'Expedited Contributions' to Replace 'Notes'

To encourage shorter, more focused, and timely publication in its scholarly journals (excepting the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society and Earth Interactions), the American Meteorological Society (AMS) will introduce an expedited editorial/production process for shorter articles that qualify for consideration in this category, which will be designated “expedited contributions.” In conjunction with this change, the publication category of notes will be eliminated and the “Notes and Correspondence” section in each issue will be given the new title “Comments and Replies.” When published, the expedited contributions will not be identified as such in the table of contents or in the individual articles online, but rather these short articles will appear in the normal sequence of articles. To qualify as an expedited contribution, a manuscript will have to meet three criteria:

1) It must be less than 2500 words (approximately nine double-spaced pages, abstract through acknowledgments).

2) It must have no more than six figure and table “pieces,” where a piece is a table, figure, or figure component that is handled individually (e.g., one submitted file).

3) It must not be part of a multipart paper.

To expedite the review process, the editor will give each reviewer a deadline of 2 weeks to complete the review and there will only be a single round of reviews (i.e., there will be no category of “major” revision). Authors will be given a deadline of 4 weeks to complete revisions of the manuscript in response to reviewers’ comments. If, as a part of the review and revision effort, the manuscript grows beyond the length or figure criteria specified above or if it requires a second round of reviews, the contribution will move out of the expedited contributions category and will be considered as a regular article. Upon acceptance, the final manuscript will be posted as an Early Online Release, ideally ~4–6 weeks after submission. The AMS journal production staff will accelerate expedited contributions through the production process. The goal for time to publication is 10–12 weeks after editor acceptance.

The journal editorial offices will begin accepting expedited contributions on 1 January 2010 and will no longer take notes after that date. The Notes and Correspondence section will continue to appear in the published journals until all notes currently in the
editorial system are published.

David P. Jorgensen
AMS
Publications Commissioner

Updated:
 Headquarters: 45 Beacon Street Boston, MA 02108-3693
  DC Office: 1120 G Street, NW, Suite 800 Washington DC, 20005-3826
 amsinfo@ametsoc.org Phone: 617-227-2425 Fax: 617-742-8718
© 2006 American Meteorological Society Privacy Policy and Disclaimer