1. EPS-AG Survey on PRAB Publication Criteria and Policies
G. Arduini, M. Seidel

2. Introduction Following the request from F. Zimmermann.
Launched survey within the members of the European Physical Society – Accelerator Group concerning the PRAB publication criteria/policies and on possible means to enhance the visibility and impact of PRAB to make sure that the scientific output of our community is properly recognized when compared with other domains of physics and with other sciences.
sent on 3 March 2017 (deadline 31 March 2017)
250 members to date
Unfortunately the reply has been rather modest (12) but in some cases the participants collected feedback from colleagues in their institute
16/05/2017
G. Arduini, M. Seidel - EPS-AG Survey on PRAB Publication Critearia and Policies

3. Survey Do you publish in PRAB?
How important is the impact factor when you chose where to publish?
How important is the time between submission and publication when you chose where to publish?
How do you consider the criteria of acceptance of PRAB?
Are there activities/domains of accelerator physics and technology that are not covered by PRAB in your opinion?
Do you (or your institute) consider that articles also appearing in PRAB special editions are not “real” journal publications?
Do you think that PRAB should give more space to Review Articles?
Is the time taken from submission to publication an issue? Would there be a strong interest of authors in shortening this time?
Do you have suggestions on how PRAB could increase the number of referees?
Would you accept to act as referee for PRAB?
Do you have other proposals how PRAB could improve its service for the community?
16/05/2017
G. Arduini, M. Seidel - EPS-AG Survey on PRAB Publication Critearia and Policies

4. Do you publish in PRAB? 10 our of 12 are already publishing in PRAB
Motivations for not publishing:
Not in the field
One paper was rejected
Between 1.2 and 1.7 papers are published per year
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G. Arduini, M. Seidel - EPS-AG Survey on PRAB Publication Critearia and Policies

5. Impact factor
With different emphasis  becoming increasingly important:
for appraisal exercises and funding allocation
for a proper recognition of the scientific value of the work in the field a compared to other branches of science
But:
not necessarily a criterion for the selection of the journal
Communication within the field is most important
Suggestions to improve PRAB impact factor:
Citation of all relevant previous papers, particularly those published in PRAB  need to change the habits in the community. Citations of previous work is not diminishing the quality of original development based on previous
IPAC invited oral presentations are potential “target” for PRAB papers
Review papers
Special section in the journal for publication of design reports?
16/05/2017
G. Arduini, M. Seidel - EPS-AG Survey on PRAB Publication Critearia and Policies

6. Time between submission and publication
10 out of 12 considered the time taken in PRAB not an issue:
In general acceptable to wait some months but less than one year. Quality first
Should not discourage people to publish on referred paper and select faster lanes
Combination IPAC/JACoW/Refereed IPAC conference proceedings together with PRAB provide an answer to these complementary needs
Suggestions to shorten this time:
Authors sometimes slow  impose a deadline in the revision by the authors
Stricter refereeing schedules
A larger pool of referees to cover with a sufficient number various domains
Possibility of having “senior” and “junior” referees and pairing them to encourage new members of the community to contribute and train them  this is one of the aims of the IPAC refereeing pilot project
16/05/2017
G. Arduini, M. Seidel - EPS-AG Survey on PRAB Publication Critearia and Policies

7. Acceptance criteria
10/12 consider the criteria adequate and in one case they are considered too restrictive. Some other journals tend to be more lenient.
Criteria are well balanced among the various sections of the journal
Accelerator technology papers seem to have a larger rejection rate and/or the number of papers submitted is lower (in proportion to the papers submitted to conferences).
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G. Arduini, M. Seidel - EPS-AG Survey on PRAB Publication Critearia and Policies

8. Activities/domains of accelerator physics and technology not covered?
Majority (8/12) thinks that there is a good coverage
Possible suggestions for areas to be further covered:
Accelerator specific materials (3)
Applications of lasers in accelerators (1)
Computing for accelerator physics (1)
Detector Technology (1)
Machine detector interface for colliders (1)
Plasma acceleration (1)
Technology in general to be more represented (1)
Vacuum technology (1)
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G. Arduini, M. Seidel - EPS-AG Survey on PRAB Publication Critearia and Policies

9. Special Editions
9/12 replies and all of them they consider that Special Editions are NOT considered “second class” in their institutes.
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G. Arduini, M. Seidel - EPS-AG Survey on PRAB Publication Critearia and Policies

10. Review Articles
9/12 think that there should be more review articles (pro/against):
The journal Is a reference in the field, reviews would have a large visibility (references!!) and establish a common understanding of shared items
Review articles will increase the impact factor, and will be helpful as reference for the community.
PRAB should be broadly reserved for research which is new (this however should not exclude some special dedicated reviews). There are other journals which cover review articles and IPAC conference includes review articles (but of limited length – editor’s note.).
Possible suggestions for review articles:
Laser plasma acceleration
Exotic beam facilities
Advances in computing for accelerator physics
Cooling techniques
ICFA Beam dynamics Newsletter papers?
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G. Arduini, M. Seidel - EPS-AG Survey on PRAB Publication Critearia and Policies

11. Suggestions to increase the number of referees?
Have a “referee recruitment drive” at the major conferences (IPAC, FEL…) It would be good to be able to offer some tangible incentives, though what form these could take (given limited resources) is difficult to say. Gift of a good book in Accelerator Physics or Technology for new referees?
Contact Conference Scientific Committees
EPS-AG could be asked to collect possible names of referees with their areas of expertise.
People who publish frequently in PRAB can be contacted to become a referee.
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G. Arduini, M. Seidel - EPS-AG Survey on PRAB Publication Critearia and Policies

12. Become a PRAB referee? 10 out of 12 replied positively
...but most of them are already referees apparently.
3 replied positively but it is not clear whether they are already referees
Giovanni Bisoffi
Reinhard Brinkmann
Deepa Angal Kalinin
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G. Arduini, M. Seidel - EPS-AG Survey on PRAB Publication Critearia and Policies

13. Suggestions
Additional information could be posted on the web site, or more links be provided. The journal and Editorial Board could initiate, support, or be involved, in certain community initiatives.
The journal can more proactively encourage review articles for active research areas.
The refereeing process could be improved by making it slightly lighter (for the referees - editor’s note), e.g. instead of having two referees going through the paper very thoroughly, three referees going through it with subdividing further for example, with one looking at the physics impact, another looking at mathematics while the third looking at the experimental procedure and analysis of data. Any disagreement between the three would immediately be flagged to the editors who would subsequently intervene.
16/05/2017
G. Arduini, M. Seidel - EPS-AG Survey on PRAB Publication Critearia and Policies

14. Conclusions
Impact factor is becoming more and more important but it is not (yet) a strong drive for the selection of the journal  importance of proper citation of previous work!!
PRAB acceptance criteria are considered adequate may be some time too strict (in particular for technology/engineering papers)
Time from submission to publication is not a real issue (also thanks to the good complementarity with JACoW ....and the new refereed version of the IPAC proceedings?)
Special Conference editions are not considered second class publications and should be encouraged together with the publication of reviews
Scientific Committees of Conferences and Learned Societies could help and suggest names for candidates for the pool of PRAB referees
16/05/2017
G. Arduini, M. Seidel - EPS-AG Survey on PRAB Publication Critearia and Policies