As an independent publisher, the AVMA Publications Division has a plethora of moving parts that help ensure JAVMA and AJVR will deliver readers the scientific content they deserve. At the AVMA, we are fortunate to have a wonderful staff whose wealth of publishing experience is crucial for producing the online-first and print content you receive in your electronic devices and mailbox.
In April, I celebrated 29 years as part of the Publications Division at the AVMA. The way we prepare and deliver content to readers has changed dramatically over the years, but 1 thing has remained constant: it requires a dedicated team to bring readers the JAVMA and AJVR content they have come to rely on.
We recently hired a new Copy Editor—Cathlin Rosean—to join the Publications Division in an effort to continue providing the best scientific content we can to members and subscribers. The Copy Editors are an integral part of our team. Almost every word that you see published in print or on the website has passed by the watchful eyes of a Copy Editor (or two) to ensure that the content you’re reading is concise and accurate.
Working together
Our goal is to deliver our readers the content they are looking for in the timeliest manner possible. To do that, every role is critical. Our administrative staff works to make the submission process easy and straightforward, our Associate Editors shepherd manuscripts through the peer-review process, and our production team juggles the tasks of copy editing, table and figure creation, article layout, proofing, and online and print publishing. There are countless manuscripts in varying stages of production that must be managed to bring new content to the website in our new online-first workflow. Each staff member has an area of expertise that they bring to the team; however, with an in-house team of only 16 staffers, many people wear multiple hats. It is the ability to be flexible in our changing workflows—and our ability to communicate with one another—that allows us to publish hundreds of manuscripts annually and bring thousands of pages of content to readers’ digital devices and mailboxes.
Growing our platforms
Under Dr. Lisa Fortier’s direction, the Publications Division has evolved in numerous ways. For decades, our journals were published under an issue-based workflow. Every 2 weeks (or every month for AJVR) we printed an issue of JAVMA and mailed it out. As the focus shifted and more importance has been placed on time from submission to publication, we realized that driving content to the website was paramount. We now publish new content online multiple times a week, and we later collate that material into a print or online issue. This allows authors to get their content out sooner, and it allows readers to receive it whenever they want from whatever electronic device they choose. To stay informed on the most up-to-date content, sign up for our eTOC alerts by clicking the button in the right-hand corner of the issue landing page on the website. You must opt-in to receive these alerts. We have also taken on a more prominent role with our social media promotion of articles and the creation of a podcast as we try to help authors disseminate their content in a variety of ways.
On the horizon
As publishers, we always try to listen to our readers. We recently received feedback from readers and authors in the form of targeted surveys, and we are working to improve the delivery of content to you in the ways you want. Along with our regular scientific content, we continue to broadcast new episodes of our Veterinary Vertex podcast, add curated virtual collections each month, and develop supplemental issues on the most interesting veterinary topics out there. You will also see more Technical Tutorial Video manuscripts posted to the website as this initiative gains traction. Further, we are planning our first AJVR supplemental issue—on Artificial Intelligence—in 2025. Our website is the lifeblood of our journals, and we want readers to get the most out of it. Therefore, we will be working on a tutorial video that will help readers better navigate the site and understand and utilize all its capabilities and functions. The publishing landscape is always changing. We have staff members with memberships to the Council of Scientific Editors, the Society of Scholarly Publishing, and the American Copy Editors Society. The continuing education that our team gleans from these organizations allows us to continue to evolve and develop exciting new ways to bring readers content.
Those may be our names on the masthead of these journals, but JAVMA and AJVR belong to our AVMA members and the scientific community as a whole. We are grateful that readers look to us for the content they need and want, and it isn’t something this publishing team takes lightly. It is our mission to continue to advance veterinary medicine through our content. Please continue to reach out with questions, concerns, or ideas. We can’t do this without our readers!
Respectfully,
Nick DeLuca
Managing Editor, JAVMA and AJVR
Assistant Director—Publications, AVMA
