The 25th volume of The Professional Animal Scientist (PAS) was completed recently with 815 pages. This issue was larger than the 684 and 742 pages in the previous two issues. Review papers were published on “Omega-3 Fatty Acids in Metabolism, Health, and Nutrition and for Modified Animal Product Foods,” “Limit-feeding with Altered Forage-to-Concentrate Levels in Dairy Heifers,” “Transport Losses in Market Weight Pigs,” and “Reproductive Traits and Their Heritabilities in Beef Cattle.” In addition, there were 77 research articles and 16 case studies that were printed during 2009 (compared with 57 and 21, respectively, in 2008). The average time required was 51 days to the first decision and 78 days from submission to the final decision (acceptance or rejection) of a manuscript.
The PAS journal seeks articles from a broad base and includes experiments that relate to applied problems in the animal sciences, including dairy, poultry, meat animals, horses, and other species. There were 48 articles concerning the beef industry, 16 articles related to swine, 14 about dairy cattle topics, 5 applied to horses, and 8 articles about general topics or forages. It should be noted that there was increased interest from equine researchers this year.
It is probably worth emphasizing that research papers should be about procedures on important topics that are ready, or nearly ready, for application. Admittedly, applicability is difficult to determine in some cases. Research papers must be based on adequately replicated studies, and this has been the primary cause for rejection of a manuscript. Data on which papers are based must be from original unpublished research, case studies, field trials, scientific literature, or a combination thereof. Data gleaned from the literature are acceptable only if pooled for the purposes of analyzing, summarizing, and interpreting data.
Case studies and technical notes are acceptable when they have unique applications in any area of animal agriculture or a related discipline. These manuscripts should have literature citations, although they are usually more limited and generally more recent than those of technical reviews or original research manuscripts. The topic of the case study can be biological or economic, or it may deal with public or producer attitudes and perceptions.
Letters to the editor, policy, statements, or book reviews from ARPAS members or PAS subscribers will be published in a special section. Letters may offer comments or questions about articles previously published in PAS; technical questions requesting a scientist’s response; or educational notes about new or innovative approaches in teaching, extension, or industry programs.