The journal can be found at https://www.appliedanimalscience.org.

Report for January 1 – December 31, 2021, updated with information for January 1 - May 31, 2022, mid-year (June, 2022, Vol. 38, Issues 1 - 3)

This report is divided into three parts:

1. performance information about the submission-review-editorial-production-publication process of Applied Animal Science (AAS) from January 1 - May 31, 2022 compared with the previous 4 years;
2. activities and changes in 2021 and 2022 to-date; and,
3. anticipated work and activities for 2022. 

1. Performance information about submission-review-editorial-production-publication process in 2022 (January 1 - May 31, 2022) compared with the previous 4 years.  
   Brief Summary.

Table 1: For 2021 total submissions were down about 20% compared with 2020; or, about 6% fewer than the average of the 3 previous years. Total articles accepted and published in 2021 were about 5% less than in 2020, but 9% greater than the 3-year average. The overall acceptance rate (62%) in 2021was slightly greater than in 2020, but about 7% lower than the 3-year average. Number of total pages published was 15% less in 2021 compared with 2020, but slightly more than the average of the previous 3 years. Open Access (OA) articles were 30% of total published articles in 2021; this was a sizable increase in the proportion compared with 2020, 2019, and 2018, respectively.  

Table 2: For 2021: the distribution of article types remained about the same in 2021 compare with previous years as recommended by Elsevier for a journal pursuing an Impact Factor rating: about 60 to 70% being research articles; 10 to 15 % being reviews and invited reviews; with the remainder being short communications and technical notes.  For 2022: One-half of the issues for 2022 have been published. Based on 2022 submissions and articles published to-date it appears that articles and total pages are lagging slightly behind 2021 (Table 1).  All other categories in Table 1 are pretty consistent with past years except for number and percentage of articles published Open Access vs. by Subscription.  So far in 2022, 78% of articles have published by Open Access; this compares with 30% in 2021; 25% in 2020; 12% in 2019; and, 8% in 2018. This is an obvious and large change over the last 4.5 years. The decision to publish Open Access or by Subscription is made by authors when their manuscripts are accepted to publish; ARPAS or Elsevier does not make this decision. Table 2: So far in 2022, fewer articles have been published (one-half of issues have been published) compared with one-half of articles in 2021 and each previous year.  So far in 2022, fewer Invited Reviews and Symposia articles have been published; however, there are several of these article types currently in the review and production for publication in the last half of 2022. By the end of 2022, the distribution of article types will change and likely be quite similar to the previous 4 years.

Table 1. Journal Submissions, Review, and Publication Information (compiled by S. Pollock, Fass, Inc.).

Table 2. Published Articles by Manuscript Type (compiled by S. Pollock, Fass, Inc.).

*Does not include 2 letters to the editor. 

2. Activities and changes in 2021 and 2022 to-date

1. Activities and changes in 2021 and 2022

• 2022 (to-date): 6 press releases have been issued: 
  www.appliedanimalscience.org/press_releases
• 2021: 14 press releases were issued: (www.appliedanimalscience.org/press_releases)
• The Elsevier/Science Direct webpage (https://www.appliedanimalscience.org/) was redesigned by Elsevier to make accessible across mobile devices.

2. Updates to Published Articles

1. Publishing ORCIDs, when authors provide needed information; ORCID maintains a database that keeps the publication history and unique name(s) of individual authors, if they choose to register in and maintain their data in the system.
2. Updates to ScholarOne/ManuscriptCentral (S1M) questions:

• Added optional question to collect social media handles/contacts from authors for article promotion.
• Added 2 required financial questions:
  • “I accept full responsibility for publication costs, if my submission is accepted for publication, and will be invoiced shortly before the article is published (payment will be due 30 days after invoice receipt). The individual author, or the authorized representative, agrees to make payment via credit card if the publication invoice has not been paid 90 days after the invoice due date”.
    • Invoicing name, mailing address, and email address.
• Changed Commentary article type to Perspectives and Commentaries with new description: 
  • “Perspectives and Commentaries. These articles provide a forum for authors to address important topics in the animal sciences related to industry opportunities, issues, practices, and applications or related to research investigation and application. They typically are more forward looking and may be more speculative than Reviews and Invited Reviews and may take a narrower field of view. They may be opinionated but should remain balanced and are intended to stimulate discussion and(or) describe and support (validate) new industry and(or) experimental approaches. These articles may document industry or scientific needs or practices and may provide recommendations. Information shared should be from extensive first-hand experience and new data, results, and information, which should be displayed with some statistical evaluation when possible. References to the refereed scientific literature are encouraged when appropriate but are not essential nor required. These articles are invited by the editor-in-chief. Individuals are encouraged to contact the editor-in-chief to suggest topics and(or) potential authors for Perspectives and Commentaries articles or to indicate a desire to submit an article of this type to the journal.”
• Changed “Corresponding Author” to “Corresponding Author (Principal Investigator)” for clarity and accountability of the “PI” within the submission process.
• Collecting CREDIT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) from authors. We may choose to publish this information with each article in the future.

3. Support and Marketing

1. Associate Editors (AEs): Dr. Eric van Heugten (North Carolina State University; swine/nonruminants) (2021); Dr. Kristin Hales (Texas Tech University; beef feedlot and meats) (2022); and, Dr. Daniel Rivera (University of Arkansas; grazing beef cattle/ruminants/ forages) (2023). Social Media Editor, Miriam Snider (University of Vermont) began in July 2019. 
2. FASS staff members working with AAS were Susan Pollock (managing editor and FASS director of publications), Christine Horger (lead technical editor), Shauna Miller (ScholarOne Manuscripts support) and, Ron Keller (production).  Becky Collins was the Publisher from Elsevier. 
3. Some editing and changes made to Information for Authors (Policies and Instructions for Authors documents) for AAS webpages. 
4. Marketing: Worldwide “Call for Papers” were made by ARPAS and Elsevier marketing using their databases and networks to prospective animal scientist authors (including USA). 
5. Invitations were made to selected individuals to write and submit invited reviews to AAS. Ten Invited Reviews and Reviews were published in 2021
6. Official letters of thanks and public posting of reviewers’ names made to journal webpages for all reviewers for 2021. 
7. Official letter of thanks sent via email to each reviewer of 2021 manuscripts; over 200 different volunteer experts reviewed one or more manuscript submissions. 
8. Discussions and planning for AAS Impact Factor application occurred in 2020, with continuing monitoring by Clarivate in 2021. No word yet from Clarivate on status. 

4. Review and Publication Updates 

1. Continued collecting ORCiDs from corresponding authors via the ScholarOne site; updated letters to authors to encourage addition of ORCiDs to their accounts. For authors that have ORCIDs in their accounts, the ORCiDs are published on final articles. More about ORCIDs (www.orcid.org):  
   1. ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier (an ORCID iD) that authors own and control, and that distinguishes them from every other researcher. They can connect their iD with their professional information — affiliations, grants, publications, peer review, and more.  They can use their iD to share their information with other systems, ensuring that they get recognition for all their contributions, saving their time and hassle, and reducing the risk of errors. 
   2. It also is a benefit that AAS can offer its authors. 
2. iCal (calendar reminders) added to S1M/MC letters with due dates to help authors, reviewers, editors meet deadlines from the peer-review system.  
3. CRediT taxonomy (https://casrai.org/credit/) added to manuscript submission process. Authors can use tick boxes to designate co-author contributions (type and level) to their submissions. 
4. FundRef module added to the manuscript submission process. This allows authors to (https://www.crossref.org/services/funder-registry/) include funding agency and grant numbers during the submission process. This information is collected at author proofs if not submitted before then (and published on final papers), so this should assist the technical editor in collecting the information further upstream.  

3. Anticipated Work and Activities in 2022 and Forward 

1. Consider and develop special issue(s) of AAS or focused sections within issues on selected topics (e.g., specific feedstuff utilization; production systems; others?). 
2. Continue quarterly invitations from Editor-in-Chief to write and submit invited reviews to AAS. 
3. Continue press releases monthly or quarterly based on journal articles in each issue and any other associated industry or ARPAS events. 
4. Continue letter of thanks to each and all reviewers in 2022. 
5. Elsevier (Elena Herzog, AAS publisher) to apply for PubMed indexing of AAS in 2022. 
6. Continue to pursue Impact Factor with Clarivate Analytics with help of Elsevier (Elena Herzog, AAS publisher) in 2022; awaiting word on status currently. 
7. On May 10, 2022, Susan Pollock, long time Managing Editor and FASS Director of Publications, for nearly 25 years, announced her resignation (effective June 9,2022) to take another job.  Hopefully, Fass, Inc., should name a replacement soon.
8. Post quarterly reminder to ARPAS members to complete the one-time AAS registration process.

Graduate Student and Social Media Report
Jordan Adams, MS, Assoc. PAS

Current Efforts and Analytics

In an effort to increase the ARPAS graduate student membership, I have started reaching out to some of our affiliated associations in regards to collaborating with their graduate student divisions. As of right now, I have received interest from the officers of the ADSA Graduate Student Division to discuss collaboration opportunities. Additionally, I will be networking with graduate students at the ADSA Graduate Student Mixer to advertise ARPAS.

I have been working on increasing the social media presence for ARPAS and have found that we receive more attention on Twitter than on our other social media platforms. Consistently posting reminders for upcoming events and any new ARPAS updates seems to help with our publicity and draw more attention to our page.

• ARPAS (Twitter) is following 895 accounts with 417 followers
  • 10% increase in followers since January 2022
  • 539 tweet impressions in May 2022
  • 275 profile visits in May 2022
  • 13 new followers in May 2022
• LinkedIn has over 1,500 followers

Conclusions and Moving Forward

Our account has received the most attention from posting useful information and reminders that pertain to ARPAS. My efforts thus far have primarily been on Twitter, but I plan to expand these tactics to our other social media platforms. Collaboration with the graduate student divisions within our affiliated associations may give us the opportunity to increase our visibility and expand our following.

As we move forward and work to continue increasing the ARPAS graduate student membership, I think it would be a good idea to highlight our current graduate students on a monthly basis via short interviews. Highlighting graduate students on social media, and possibly in the ARPAS newsletters, could gain the attention of a younger audience. Additionally, I would like to develop an ARPAS graduate student poster expo and/or competition. In efforts to gain attention from the younger audience, I believe a focus on engagement and participation with ARPAS would be beneficial.