EDITORIAL
Letter from the Editors
Dear members of the SBF/TPP community,
As of January 1st, 2012, TPP has a new Editorial Board. We hope to build upon the outstanding work carried out by the previous Board, led by Prof. Ludwig Pfenning. The new Board wishes to thank him for his many years of extremely hard work ahead of the journal and his many accomplishments as Editor-in-Chief, in particular obtaining the long overdue indexing in the Journal of Citation Reports.
Like many journals edited in Brazil, TPP went through a difficult period in the early 21st century. Under increasing pressure to internationalize our scientific output, many of us chose to submit our best work to journals in the US or Western Europe. As a result, national journals suffered a decrease in the quantity and quality of submitted manuscripts, and had no choice but to seek to become international as well. This was reflected in the change of our journal's name which came into effect in 2008, and culminated with the release of our first impact factor (0.448) in 2011. In the end, it could be argued that the final outcome was positive not only for the journal but also for the Brazilian Phytopathological Society (SBF) and for our scientific community as a whole, who now has a truly international journal in the field, with full visibility and free open access, edited in our country.
In this context, we believe the timing of our term as Editors could not be better. It has been evident, from our experience during these first months of activity, that the submissions for the journal have increased in number. And thanks to the process of internationalization of our journal, research activities of Brazilian plant pathologists also became much more visible.
Our first job as Editors was to assemble a group of Section Editors, including several non-Brazilian scientists, who would understand the need (and what it takes) to continue the process of increasing TPP's visibility and impact and would be ready to face this challenge. Our goal now is to work fast, having a first decision on each manuscript within two to three months. At the same time, we need to assure that only good science is published. It is important to understand that by "good science" we mean science that was done correctly and that is relevant at least at the national level - and eventually (but not necessarily always) at the international level as well. TPP must continue to be the main avenue for publication by Brazilian authors, while at the same time welcoming those colleagues working with tropical and subtropical plant diseases and pathogens in other parts of the world.
The next months will bring significant changes which should greatly increase the efficiency of our review process. In a matter of weeks we will be migrating to a new on line manuscript handling system, the same one used by many journals in the US and Western Europe. The new system will make the job of authors, reviewers and editors much easier, with less "noise" (such as revised versions which are uploaded as new submissions, a frequent occurrence with the present system). This migration will be accompanied by a novel requirement. Only manuscripts in English should be submitted to publication. Portuguese and Spanish manuscripts will no longer be accepted. Combined with the existing free access, becoming an English-only journal will increase TPP's visibility and impact. Actually, most of the manuscripts currently submitted to TPP are already in English, so it should be an easy transition.
The new Editorial Board wishes to work close to the Brazilian plant pathology community and to collaborate in strengthening our scientific society. We will always be ready to explain and discuss the rules and procedures adopted by the journal and to listen to suggestions and advice by other members of the SBF. We hope that, with the continued cooperation of our colleagues, at the end of our term in 2014, TPP will have secured its place among the best plant pathology journals of the world.
With best regards,
Francisco Murilo Zerbini, Robert W. Barreto, Trazilbo José de Paula Junior (Editors)
Luiz Gonzaga Chitarra (President of the SBF)
Publication Dates
-
Publication in this collection
04 May 2012 -
Date of issue
Feb 2012
