The November 2020 issue of the Journal of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science (JAALAS) volume 59 and the December 2020 issue of Comparative Medicine (CM) volume 70 mark the end of another year for the AALAS journals. As always, we are incredibly fortunate to have a talented and conscientious support team - graphic artists Brenda Johnson and Zara Garza, scientific editors Amy Frazier and Nick Van De Velde, and editorial production coordinator, Virginia Dawson. This team together continues to sustain a timely flow of well-edited and professionally presented information through the entire process from manuscript submission to publication. We also thank members of the Editorial Review Board (ERB) for their support in providing timely thorough reviews and solid feedback and suggestions for the improvement of the journals.
Publication statistics for the journals remain steady (Tables 1 and 2). Acceptance rates were 26% for CM and 63% for JAALAS (Tables 1 and 2). These percentages are consistent with previous years for JAALAS but have fallen considerably for CM. We attribute this in part to the declining number of submissions to CM over the past 2 years. Part of this decline is due to the policy of no longer publishing case reports in CM. Previous to 2019, case reports contributed to a large proportion of the content for each issue. Because case reports are rarely cited, this seemed likely to contribute to the falling impact factor for CM. Indeed, the impact factor has risen since this change was initiated. Case studies continue to be published in CM. However, because these generally include a scientific or investigative component, case studies are more likely to be cited.
Table 1.
Publication Data for Comparative Medicine, 2011 to 2020
| CM | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
| Total submissions | 162 | 171 | 167 | 135 | 155 | 140 | 129 | 142 | 119 | 117 |
| International submissions | 73 | 76 | 86 | 67 | 85 | 59 | 73 | 71 | 58 | 71 |
| Rejected | 54 | 75 | 72 | 75 | 71 | 54 | 62 | 65 | 61 | 77 |
| Withdrawn | 4 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Transferred to JAALAS | 34 | 29 | 23 | 13 | 14 | 12 | 15 | 14 | 9 | 6 |
| Total R-W-T | 92 | 107 | 101 | 89 | 86 | 69 | 80 | 80 | 70 | 84 |
| Accepted manuscripts | 57 | 64 | 64 | 45 | 72 | 53 | 58 | 52 | 59 | 27 |
| Total accepted and rejected | 111 | 139 | 136 | 120 | 143 | 107 | 120 | 117 | 120 | 104 |
| Acceptance rate | 51% | 46% | 47% | 38% | 50% | 50% | 48% | 44% | 49% | 26% |
| Manuscripts printed | 60 | 68 | 60 | 58 | 59 | 62 | 60 | 57 | 54 | 55 |
| Total pages printed | 576 | 568 | 548 | 516 | 552 | 512 | 540 | 502 | 588 | 556 |
| Manuscripts pages printed | 542 | 506 | 545 | 502 | 477 | 435 | 521 | 487 | ||
| Average pages per manuscript | 9 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 9 | ||
| Submission to 1st decision (wks) | 4.0 | 3.5 | 3.5 | 4.0 | 4.1 | 4.2 | 3.8 | 3.9 | 3.6 | 4.4 |
| Submission to final decision (wks) | 7.6 | 6.6 | 6.0 | 6.9 | 7.0 | 8.0 | 7.9 | 6.6 | 6.9 | 6.4 |
| Acceptance to online publication (wks) | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | 22.6 | 23.6 |
| Impact factors | 1.052 | 1.120 | NA | 0.742 | 1.000 | 0.832 | 0.585 | 0.702 | 1.067 | TBD |
NA, not yet available; TBD, to be determined
Table 2.
Publication Data for JAALAS, 2011 to 2020
| JAALAS | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
| Total submissions | 191 | 170 | 179 | 186 | 187 | 162 | 163 | 144 | 170 | 160 |
| International submissions | 71 | 57 | 74 | 74 | 81 | 60 | 64 | 62 | 70 | 55 |
| Rejected | 55 | 64 | 80 | 62 | 62 | 60 | 50 | 43 | 60 | 54 |
| Withdrawn | 5 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Transferred to JAALAS | 40 | 16 | 17 | 25 | 31 | 36 | 19 | 23 | 17 | 25 |
| Total R-W-T | 100 | 85 | 100 | 91 | 98 | 96 | 72 | 67 | 79 | 81 |
| Accepted manuscripts | 90 | 75 | 80 | 92 | 75 | 75 | 77 | 84 | 74 | 90 |
| Total accepted and rejected | 145 | 139 | 160 | 154 | 137 | 135 | 127 | 127 | 134 | 144 |
| Acceptance rate | 62% | 54% | 50% | 60% | 55% | 56% | 61% | 66% | 55% | 63% |
| Manuscripts printed | 96 | 79 | 70 | 75 | 82 | 90 | 82 | 68 | 76 | 78 |
| Total pages printed | 993 | 872 | 816 | 742 | 820 | 844 | 807 | 737 | 843 | 757 |
| Manuscripts pages printed | 465 | 512 | 581 | 590 | 581 | 517 | 559 | 618 | ||
| Average pages per manuscript | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 8 | ||
| Submission to 1st decision (wks) | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.6 | 4.8 | 5.2 | 5.0 | 4.8 | 4.1 | 6.2 |
| Submission to final decision (wks) | 8.9 | 7.1 | 8.0 | 10.7 | 8.4 | 9.4 | 9.7 | 9.1 | 7.9 | 13.5 |
| Acceptance to online publication (wks) | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | 23.8 | 19.8 |
| Impact factors | 0.708 | 1.145 | NA | 1.118 | 0.906 | 1.195 | 1.218 | 1.017 | 1.235 | TBD |
NA, not yet available; TBD, to be determined
The intervals between submission and the first and final decisions on manuscripts are 4.4 and 6.4 weeks, respectively for CM and 6.2 and 13.9 weeks, respectively, for JAALAS. The higher processing time for JAALAS this year was in some cases due to authors being unable to access their files as a result of COVID-related shut-downs. COVID-related shut-downs also delayed some reviews and responses to critiques. A few unusually long values also contributed to those higher numbers.
We have now also started tracking the time interval between acceptance and online publication. When we started immediate online publication as soon as an article was in final form, we had a considerable backlog of articles awaiting tooling and editing. This backlog has now been essentially eliminated, and so we anticipate that this interval will decrease in 2021. For the past 2 years, this process has required, on average, 22 weeks. We consider this to be unacceptably long. However, some factors contributing to delays are in the hands of authors, who may take considerable time to make corrections or require a second round of editing due to unanswered queries. We therefore ask for and indeed depend on timely responses from editors, reviewers and authors to speed the review and publication processes.
A highlight of every year are the overview articles (Table 3), as these are valued highly by readers and often cited. Unfortunately, no overviews were published in CM in 2020. We urge readers to consider writing and submitting these important articles to the journals, as they perform an important function of summarizing what is known about a topic for readers in a concise and critical manner. One suggestion is for those of you who have presented overviews of various topics at AALAS national meetings is to convert that presentation into an overview, as Associate Editor Susan Compton did for her AALAS presentation on PCR and RT-PCR in diagnosis and health monitoring. Doing this provides double rewards for the time invested in preparing the presentation and preserves that information for others who were unable to hear the presentation or who would like to refer back to the information, including for citations.
Table 3.
Overviews published in 2020
| JAALAS, volume 59, 2020 | Authors | Pages |
| Power to the people: Power, negative results and sample size | Gaskill & Garner | 9–16 |
| PCR and RT-PCR in the diagnosis of laboratory animal infections and in health monitoring | Compton | 458–468 |
| Importance of systemic reviews and meta-analyses of animal studies: Challenges for animal-to-human translation | Bahadoran, Mirmiran, Kashfi & Ghasemi | 469–477 |
| Anesthesia protocols used to create ischemia reperfusion myocardial infarcts in swine | Cobo, Margallo, Diaz, Blazquez, Bueno & Crisostomo | 478–487 |
| Evaluating IACUCs: Previous research and future directions | Budda & Pritt | 656–664 |
| Noise and vibration in the vivarium: Recommendations for developing a measurement plan | Turner | 665–672 |
| Comparative Medicine, volume 70, 2020 | ||
| None |
The high number of downloaded articles for the 2 journals truly underscores the value of the AALAS publications (Figure 1, Tables 4 through 7). Articles from the 2 journals are downloaded hundreds of thousands of times each year, and many articles have been downloaded thousands of times a year for many years after the publication date. These data show that even though the journal impact factors are not high, the articles are used by the community we serve and are durable in terms of content.
Figure 1.
Number of citations and PMC downloads for JAALAS and Comparative Medicine.
Table 4.
JAALAS - Top 10 Downloaded Articles from PubMed Central in 2020
| Article | Live in PMC |
Total downloads |
|||
| 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | ||
| Gao P, Dang CV, Watson J. 2008. Unexpected antitumorigenic effect of fenbendazole when combined with supplementary vitamins. 47:37–40. | 6/12/2009 | ** | 7666 | 137397 | 101538 |
| Turner PV, Brabb T, Pekow C, Vasbinder MA. 2011. Administration of substances to laboratory animals: routes of administration and factors to consider. 50:600–613. | 3/1/2012 | 48836 | 45195 | 43891 | 46910 |
| Lieberman MT, Madden CM, Ma EJ, Fox JG. 2018. Evaluation of 6 methods for aerobic bacterial sanitization of smartphones. 57:24–29. | 7/1/2018 | ** | ** | ** | 17674 |
| Ray MA, Johnston NA, Verhulst S, Trammell RA, Toth LA. 2010. Identification of markers for imminent death in mice used in longevity and aging research. 49:282–288. | 11/1/2010 | ** | ** | ** | 11859 |
| Turner PV, Pekow C, Vasbinder MA, Brabb T. 2011. Administration of substances to laboratory animals: equipment considerations, vehicle selection, and solute preparation. 50:614–627. | 3/1/2012 | 13568 | 8685 | 8721 | 9782 |
| Tannenbaum JT, Bennett BT. 2015. Russell and Burch’s 3Rs then and now: The need for clarity in definition and purpose. 54:120–132. | 9/1/2015 | ** | ** | ** | 7212 |
| Duran-Struuck R, Dysko RC. 2009.Principles of bone marrow transplantation (BMT): providing optimal veterinary and husbandry care to irradiated mice in BMT studies. 48:11–22. | 7/1/2009 | 10265 | 8758 | 7655 | 7179 |
| Keen JN, Austin MK, Huang LS, Messing S, Wyatt JD. 2010. Efficacy of soaking in 70% isopropyl alcohol on aerobic bacterial decontamination of surgical instruments and gloves for serial mouse laparotomies. 49:832–837. | 5/1/2011 | ** | ** | ** | 6896 |
| Boivin GP, Hickman DL, Creamer-Hente MA, Pritchett-Corning KR, Bratcher NA. 2017. Review of CO2 as a euthanasia agent for laboratory rats and mice. 56:491–499. | 3/1/2018 | ** | ** | ** | 6842 |
| Campagna MV, Faure-Kumar E, Treger JA, Cushman JD, Grogan TR, Kasahara N, Lawson GW. 2016. Factors in the selection of surface disinfectants for use in a laboratory animal setting. 55:175–188. | 9/1/2016 | ** | ** | ** | 6790 |
Not on top ten downloaded list for indicated year
Table 5.
Comparative Medicine - Top 10 Downloaded Articles from PubMed Central in 2019
| Article | Live in PMC |
Total downloads |
|||
| 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | ||
| Novak MA, Meyer JS. 2009. Alopecia: possible causes and treatments, particularly in captive nonhuman primates. 59:18–26. | 8/1/2009 | 8621 | 6724 | 10766 | 14972 |
| O’Connell KE, Mikkola AM, Stepanek AM, Vernet A, Hall CD, Sun CC, Yildirim W, Staropoli JF, Lee JT, Brown DE. 2015. Practical murine hematopathology: a comparative review and implications for research. 65:96–113. | 10/1/2015 | ** | 8472 | 13109 | 13465 |
| Wafer LN, Whitney JC, Jensen VB. 2015. Fish lice (Argulus japonicus) in goldfish (Carassius auratus) 65:93–95. | 10/1/2015 | ** | 5675 | 7444 | 13263 |
| Graham ML, Janecek JL, Kittredge JA, Hering BJ, Schuurman HJ. 2011. The streptozotocin-induced diabetic nude mouse model: differences between animals from different sources. 61:356–360. | 2/1/2012 | 10205 | 10941 | 11035 | 10308 |
| Lynch WJ, Nicholson KL, Dance ME, Morgan RW, Foley PL. 2010. Animal models of substance abuse and addiction: implications for science, animal welfare, and society. 60:177–188. | 12/1/2010 | 9679 | 7544 | 8052 | 8670 |
| Autieri CR, Miller CL, Scott KE, Kilgore A, Papscoe VA, Garner MM, Haupt JL, Bakthavatchalu V, Muthupalani, S, Fox JG. 2015. Systemic coronaviral disease in 5 ferrets. 65:508–516. | 6/1/2016 | ** | ** | ** | 7083 |
| Tartarov I, Panda A, Petkov D, Kolappaswamy K, Thompson K, Kavirayani A, Lipsky MM, Elson E, Davis,CC, Martin SS, DeTolla LJ. 2012. Effect of magnetic fields on tumor growth and viability. 61:339–345. | 2/1/2012 | 4459 | 5332 | 7410 | 5618 |
| Bagi CM, Berryman E, Moalli MR. 2011. Comparative bone anatomy of commonly used laboratory animals: Implications for drug discovery. 61:76–85. | 8/1/2011 | ** | ** | ** | 5149 |
| Toth LA, Bhargava P. 2013. Animal models of sleep disorders. 63:91–104. | 10/1/2013 | 4126 | 3939 | 4336 | 4768 |
| Collins DE, Reuter JD, Rush HG, Villano JS. 2017. Viral vector biosafety in laboratory animal research. 67:215–221. | 12/1/2017 | ** | ** | ** | 4471 |
Not on top ten downloaded list for indicated year
Table 6.
JAALAS - Top 10 cited articles*
| Article | Publication year |
Total number of citations as of |
|||
| February, 2018 | March, 2019 | January, 2019 | February, 2020 | ||
| Turner PV, Brabb T, Pekow C, Vasbinder MA. Administration of substances to laboratory animals: routes of administration and factors to consider. 50:600–613. | 2011 | 135 | 194 | 264 | 366 |
| Portfors CV. Types and functions of ultrasonic vocalizations in laboratory rats and mice. 46:28–34. | 2007 | 219 | 260 | 311 | 349 |
| Wilson JM, Bunte RM, Carty AJ. Evaluation of rapid cooling and tricainemethanesulfonate (MS222) as methods of euthanasia in zebrafish (Danio rerio). 48:785–789. | 2009 | 89 | 113 | 135 | 163 |
| Tannenbaum J, Bennett BT. Russell and Burch's 3Rs then and now: the need for clarity in definition and purpose. 54:120–132. | 2015 | ** | 63 | 98 | 141 |
| Matsumiya LC, Sorge RE, Sotocinal SG, Tabaka JM, Wieskopf JS, Zaloum A, King OD, Mogil JS. Using the mouse grimace scale to reevaluate the efficacy of postoperative analgesics in laboratory mice. 51:42–49. | 2012 | 68 | 86 | 96 | 118 |
| Hess SE, Rohr S, Dufour BD, Gaskill BN, Pajor EA, Garner JP. Home improvement: C57BL/6J mice given more naturalistic nesting materials build better nests. 47:25–31. | 2008 | 61 | 72 | 88 | 105 |
| Duran-Struuck R, Dysko RC. Principles of bone marrow transplantation (BMT): Providing optimal veterinary husbandry care to irradiated mice in BMT studies. 48:11–22. | 2009 | 56 | 72 | 85 | 95 |
| Levolas PP, Kostomitsopoulos NG, Xanthos TT. A comparative anatomic and physiologic overview of the porcine heart. 53:432–438. | 2014 | ** | ** | 66 | 82 |
| Fernandez I, Pena A, Del Teso N, Perez V, Rodriguez-Cuesta J. Clinical biochemistry parameters in C57BL/6J mice after blood collection from the submandibular vein and retroorbital plexus. 49:202–206. | 2010 | 49 | 59 | 67 | 80 |
Data collected from Web of Science
Not on top ten downloaded list for indicated year
Table 7.
Comparative Medicine - Top 10 cited articles*
| Article | Publication year |
Total number of citations as of |
|||
| February, 2018 | March, 2019 | January, 2019 | February, 2020 | ||
| Cray C, Zaias J, Altman NH. Acute phase response in animals: a review. 59:517–526. | 2009 | 287 | 348 | 401 | 461 |
| Lelovas PP, Xanthos TT, Thoma SE, Lyritis GP, Dontas IA. The laboratory rat as an animal model for osteoporosis research. 58:424–430. | 2008 | 203 | 247 | 282 | 313 |
| Mansfield K. Marmoset models commonly used in biomedical research. 53:383–392. | 2003 | 175 | 194 | 209 | 229 |
| Abbott DH, Barnett DK, Colman RJ, Yamamoto ME, Schultz-Darken NJ. Aspects of common marmoset basic biology and life history important for biomedical research. 53:339–350. | 2003 | 139 | 149 | 166 | 191 |
| Dyson MC, Alloosh M, Vuchetich JP, Mokelke EA, Sturek M. Components of metabolic syndrome and coronary artery disease in female Ossabaw swine fed excess atherogenic diet. 56:35–45. | 2006 | 124 | 137 | 139 | 152 |
| Callicott RJ, Womack JE. Real-time PCR for measurement of mouse telomeres. 56:17–22. | 2006 | 110 | 122 | 131 | 143 |
| Martini L, Fini M, Giavaresi G, Giardino R. Sheep model in orthopedic research: a literature review. 51:292–299. | 2001 | 92 | 109 | 123 | 135 |
| Nemzek JA, Hugunin KM, Opp MR. Modeling sepsis in the laboratory: merging sound science with animal well-being. 58:120–128. | 2008 | ** | 98 | 115 | 128 |
| Arras M, Autenried P, Rettich A, Spaeni D, Rülicke T. Optimization of intraperitoneal injection anesthesia in mice: drugs, dosages, adverse effects, and anes-thesia depth. 51:443–456. | 2001 | 93 | 102 | 112 | 123 |
| Hufeldt MR, Nielsen DS, Vogensen FK, Midtvedt T, Hansen AK. Variation in the gut microbiota of laboratory mice Is related to both genetic and environmental factors. 60:336–347. | 2010 | ** | ** | ** | 123 |
Data collected from Web of Science
Not on top ten downloaded list for indicated year
The number of citations from both journals also continues to grow annually, despite an unexplained blip in 2019 (Figure 1). The list of top 10 cited articles has several new additions this year (Tables 6 and 7). The notable lack of overlap between the citation and download top ten lists suggests that different audiences are using these publications, some with focus on publishing new research (the cited articles) and others on information (the downloaded articles).
Several topics of potential interest were discussed at the staff and Editorial Review Board meetings conducted by phone and email at the annual AALAS meeting in November. First, an additional AALAS staff member, Colton McKenzie, is now assisting with copyediting. Colton earned his BS in biochemistry from Earlham College and completed his PhD in genetics biochemistry at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Colton resides in Memphis and is currently pursuing an MBA in management from Indiana University. This additional help should accelerate the time from article acceptance to online publication.
Finally, Jason Villano is guest editor for a special topic issue on coronaviruses. Approximately 9 articles are in preparation, with anticipated publication sometime in 2021. Anyone with interest in contributing either an overview or original research to this issue should contact Jason through Virginia Dawson at the AALAS office. Volunteer editors for future special topic issues are welcome to contact Virginia as well. In addition, the journals would welcome submission of Cochrane-type structured reviews of key areas of interest to our readers. Topics could include, for example, bedding evaluation, treatment for mouse dermatitis, concentrations of CO2 for euthanasia, trio and pair breeding success, and other similar topics.
As always, we welcome suggestions for improvements in the journals and encourage readers and authors to give us your opinions, perspective, concerns, and suggestions. Our readers, authors and reviewers have our continued thanks for your support in the development and growth of the journals.