Update on Marine Mammal Science from the Editor-in-Chief

I have two important announcements to make about the Society’s journal, Marine Mammal Science.

First, it is that time of year when Thomson’s ISI (Institute for Scientific Information) releases its latest Journal Impact Factor (IF; note that IF always lags by a year so the latest is for 2012) scores based on its Journal Citation Report. The impact factor for a journal is calculated based on a three-year period, and can be considered to be the average number of times published papers are cited up to two years after publication.

The 2012 IF for Marine Mammal Science is 2.128. This compares with last year’s value of 1.611 and a previous high of 1.787 in 2007.

The journal also increased in rank among both Zoology and Marine and Freshwater Biology journals. It currently ranks 26 out of 149 among Zoology journals and 30 out of 100 among Marine and Freshwater Biology journals. Rankings from last year were 38 out of 146 and 41 out of 97, respectively.

The second announcement is that as of the first issue of 2014, Marine Mammal Science will only be published electronically. There will no longer be printed versions of the journal.

This change follows on the vote last year by Society members in support of such a change. The change to electronic publication only will not change the volume and issue structure of the journal. Each year will be a new volume and there will be four issues published in 2014.

We will examine whether the journal could sustain six issues per year/volume in the future. One outcome of this change is that the journal will increase the number of pages published per year. This will ultimately relieve the back log of papers waiting to be published.

Of course another outcome will be that the Society will be “greener” in publishing its journal by reducing the need for paper.

Daryl J. Boness
Editor-in-Chief
Marine Mammal Science

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