MEPS Editors-in-Chief: 31st Annual Report

The Editors-in-Chief of MEPS, O. Kinne, M. Seaman and H.H. Janssen have prepared their Annual Report to the members of the editorial board. A summary is provided below.

MEPS stays at the head of the field

The Impact Factor of MEPS increased further to 2.63, an all-time high. According to Eigenfactor.org, MEPS continues on the No. 1 position by Eigenfactor, far ahead of all other journals, in the categories 'Marine & Freshwater Biology' and 'Oceanography'. At present it appears as if the economic crisis and the resulting reduction in institutional budgets will not lead to a significant decrease in subscriptions. There are no plans to increase subscription prices or charges for Open Access and for color printing, and no other fees will be introduced.

Manuscript turnover

Submissions have risen to almost 1200 manuscripts (mss) per year; the rejection rate remained at 45% in 2009. The rise in submissions in earlier years had led to a backlog of accepted mss; this backlog was eliminated in early 2009, and the production period from acceptance to publication was maintained at an average of 3 months throughout 2009; MEPS continues to publish accepted mss faster than most other journals.

Theme Sections

MEPS has published more Theme Sections in 2009 than ever before:

29: European benthos (Vol. 382; Eds. Somerfield, Arvanitidis, Vanden Berghe)

30: Seabirds (Vol. 391; Eds. Gonzalez Solis, Shaffer)

31: Climate and phenology (Vol. 393; Ed. Sydeman)

32: Acoustics (Vol. 395; Eds. Southall, Nowacek) - Special volume (244 p.)

33: Marine biodiversity (Vol. 396: Eds. Solan, van Avesaath, Hummel, Heip)

34: Deep-sea corals (Vol. 397: Eds. Miller, Neil, Tracey) - Special volume (360 p.)

In 2010, MEPS will publish a Theme Section on Threshold dynamics (Eds. Osman, Munguia, Zajac), and some other Theme Sections are in the planning stage.

Editorial process

Referee selection continues to be difficult, as an increasing number of experts invited to review mss cannot afford the time to do so. Nevertheless, our standard of using 3-4 reviews stays in effect. Some Editors have taken a temporary leave from their editorial tasks for personal reasons, in some cases because severe budget cuts and reductions in staff at their institutions forced them to shift their priorities, e.g. to devote more time to the writing of grant proposals. Editors who need to take a temporary leave for these reasons can choose to remain on the board, however, and they have our best wishes for the resolution of these problems. In 2009, MEPS has awarded free Open Access to 27 mss co-authored by Contributing Editors.