Food Protection Trends - November/December 2024 - 477

COMMITTEE AND PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT GROUP MINUTES
emerging and hot topics, and establishing a healthy number of special
issues each year.
Mark reported that editorial and publication speeds of the journal have
also improved substantially last year. The submission to first decision for
published papers was 38 days in 2023 vs. 46 in 2022, and the submission
to manuscript acceptance was 112 days in 2023 compared to 153 in
2022. This puts JFP in line with comparable food safety and food science
journals at Elsevier and close to the target metric of 100 days. The number
of downloads of JFP articles also increased by 8% in 2023 compared to the
prior year, with >1.7 million total article views and downloads recorded.
Mark reported on Elsevier's marketing strategy for the journal. He noted
that the bespoke campaign has been successful so far, which consists
of targeted monthly activities to promote the journal. For example, in
February 2023, an interview with the editor-in-chief (Panos) was published
and shared widely by email, social media, and other channels and received
very strong " open " and " click to open " rates from 24,000 emails sent to
prospective authors. Additional marketing activities are planned for later
this year (e.g., interviews with JFP authors). Mark noted that he was very
impressed with the strong engagement of the JFP Editorial Board members,
noting that the last Editorial Board meeting on April 10, 2024, had very
strong attendance, participation, and engagement from almost 100 of ~150
members.
Following the Elsevier report, Panos Skandamis provided the Scientific
Co-Editors Report. Overall, he expressed that the editors are very optimistic
about the journal's future, and believe that the high-quality review process,
dedicated Editorial Board, credibility and reputation, link to the IAFP
organization, and accessibility and promotion on Elsevier will help to
improve metrics and reestablish the journal as the " ultimate food safety
journal " in the coming years. The editors discussed that they noticed a
trend of certain papers being rejected due to limited impact and scope of
the findings. Namely, these are regional surveys of food safety hazards
or antimicrobial resistance in smaller or remote locations with limited
wider applicability and generalizability. The editors felt that often these
submissions were technically and methodologically sound but would not
contribute much to the journal and would be unlikely to be of interest to
many readers. There was some discussion about the possibility of finding
another way to publish these papers, e.g., though a new potential journal or
online repository, but further consideration would be needed before making
any recommendations in this area.
New Business: Panos provided an update on the journal's new AI-based
policy statement and use of colloquialisms statement, both of which
are now available in the guide for authors. The committee discussed
the potential utility and reliability of AI tools to help detect use, but it
was agreed at this time that existing plagiarism detection tools and the
high-quality and rigorous peer review process are the best deterrents to
detecting undeclared AI use in submissions.
Panos provided an update on the outstanding peer reviewer award that was
recommended at last year's committee meeting and approved by the Board.
The editors and Board worked to establish a selection criteria and process,
including that members must have served on the editorial board for at
least 10 years and must regularly provide reliable, high quality, and prompt
reviews. The first award winner was selected and was to be announced at
the IAFP editorial board reception later in the day.
Panos provided an update on the JFP special issues on machine learning
and AI in food safety. The editors expect that ~13-15 papers will be
published in the issue, which was noted to be a great success. It was
noted that IAFP PDGs and committees were asked to solicit ideas for new
special issues at the annual meeting, and some interest has already been
expressed to the editors in this area. Some committee members mentioned
how they find special issues to be useful when searching for relevant
articles on a specific topic, which can lead to higher article downloads
and citations. It was suggested that guest editors of any future special
issues should be IAFP Members or be highly encouraged to become IAFP
Members if they are not already.
Joshua Gurtler provided an update on the status of JFP's editor-invited
reviews. These reviews are expected to have high higher citation rates than
standard articles and can help with the journal's metrics. Joshua noted
that 11 such reviews have been published to date, with an average citation
count of around 25 per article, considered a strong success compared to
non-invited articles. Most of the invited reviews so far have been written
by authors who are also members of the JFP editorial board. Joshua listed
several additional topics for invited reviews that are either in the process
of being written or that still require authors to lead and write. Additionally,
some potential authors had agreed to write reviews but then dropped out
or were no longer able to commit for various reasons. The committee was
invited to suggest potential authors for the outstanding topics as well as to
suggest other potential topic ideas for future invited reviews.
Recommendations to the Executive Board:
1. The Committee recommends the nomination of Teresa Bergholz as
incoming Vice Chair.
Next Meeting Date: Sunday, July 27, 2025, Cleveland, Ohio.
Meeting Adjourned: 4:15 p.m. Pacific Time.
Chairperson Name: Ian Young
Program Committee
Members Present: Francisco Diez (Outgoing Chair), Maria Hoffmann
(Incoming Chair), John Bassett, Andrew Clarke, Faith Critzer (Incoming Vice
Chair) Vikrant Dutta, Kristen Gibson, Lauren Jackson, John Jarosh, Lone
Jespersen, Jenny Maloney, Ben Miller, Kristin Schill, Don Stoeckel, Matt
Taylor, and Xianqin Yang.
Members Absent: Abani Pradhan, Anderson Sant'ana.
Board/Staff Present: Mark Carter, Manpreet Singh, Tamara Ford.
Number of Attendees: 19.
Meeting Called to Order: Wednesday, July 17, 2024, 7:30 a.m. Pacific Time.
Minutes Recording Secretary: Tamara Ford
Old Business: The outgoing committee members Francisco Diez, Lone
Jespersen, Abani Pradhan, and Xiangin Yang were recognized for their
service.
New Business: The meeting began with introductions. New members, John
Bassett, Kristen Gibson, Jenny Maloney, and Kristin Schill were welcomed
to the committee. Tamara explained the process for the 2025 submissions
and the timeline was reviewed. The review process will be adapted to meet
the growing number of session proposals.
The overall evaluation of the IAFP 2024 scientific program was positive.
Recommendations to the Executive Board: None.
Next Meeting Date: TBD (Fall Conference Call).
Meeting Adjourned: 8:28 a.m. Pacific Time.
Chairperson: Maria Hoffmann
November/December Food Protection Trends 477
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