Abstract
The purpose of this report is to communicate the disposition of manuscripts submitted to the Clothing and Textiles Research Journal (CTRJ) for years 2015, 2016, and 2017. Additionally, some historical information about the number of manuscripts submitted since 2005 will be provided. The first CTRJ issue published by Sage was in January 2005. That year 30 manuscripts were submitted. Two years later, in 2007, 50 manuscripts were submitted. The number of submissions grew to 88 in 2009, dropped to 74 in 2010, but rose to 135 by 2011. In 2015, there were 313 manuscripts submitted to CTRJ. The disposition of manuscripts from 2015 to 2017 is shown in Table 1.
Disposition of Manuscripts Submitted to the Clothing and Textiles Research Journal.
Note. aStatistics as of December 3, 2017. bStarting February 20, 2013, the CTRJ policy changed regarding how to handle manuscripts with multiple and major submission errors. Due to the quantity of such manuscripts, the decision was made to reject (instead of unsubmitting) with the option to correct and submit as a new manuscript. cThese are manuscripts that are withdrawn by the author(s), are submitted twice by author error, or are unsubmitted by the editor due to minor submission errors; in all cases, the author does not resubmit.
Acceptance rates for 2015 were 14% and will be between 12% and 14% for 2016 depending upon the final decision for manuscripts still in process. The acceptance rates for 2017 cannot be calculated until all manuscripts have been fully reviewed and a final decision determined. The large number of submitted manuscripts influences the acceptance rate. Although the manuscripts rejected for submission errors are not included in the determination of acceptance rates, the remaining number of manuscripts is still much higher than the 19–20 articles published each year. Those wishing to succeed and have an article accepted to CTRJ should read “Writing Quality Manuscripts for the Clothing and Textiles Research Journal” published in volume 36, issue 1 of CTRJ this year, 2018. Also, read the newsletter article, Manuscript Preparation Suggestions for New Researchers, published in volume 40, issue 6 of the ITAA Newsletter.
Textiles, fibers, and polymer science is the track/topic area with the largest number of submissions in the past 3 years. This track also has the largest number of manuscripts rejected for major submission and writing errors. Submissions by topic area can be viewed in Table 2.
Submissions by Track/Topic Area (and Associate Editors).
Note. aStatistics as of December 3, 2017. bKathy Mullet was acting associated editor for aesthetics and design for 2 months in 2017.cThese are manuscripts mistakenly submitted twice by authors or withdrawn without going to review.
One means by which a journal is rated is by its impact factor. The impact factor is calculated based on the yearly average number of citations for relatively recent articles. Sage calculates impact factors based on the past 2 years. Thus, the impact factor for 2015 was based on citations during 2016 of articles published in CTRJ in 2014 and 2015 divided by the number of articles published in CTRJ in 2014 and 2015. Only citations from ranked journals are used in this calculation. The impact factors for 2014–2016 are shown in Table 3 (impact factors are reported the year after the journal publication date).
CTRJ Impact Factors 2014–2016.
One of the goals of the editor and associate editors (AEs) has been to reduce the time from initial manuscript submission to initial manuscript decision and the time from initial manuscript submission to acceptance for those authors whose manuscripts move forward in the publication process. Several years ago, the “time to review” given to CTRJ reviewers was reduced to 21 days. Unfortunately, there are still some reviewers who are slightly to very late in returning their reviews, and some reviewers will not review during any holiday season including summer. When a manuscript has been revised and resubmitted during the summer, this results in a longer review process. But the change in review time has made a difference for the large majority of authors. In 2004, Editor Kim K. P. Johnson reported that the time to initial decision was typically within 4 months of the receipt of the submission. In 2017, the time to initial manuscript decision averaged 48 days. In some cases when the decision of the two reviewers is at the extreme opposite (i.e., reject and accept with edits), a third reviewer will be asked to review and the time to decision is extended. For manuscripts that are accepted for publication, the time to the accept decision, in addition to the time of review, is influenced by the time taken by the author(s) to revise the manuscript drafts. See Table 4 for the average review times.
Clothing and Textiles Research Journal Average Time to Review Decision.
In conclusion, I would like to thank all those who have worked hard to support CTRJ since I became editor in Fall 2012. This includes the vice presidents (VPs) for publication: Nancy Miller, 2012; Rinn Cloud, 2013–2015; and the current VP, Pam Ulrich, 2016 to present. The VP for publication chairs the Publications Policy Committee, and I am also grateful for the various committee members, who since 2012, have helped provide suggestions, policy clarifications, and provide guidance for CTRJ. Lastly, the key players in the review process are the AEs and the reviewers. Reviewers, numbering over 100 a year, who have completed the review process for one or more manuscripts have been acknowledged yearly in the ITAA Newsletter. AEs identify and invite reviewers after reading the manuscript, then consider each of the reviewers’ comments and suggestions, and again review the manuscript and send me their decision suggestions. AEs are at the core of the success of CTRJ. See Table 2 for a list of AEs for the last 3 years (AEs are also identified in the inside front cover of each journal issue). I am grateful to everyone who has been involved with CTRJ.