Emerging-nation journal submissions increase significantly

Global submission rates for academic journals are at their highest level in six years and submissions from emerging nations are increasing significantly. These are some of the findings of a new report by the Intellectual Property & Science division of Thomson Reuters.
 
The ScholarOne Manuscripts report, Global Publishing: Changes in submission trends and the impact on scholarly publishers, shows that traditionally strong submitters like the USA, Japan and Europe are being outpaced by nations like China and India in the percentage change of their total world share of submissions.

The study used data from ScholarOne Manuscripts to look at submission and decision trends in 4,200 journals of all sizes and scopes, published by over 365 societies, publishers and university presses over the period 2005 to 2010.

Although the USA had the most submissions in 2010 overall (230,826), the US portion of the world figure dropped by 3.3 per cent during the study period, said the report. In contrast, China’s portion of the world’s overall holdings increased by 5.5 per cent.

As part of the report, Thomson Reuters has identified two ways that publishers across the industry are addressing the rising – and changing – demands. The first way is through accommodating cultural diversity within peer review systems. This means having systems that identify potential plagiarism and providing author services portals that ensure good research is not overlooked due to cultural differences or language barriers.

The other way that publishers are addressing this is by using tools within existing systems to identify ‘hot spots’ where journals are receiving the most attention. This can help inform sales and marketing efforts and future business development.