Updates from the Journal of Virology Editors in Chief

EDITORIAL

When we stepped into the co-Editors in Chief role of the Journal of Virology (JVI) in 2022, one of our major goals was to make JVI a global journal that embraced all aspects of virology while following best practices in diversity, equity, and inclusion. We are proud to lead a team of Editors and Editorial Board Members (EBMs) representing diverse viruses, scientific disciplines, career stages, and geographical regions, but we can do better! This past year, we undertook different approaches to overcome this bottleneck.

The first was conducting open calls for Editors. In 2023, we conducted two separate open calls for Editors (regular Editor position and Gem/Minireview Editor position). We had 83 outstanding virologists from around the world apply to the open calls. We then welcomed 10 new Editors last year. In 2024, we conducted an open call again, which resulted in an overwhelming 329 applicants! We will welcome two new Editors this year.

The outcome of this approach was improved parity among women and men Editors and increased breadth and depth of expertise among the editorial team. Having this increased diversity is critical to ensure that JVI “feels like home” to all virologists and scientists using viruses as tools.

We also undertook new initiatives to ensure that the JVI Editorial Board maintained a culture of inclusivity in alliance with our values. Historically, Editorial Board Members are nominated by the JVI Editors to serve 3-year terms. Once approved by the Editor in Chief, nominated EBMs are added to a database that Editors use to identify expert reviewers. Ad hoc reviewers are typically added to our internal database upon authors’ recommendations. When it came time to identify EBMs for 2024, we again solicited nominations from the Editors, but we also “promoted” our top ad hoc reviewers to join the board. This single change resulted in a board composition that was greater than 50% female and under-represented minorities, an increase from 28% compared to the 2021–2023 board. It also increased the breadth of disciplines covered, included more virologists who are currently educators at small colleges, and improved the globality with >30% of our 2024–2026 EBMs being non-US based. We are also inviting many of the exceptional virologists who applied for an editor position to join the Editorial Board, further strengthening the JVI community.

JVI is grateful to our many colleagues who continue to accept invitations to review manuscripts. The journal’s success—quick time to publishing, and reputation for rigor and excellence—is all because of you! Your reviews are critical in helping our JVI Editors in making efficient and fair editorial decisions. Many of our reviewers do an amazing number of reviews each year. For example, there were 1,025 manuscripts submitted in 2023. Over half of these were reviewed by 22% of the EBMs who are reviewing >5 manuscripts per year (Fig. 1A). This is also true for many of our ad hoc reviewers (Fig. 1B). Please see our editorial on our top reviewers for 2023.

Fig 1.

Number of completed reviews by Editorial Board Members and ad hoc reviewers between 2021 and 2023.

Given the essential role of our reviewers in our mission, we developed a mechanism to incentivize and recognize our top reviewers. We are thrilled to introduce the JVI Active Contributor Track (ACT). The new submission track allows Editorial Board Members and ad hoc reviewers who reviewed five or more manuscripts in the previous year to submit via a special expedited path. This track allows eligible contributors to independently solicit at least two expert reviews for their own research paper or minireview, address the reviewers’ recommendations, and submit the revised manuscript to JVI for an expedited decision.

Figure 2 illustrates the main steps. This program is open for research articles and minireviews in which eligible contributors are listed as authors or coauthors and are limited to one accepted submission per eligible person per calendar year. Manuscripts that were previously rejected from the standard peer review path are not eligible for resubmission through this path. The submitted article is reviewed by one of the co-Editors in Chief, who applies the same high standards of science quality, novelty, and significance as for general submissions. The Editor in Chief may decide to recommend acceptance, modification, or rejection. This track is also available to current JVI Editors. See Fig. 2.

Fig 2.

JVI Active Contributor Track process.

Finally, we are grateful to our many JVI authors. Many of us “grew up” with JVI and appreciate the importance of publishing in society journals. However, the publishing environment has changed dramatically. Authors have many more journals to choose from when submitting their manuscripts and often are pressured to publish in journals that have certain impact factors. While we may not like that, it is the reality, and it does impact the standing of JVI. Remaining competitive in an increasingly competitive publishing landscape is critical for the ongoing and future success of JVI. To recognize our most prolific corresponding authors and encourage authors to consider JVI, we are also opening this track to corresponding authors who have had three or more manuscripts accepted or published in JVI in the previous year.

We will carefully monitor the success of the JVI Active Contributor Track over the next few years to ensure that we maintain the quality one expects from JVI. We will share this data with the JVI community. Equally important will be assessing the impact of our approaches to diversifying our group of Editors and Editorial Board. Diversity drives excellence and innovation. We will continue fostering a culture of prioritizing and sustaining diversity at all levels to ensure that JVI is a home for all aspects of virology.

We would also like to alert you to other publishing options at JVI. We are happy to provide expedited review of manuscripts that have been reviewed by non-ASM journals but rejected. Authors would submit a revised manuscript addressing the reviews with the previous reviewer comments and a response to the review. Just mention in the cover letter that the submission was previously reviewed, and you are requesting expedited review. Decisions on expedited reviews are made by the EICs, generally within days from submission. Please see this page for more informationhttps://journals.asm.org/transferring.

We are also opening submissions of Gems and Minireviews. They no longer need to be solicited by an Editor, although authors are always encouraged to discuss ideas with an Editor prior to submission. With these options, we seek to further increase the value of JVI to the virology community.

We are delighted to be your co-Editors in Chief and excited for all we can do together to advance virology. We have a lot of exciting initiatives in the pipeline, including the need to increase the diversity and breadth of JVI Editors, Editorial Board Members, reviewers, and authors. We also want to hear from you! Please share with us any ideas you have to enhance the influence and experience of publishing with JVI.