Introduction
Since its launch 6 years ago, New Microbes and New Infections (NMNI) has published a total of 552 of 709 submitted papers retrievable in PubMed Central, among which 476 have been published during the last 4 years (Fig. 1). NMNI aims to provide access to an international forum for authors reporting facts in infectious and primarily tropical diseases and clinical microbiology that are new in one particular place and country. Accordingly, NMNI acknowledges contributions from emerging research teams, offering authors the opportunity to publish in their own language in addition to English. In 2018, five papers were submitted in French, in the framework of Special Issues devoted to infections in Tunisia and Algeria (three and respectively). If accepted, according to the journal policy, these papers will be translated and published in both languages at the beginning of 2019, after the corresponding author has approved the English translation. In the meantime, NMNI has been included in PubMed Central, obviously increasing its visibility and its interest to authors and readers. At last, a pre-filled form has been launched in 2018 to facilitate even more the writing and submission of contributions in the ‘New Species Announcement’ section of NMNI. This form, dedicated to submission of new species announcements, has been designed and tested in our IHU Méditerranée Infection institute to make the submission process more convenient and homogeneous, and fast to write. How to complete this form is trained during writing workshops, and its efficiency was proved even when students were involved. Other scientific journals are welcome to copy and use this form for New Species Announcements.
Fig. 1.
Submitted manuscripts & editorial outcomes 2015–2018 (Elsevier data).
Editorial structure
NMNI is an online-only journal, meaning that authors can submit their contributions any time, and that accepted papers are released in chronological order of acceptance. NMNI is reviewing papers in English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Russian, Arabic and Tamazight thanks to a panel of international editors who are greatly thanked for their kind contributions to the editorial process. The editorial board evolved in 2018 as Pierre-Edouard Fournier (MD, PhD) became Deputy Editor-in-Chief, and Amar Bouam (VetD, PhD) joined the Editorial Board as an Associate Editor. Accepted papers are translated into English and published both in the original language version and in English after the corresponding author has approved the English translation. Papers can be submitted in any of 12 categories with the understanding that papers must report reliable facts in infectious and tropical diseases and clinical microbiology that are new in one particular geographic region.
Submissions
In 2018, NMNI received 168 submissions. Of the 168 submitted papers, 108 (64.3%) have been accepted for publication (not including 30 papers being currently under review or out for revision). The proportion of manuscripts submitted as Original Articles increased during the year 2018 (+50%) compared to 2017 (Fig. 2). In addition, these manuscripts come from a very much wider variety of countries (Fig. 3), showing that the journal is sought as a publication venue by an increasing number of authors. Fig. 3 represents the geographical origin of submitted papers in 2018, indicating that NMNI is on the way to achieving its main goal, which is the rapid promotion of discoveries in infectious and tropical diseases and clinical microbiology made by emerging research teams from all over the world (Fig. 3). It is also interesting to note that Iran, Spain and India are among the top ten countries submitting papers to NMNI. The journal continues to make efforts to help the authors from countries with cultural and financial difficulties to improve the quality of their scientific production and to share their knowledge with the global scientific community. At last, the time from submission to acceptance, at an average 2.5 months, competes with that of other journals in the field (Fig. 4).
Fig. 2.
Number of submissions from 2016 to 2018 by article type.
Fig. 3.
Geographical origin of submitted papers in 2018.
Fig. 4.
Average editorial and publication speed for published articles in NMNI (Elsevier data).
NMNI reports
The current citation rate CiteScore is 2.06, the Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) is 0.753. Our next objective will be to submit an application to Thomson Reuters for indexing in the Web of Science.
Readership
Online readership of NMNI continues to grow. The most cited paper has 206 citations [1], the second most cited has 56 citations [2].
Perspectives
NMNI strives to strengthen even more its Editorial Board in order to decrease the current processing time for online publication which remains above its goal of a 2-month process for publication measured from initial submission. Also, NMNI will publish thematic issues devoted to current situations of infections in every country. The continuing efforts of the Editorial Board will also enhance the chances of inclusion in Thomson Reuters' impact factor listings.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
References
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