[Japanese text follows English. 日本語版は英語版の後に表示します。]
A happy new year
to all．
In 2016 PEPS received 60 manuscripts and
published 37 papers. Since PEPS was only launched two and a half years ago we
have not yet had time to finish our registrations with either of the main
international research paper databases Scopus or Web of Science. In view of
this I think we can regard the number of published papers as a modest sign of
success. We have now completed our applications to both Scopus and Web of
Science and these are currently being reviewed. I hope that I will be able to
report sometime later this year that both applications have been accepted.
At the moment it takes on average 190 days
from receiving a manuscript until it is published. The editorial team is
focusing on “rapid review and publication” in order to reduce this time. The
editorial office monitors the speed with which manuscripts proceed through the
system and sends email notification to the relevant editors when there is any
delay．However the time to publication is largely
dependent on the speed at which referees are able to review papers. I would
therefore like to take this opportunity firstly to thank everyone who has or
will review papers for PEPS for their hard work, and secondly to humbly ask
that referees aim to complete their reviews as quickly as is reasonably
possible.
We receive many manuscripts written by
authors who are not native English speakers: for these manuscripts we have
adopted a system of provisional acceptance. Under this system, manuscripts are sent
out to referees and those by non native authors that are favorably reviewed are
provisionally accepted and then sent to an English language proofreading
company at the JpGU’s expense in order to correct any minor mistakes in
expression or grammar. Although this all happens before the manuscript is
formally accepted, in practice provisional and formal acceptance are nearly
equivalent and we have so far published all of our provisionally accepted
articles. The reaction to this process has generally been positive but we have
had some complaints that manuscripts have been over edited, that the burden on
authors is increased and that the system leads to delays in publication. There is some truth in these complaints.
However it is our main goal that PEPS be regarded as a journal of the first
rank: we are working hard to achieve this, and, I feel, have had much success
in doing so. In order to maintain our status we have to consistently publish high
quality papers where excellent scientific content is clearly presented and precisely
explained. Unfortunately this requires, amongst other things, a certain level
of English language competence. I apologize for the additional burden that this
places on our non native authors, and hope that they will understand our
position.
I have been aware for a while that Japanese institutions
have been suffering from the rapid increase in online journal subscription
fees. In the past few months there have been several international developments
affecting this issue. At the end of last year negotiations between Elsevier and
a group of German state funded universities and research institutions broke
down with the result that from January 2017 researchers at these organizations
will lose online access to many Elsevier journals. Similar problems have occurred
in Taiwan and Peru (Nature News on 23 December 2016). Such problems serve to emphasize the
important role that open access journals have to play in the field of academic
publishing, and these developments further convince me that PEPS, as a high quality international open
access journal covering all of the areas of Earth and planetary science, has an
important role to play.
Recent years have seen the increasing
popularity of letter journals, and indeed these offer a number of advantages:
the compact presentation enables readers to quickly acquire an overview of
material they are interested in whilst authors benefit from the relatively
short time between submitting a paper and its publication. Despite these
benefits, the importance of detailed exposition of new scientific ideas and
results of course remains undiminished and this is why PEPS has chosen to focus
on this area. We want our authors to explain their ideas in detail and we allow
them up to 50,000 words per paper in order to do so (and, as I mentioned above,
we are working to further reduce the time to publication of our papers).
The purpose of academic study is not only the
creation of new knowledge. For it to be of any use such knowledge must be
transmitted to the wider community, and we at PEPS are doing all we can to help
with this. I would like to thank everyone for the assistance they have already
given us and respectfully ask you all to continue to help, firstly by
considering publishing new work in PEPS, and secondly by refereeing any articles we
send you as quickly as is reasonably possible．
Finally let me wish you all a happy,
productive and prosperous 2017．
Yasufumi Iryu
PEPS Editor in Chief
PEPS総編集長の井龍 康文です．2017年の年頭にあたり，皆様に御挨拶申し上げます．
2016年，PEPSは37編の論文を出版しました．また，投稿を受け付けた原稿の数は60編でした．これは，PEPS創刊から2年8ヶ月ほどであること，Web of Science（WOS）やSCOPUSという国際的な論文データベースに採録されていない現時点では，健闘している数値であると認識しています．なお，WOSおよびSCOPUSへの採録ですが，昨年，採録申請を行い，現在，審査を受けております．2017年に皆様に朗報をお届けできると期待しています．
現在，PEPSでは原稿受付から出版までに，平均で190日ほどを要しております．編集部では「Rapid review and publication」を心がけており，査読の遅れている原稿に対しては，編集事務局から編集委員の方々へ対応を求めるメールを送り，査読が迅速に進むようにしております．しかし，査読期間の長短は，査読者による査読の遅速にかかっています．査読者の御尽力に感謝するとともに，「Rapid review」達成のためにより迅速な査読を心がけていただくようお願いします．
一方，英語を母国語としない方が筆頭著者となっている論文原稿に関しては，査読完了と正式受理の間に，暫定受理という手順を採らせていただいております．これは，PEPSが経費を負担して，暫定受理された原稿を英文校閲会社による英語表記のポリッシュアップに出すためです．原稿の正式受理前に行う，この「もう一手間」は概ね好評ですが，英文校閲会社のオーバーエディティング，著者の負担増，出版の遅れ等に関する批判もいただいております．しかし，創刊間もないPEPSが数多くある学術雑誌の中で高い評価を得て，一定の地位を占めるためには，優れた科学的成果が，きちんとした体裁（英語表記を含む）で書かれた「高品質」の論文を出版していくことが唯一の道ですので，「もう一手間」に関して，御理解いただければ幸甚です．
年末に，ドイツの主要な大学・研究機関とElsevier社との交渉が決裂し，2017年1月から，それらの研究機関ではElsevier社の電子ジャーナルへのアクセスができなくなるとのニュースが飛び込んできました（カレントアウェアネス・ポータル）．日本国内の多くの研究機関では，電子ジャーナルの購読費用の高騰に苦しんでいますが，これは国際的な問題となっています（例：「台湾やペルーでも、2017年からElsevier社の電子ジャーナルの閲覧が不可能に」）．このような状況の下，オープンアクセス・ジャーナルの役割と責任は非常に重要なりつつあります．PEPSは，地球惑星科学の全分野をカバーするオープンアクセス・ジャーナルとして，国内外の地球惑星科学のコミュニティーに「高品質」の論文の出版の場を提供していく所存です．
近年，レター誌の人気が高まっています．これは，投稿から出版までの期間が短いという投稿する側のメリットと，知りたい内容がコンパクトに書かれているという読む側のメリットの相乗効果によるものだと思います．一方，PEPSはフルペーパーが対象で，1論文あたりの最大語数は5万語まで許容されています（投稿から出版までの期間も，それほど長くはありません）．したがって，伝えたい内容をすべて伝えることができるというメリットがあります．
学問の目的は，知の創造と継承と言われますが，PEPSが，その舞台となり発展していくように尽力したいと考えています．PEPSの発展のためには，皆様の積極的な投稿と，迅速な査読に対する協力が不可欠です．ここに，皆様のこれまでの御尽力に心から感謝するとともに，今後のなお一層の御協力を切にお願い申し上げます．
末筆ではありますが，皆様の御健勝と御発展を祈念しております．
PEPS総編集長
井龍 康文
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