Task force to aid AJVR evaluation

A group of five veterinarians will help AVMA leaders figure out the best way to evaluate the quality and direction of the American Journal of Veterinary Research.

The AVMA Executive Board voted in June to create the five-member Task Force on AJVR. Three of the task force members will represent the Executive Board and one each will represent the AVMA Council on Research and academia.

The task force will not evaluate the AJVR, but rather, develop a strategy that the board could use to evaluate the quality and direction of the journal.

The board created the group in response to a recommendation by the Council on Research to separate the editorial leadership of the JAVMA from that of the AJVR, seek a “high-profile” scientist to serve as editor of the AJVR, establish an independent AJVR editorial board, and develop goals to improve the AJVR. Examples of such goals include shortening the time from manuscript submission to a decision on acceptance and improving the research journal’s ranking in the Journal Citation Report Impact Factor.

Dr. Joseph H. Kinnarney, who represents Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee on the Executive Board, said the board members decided to create the task force because they had an increasing number of unanswered questions as they deliberated over the council’s recommendation. The task force could, for example, help the board evaluate the time frame between article submission and publication and consider what types of research papers should be included in the AJVR.

“The board needs answers to some of these questions as to what our scientists, clinicians, as well as subscribers think the journal should be,” Dr. Kinnarney said.