Poultry Science--Growing as an International Journal

Abstract

Poultry Science is the journal of the Poultry Science Association, an organization that celebrated its first 100 years in 2008. The journal has one of the highest impact factors for any animal agricultural journal and has by far the highest impact factor of any poultryrelated journal (Scanes, 2007a). The number of papers published in Poultry Science is increasing, from 276 papers published in 2003 (Table 1) to 446 in 2007 (Table 2). Poultry Science is committed to being the preeminent international journal for research publications related to poultry. As recently as 2003, papers from researchers in the United States made up almost two-thirds of those published (Table 1). If we rank countries by the number of papers published (Table 1), the next countries after the United States were France and the Netherlands, each contributing 4% of the total papers published. In total, 18.5% of papers published came from countries in the European Union and 5.1% from Asian countries. As recently as 2003, all of the section editors were from the United States. There has been a conscious effort to internationalize the journal. Today, the journal has section editors from Asia, Australia, and Europe as well as the United States. We have made significant progress in internationalizing Poultry Science. In 2003, papers from 27 countries were published in the journal (Table 1). In 2007, the number of countries represented by researchers publishing in Poultry Science increased to 36 (Table 2). Moreover, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of papers published from research groups in different countries. For instance, although the number of papers published from researchers in the United States grew 49% between 2003 and 2007, papers from researchers in China increased 6.2-fold, those from Canada increased 8-fold, and those from the United Kingdom increased 8.0-fold (Tables 1 and 2). It is particularly interesting that although the number of papers from countries in the European Union grew by 16%, the proportion of papers fell, from 18.5% of all papers published in 2003 to 13.2% in 2007. In contrast, the number of papers from researchers in Asian countries grew 5.1-fold, and the proportion of papers increased from 5.1% of papers published in Poultry Science in 2003 to 15.9% in 2007. Accompanying the increase in papers from Asian countries have been large increases in poultry production in those countries