JOE on Track

JOE on Track

I have some good (and exciting) news to report. In July, JOE started using Manuscript FastTrack <http://expressacademic.org/fasttrack.php> for review of JOE articles. We have so many reviewers and have so many submissions under review that tracking late reviews has become far too big a job to do "manually." Manuscript FastTrack is taking over that job for us, including automatically reminding reviewers whose reviews are late.

This means that authors should start receiving their review results sooner, something we all want. Already, a number of authors have received review results for submissions that were only assigned to reviewers July 28, which has made them happy. And feedback from reviewers has been positive, too.

Starting in January 2012, JOE will begin accepting submissions via Manuscript FastTrack. So next year, authors can check the status of the articles they submitted in 2012 and beyond online. They'll know when their articles were sent for review and how many reviews have been completed at any given time.

We started with Manuscript FastTrack in "midstream"—with reviews and tracking them—because that's been a real issue. But, by this time next year, JOE will be totally "on Track."

Remember, though, that for the remainder of 2011, you should submit articles to JOE the "old fashioned way," by emailing them to me at <joe-ed@joe.org>. I look forward to receiving them.

August JOE

This issue includes three fine and helpful articles that focus on county Extension staff, a broad topic that has received considerable coverage in JOE: "Best Management Practices for a Successful Transition into an Administrative Role," "Are You Ready to Be an Administrator? A Self-Assessment to Help You Manage Expectations When Assuming a New Role," and "Lessons from Outstanding County Agents."

A topic that has received less coverage is the role of campus-based specialists with Extension appointments. That's what makes "Plant Scientists and the Productivity Effects of Extension Appointments" particularly interesting.

You'll also be struck by the number of articles with "evaluation" and "impact" in their titles. I count five. And those are only the ones with those two words in their titles—there are a number of other articles that deal with assessing and measuring Extension work.

And on-line tools of various kinds receive their fair share of attention. Among them are "A User Evaluation of a Decision Support System: The Community Assessment Model for Odor Dispersion (CAM)," "Development and Evaluation of an On-Line Educational Module for Volunteer Leaders on Bio-Security in Washington State 4-H Livestock Projects," "Getting to Know the Economy in Your Community: Automated Social Accounting," and "Assisting with Ecological Land Planning: Introducing the Conservation Subdivision Ecological Design and Site Assessment Toolkit"—a Feature, Research in Brief, Ideas at Work, and Tools of the Trade, respectively.

This issue's 31 articles have something(s) for everybody.