Maximizing page utilization
Since the year 2000 there has been a sustained increase in the number of manuscripts submitted to Avian Pathology. The acceptance rate has remained static. In volume 33 (2004) we published more papers than in any previous year, with the exception of 1996. In that year we increased the page size to A4, temporarily eliminated blank pages between articles, and generally increased the capacity of the journal. Those actions were instigated to cope with a backlog of papers and to ensure that the publication of accepted papers would not be delayed in the future.
During 2004 the Advisory Board and Editors discussed how we could maintain this policy in the face of increasing demand. One option was to increase the number of pages in the journal; that would have resulted in an increase in subscription price. The alternative was to use more efficiently the existing capacity of Avian Pathology.
One outcome of those deliberations was that there would no longer be blank pages between published articles. Second, translations of abstracts would appear on the journal's website but not in the hard copy. These changes were introduced during 2004. Finally, we have made stylistic changes to articles, which are fully evident in this issue, to increase further the economic usage of our pages.
Authors can also make a contribution—by being concise! For example, significant amounts of space—and reader's time—are wasted by unnecessary repetition of results in Discussion sections. More use of combined Results and Discussion sections is one solution. Better design of figures and tables is another (e.g. to fit into a single column on the published page whenever possible). One aspect that will remain is that there is no limit to the number of references that can be used.
Dave Cavanagh
Editor-in-Chief