Celebrating Editorial Impact: Enhancing the submission-to-publication process

Author: Hamido Fujita

Editor-in-Chief

Springer Nature celebrates and recognises our editors and teams for their achievements in editorial board development, journal growth, increasing diversity, and more. In this blog series, based on inspirational contributions from the 2023 Celebrating Editorial Impact event, editors-in-chief from across Springer Nature share exciting and innovative initiatives they are pursuing, the journey to implementing them, and the impact these have had on their journals and communities.

In today’s post, Prof. Hamido Fujita, Editor-in-Chief of Applied Intelligence, shares the journal’s strategy focused on the review process, and how a holistic approach from submission to publication helped grow the journal and gained appreciation from the readership.

Applied Intelligence celebrated its 30^th anniversary in 2021. While this in itself is an impressive landmark, we have also been investing in measures to improve the journal’s publications and reputation. We believe that improved performance reflects our commitment to effectively serving our research community.

With this in mind, we decided to focus on improving our manuscript review process by implementing a holistic approach that would improve the quality of our assessment procedures. This approach has proven successful, and the journal has seen significant growth in recent years, with quality publications and an engaged readership.

Review strategy from filters to expertise

The first step in the review process begins at manuscript submission. With our review strategy at Applied Intelligence, we seek to implement a strict and concise assessment of each submission, so as to correctly process it and thus enhance its publication potential.

This begins with my initial assessment of each submission, which is based on my accumulated experience as an expert researcher on the topics at hand, and specifically my 15 years of experience handling manuscripts as Editor-in-Chief of leading prestigious journals in the field, including Applied Intelligence since 2020. When initially assessing the manuscript, I carefully examine the submission and apply filters based on certain criteria. These include an evaluation of the presented theory, technical quality, the novelty and innovation of the contribution, and the soundness of the technical presentation and methodologies employed. This initial assessment allows me to position the submission into a trajectory that will best support it through the publication process.

In the next step, following the macro scoping of the initial assessment, the manuscript is assigned for further handling to a relevant associate editor selected from the journal editorial board. The assigned associate editor is selected based on their expertise and specific qualifications relevant to the topic of the submission. We expanded and diversified our board of associate editors so that we can attract high quality international submissions and ensure all submitted manuscripts are handled by experts in relevant topics. As a result, Applied Intelligence can cover a wider range of subjects.

Finally, to ensure that the peer review is likewise highly relevant for each manuscript and of the utmost quality, I implemented an informal strategy of internally screening peer reviewers. This includes an assessment (score) of the quality of reviewers' reports and the technical quality of their feedback in evaluating a submission. The assessments also contribute to considerations of reviewers for potential editorial board membership.

How a solid review process resonates with authors and readers

Thanks to this approach, we have increased the quality and speed of publications in our journal. The enhanced efficiency of our submission-to-publication pipeline has led to noticeable improvements in the performance of Applied Intelligence. 2023 saw a total of 8,700 submissions, which we have already surpassed this year (almost 9,000 at the time of writing). Additionally, our publications last year numbered 840 in total, which we are already close to exceeding in 2024 (our current output totalling 630 publications with all of Q4 still to come). 

Applied Intelligence has also shown international growth, with the bulk of published manuscripts coming from the key research regions Asia, Europe, and North America. The geographical distribution of its manuscripts’ origins (as shown below) illustrates the impressive diversity of the journal’s output:

The impact of the initiatives we took since 2020 is also noticeable in the growth in reader engagement in recent years. Article downloads have seen substantial growth, rising from almost 300,000 in 2020 to over 1.1 million in 2022, and nearly 1.3 million in 2023. This usage from 2022 to 2023 alone constitutes growth of nearly 17%. This performance has continued in 2024 with downloads currently totalling 1.15 million, along with an increase in the journal’s Impact Factor.

The journal’s success depends on hard work from the editorial team, publisher, and journal managers. Together with focused review strategies, these are the conditions that support quality content and engagement with our community.

Looking forward, we aim to continue our efforts to improve and enhance the quality of publications at Applied Intelligence. As a hybrid journal publishing both traditional and open access articles, we will also be working towards increasing open access publications, to support the important transition to open access.

Want to find out more about initiatives that make journals more accessible, impactful, and inclusive? Check out our special event: Celebrating Editorial Impact in 2023, which showcased contributions from Springer Nature editors-in-chief about the exciting strategies and projects enriching their journals, as well as their wider research communities.