A review of the contents of every journal is performed every 5 years. When negative findings result from these reviews, they should immediately be addressed. The editor, working with the approval of the institute, division, or council Executive Committee, should try to eliminate these negative findings. Strategies may include redrafting the scope of the journal, developing methods to shorten the time spent on reviews, and soliciting particular papers, among others. The following items should be included in contents review.
Surveys
At least one survey, and preferably more, should be distributed to obtain opinions from the various constituencies contributing to and/or reading the journal. The following are the groups to consider surveying:
- subscribers, by placing a printed survey in the journal;
- institute, division, or council members who are not subscribers;
- the journal's editorial board or publications committee;
- a separate and randomly selected mailing to subscribers; and
- technical committees of the institute, division, or council.
Letters from Outstanding Individuals
Letters should be solicited from outstanding researchers and/or practitioners in the field. Letters should request recipients, among other things, to evaluate the quality of the contents over the past 5 years, the ranking of the journal against competing journals in the field, and the ways in which the publication could be improved.
Inclusion in Indexes
Since an important measure of the impact of a professional or technical journal is the indexes in which it is included, this information should be gathered. Some of them are (on-line versions in parentheses) Science Citation Index (SCI); Applied Science and Technology (Applied Science and Technology); International Civil Engineering; Engineering Index (Compendex); and Environmental Abstracts (Enviroline).
Number of Citations
Data on the number of times articles are cited in other journals should be provided. These statistics should be compared against those of the other leading journals in the field.
Headquarters Statistics
Key statistics, relevant to quality, should be requested from the Director of ASCE Journals:
- number of papers under review compared to those 5 years ago;
- number of discussions (usually indicating reader interest) published in the current year compared to 5 years ago;
- approval rate over the past few years;
- subscription numbers over the past 5 years; and
- length of time between submission and publication.