We are still listening: changes in the status of The Journal of Wildlife Management, 2017–2024

In 2017, The Wildlife Society (TWS) Publications Committee surveyed members about TWS publications (M. Conner, Publication Committee Chair of TWS, unpublished data). We previously summarized the results of the survey to highlight issues that members wanted to see addressed by the JWM team (Krausman et al. 2017). Members indicated they wanted updates on JWM activities, so we complied by providing spring and fall reports in editorials as they were submitted to TWS Council (the fifth and eighth issue of each volume beginning with Krausman et al. 2018). Our objective in this editorial will be to provide an update of the JWM status for spring 2024 and to briefly contrast some of the major changes that have occurred since the 2017 survey of members.

The current (2022) impact factor is 2.3, which is a slight decrease compared to the most recent 2 years. This decrease was anticipated and has affected most journals because the indexing service changed their methods to index articles at first online publication (Early View) rather than at inclusion in an issue. Regardless, the impact factor has steadily increased over the years: 2021 = 2.586, 2020 = 2.469, 2019 = 2.215, 2018 = 1.881, 2017 = 2.055, 2016 = 1.897, 2015 = 1.725, 2014 = 1.726, 2013 = 1.611, 2012 = 1.64.

The percentage of women on the Editorial Board in 2023 (42%) was greater than the percentage during the survey year of 2017 (32%); our current group of Associate Editors (AEs) has the greatest representation of women on record for the journal (since 2011; Table 1). In 2023, most AEs had academic (58%) or government affiliations (35%), and the others were employed by non-governmental organizations (5%), or consultants (2%); the current affiliations of AEs are similar to those in 2017. Most AEs were employed in the United States in 2017 (85%) and 2023 (84%), but we are working to add representation from more countries (6 countries in 2017 versus 8 in 2024).

In 2023, the number of new submissions was 288. This is the lowest number of new submissions on record (since 2011); the average number of new submissions for the previous 12 years (2011–2022) was 356 (Table 2).

Manuscripts submitted to JWM in 2023 came from 35 countries (Table 3). Authors from the United States submitted 57% of all manuscripts with decisions (Table 3). In 2017, 64% of manuscripts were submitted from authors from the United States.

Our median turnaround time (in days) from original submission to first decision was 55 days (Table 4) for new submissions in 2023. This turnaround time is shorter than average for our journal; average turnaround from 2012–2022 was 60 days. We and our publisher, Wiley, are working to reduce the turnaround time even further.

Krausman had a rejection rate of 58% from 1 January to 31 December 2023. This rate is comparable to the rejection rate of previous Editor-in-Chiefs (EICs), Evelyn Merrill (57%) and Bill Block (59%), and has remained steady since 2017.

All issues were published during the month before the cover date (Table 5) in 2023. We published 131 research papers in 2023, which is lower than the average but within the range of papers published from 2012–2022 (average = 145; Table 2).

In 2023, Krausman nominated 4 articles for additional publicity through Wiley. Wiley's marketing department and TWS promoted articles to increase exposure.

We updated the author guidelines to further clarify that authors do not need to follow all formatting and style points before submission. We provide a basic outline of items to be included in each section in the submission guide.

In November the journal team promoted the journal at several events at the TWS conference: a booth in the trade show, meet the EIC events, and an AE meeting.