the key developments in Naturwissenschaften
(NAWI) over the past 3 years and since the beginning of
my tenure as editor in chief of the journal. Furthermore, I
wish to raise awareness of some new changes to manuscript
formats and promote the recently launched Concepts &
Synthesis article section in NAWI.
NAWI has undergone a series of structural changes since
early 2009, which, in particular, addressed article types and
formats (Thatje 2009). The loyal reader of the journal will
have noticed that overall manuscripts have become more
concise and that the editors have continuously encouraged
authors to make use of Electronic Supplementary Material
(ESM). ESM comprises information on, e.g. detailed
methodological descriptions essential to the very specialist
academic but not necessary for the more general reader to
understand the main scientific message(s) proposed in an
article. Overall, articles have therefore become shorter in
length and more accessible; however, it has to be recognised
that the various scientific disciplines represented by a
multidisciplinary journal such as NAWI often demand
flexibility in the text allowance of scholarly works. This means that
although strict length limits as outlined in the instructions
for authors are generally enforced, flexibility is given where
appropriate.
Recently, the instructions for authors have been revised
again, and new length restrictions are requested for Review
articles as well as Short Communications. Review manuscript
length should not exceed 50 manuscript pages including
everything from the title page to the last figure, and may
include up to seven figures and/or tables. Short
Communications are now limited to a maximum of 2,500 words including
everything from the title to the last reference, and may include
a maximum of three figures and 30 references. This is in order
to truly distinguish this article type from longer formats
published.
What makes a Short Communication is often difficult to
assess. In the current academic environment in which
scientists are under pressure of publishing rapidly and
frequently (Thatje 2010), journal editors are challenged by a
flood of rather short incoming manuscripts for consideration
as Short Communications. Often, such manuscripts reflect
on limited data that do not make a full story for an Original
Article and are therefore submitted as a shorter publication.
In the current academic system in which not only the quality
but also an aspect of quantity decides an academics future,
the scientist alone is probably not to blame. However, the
value of such contributions can be of controversy and a
problem in quality assessment, and therefore often requires
discussion among editors in order to distinguish between
what is valuable for a particular research area, and what is
simply not yet there.
The Comments & Replies section introduced during 2009
can now be regarded as an established discussion forum in
NAWI. Although the journal is not inundated with such
discussions to date, those manuscripts that have been
published provide a valuable contribution to assessing divergent
views on a topic. I am keen on seeing this area develop
further as I personally believe that overall, there is not
enough open discussion of science in the literature these
days.
I now welcome the introduction of a new paper format in
NAWI, the Concepts & Synthesis article. This article type in
NAWI aims to promote the conceptual advance of ideas
from manuscript submission to first decision are extremely
swift, thanks to joint effort taken by board members and
NAWI main office. The journal has achieved a very
competitive position in the pace of publishing scholarly work online.
This is despite increasing the number of reviews per submitted
manuscript to a minimum of three. It took me some time to
understand why this strategy had worked out so well in
comparison to other publishers and I have come to the
conclusion that it is the frequent and direct communication with
both authors and reviewers that speeds up handling time and
assessment processes of manuscripts.
In 2013, NAWI will celebrate 100 years of existence. The
journal has been a continuous promoter of the whole breadth
of the natural sciences throughout its long history. Today,
scientific publishing has probably reached unprecedented
levels of competition and much of this is driven by the rapid
development of electronic communication tools, such as
online and open access publishing, and the rapid
dissemination of knowledge through the worldwide web. The success of
some more recently launched journals that have exclusively
embarked on electronic publishing has to be recognised, and it
is well possible that within a few years, the print format of
journals may be a stor (...truncated)