This editorial heralds some substantial changes to the journal Weed Science. As of January 1, 2025, Weed Science is a fully open access journal. Going open access should allow wider distribution of the content published in the journal and is becoming a requirement for granting agencies. The first thing you will notice is that the journal will have continuous publication without regular issues being released.

After a couple of years of lower submission, submissions were up almost 46% in 2024 over 2023. From October 1, 2023, to September 30, 2024, there were 226 submissions to Weed Science. I saw a continuing trend of more reviews being submitted to Weed Science this past year. Within the same time frame, Weed Science received 25 reviews, up from 12 in the previous year. The journal will continue to seek to publish more reviews and articles related to symposia.

Weed Science has many goals as a journal. The primary goal is to publish high-quality research from authors. Another goal is to make the publication process as efficient as possible, and that includes constant efforts to reduce the time from submission to publication, as these are career-defining points for authors. I usually point out the time from submission to first decision in these editorials. However, I would like to present data on more of the publication process this year. For the year before October 1, 2024, it took an average of 5.5 days from submission to reviewers being invited to review, and 16.2 days for reviews to be completed. The time from submission to first decision was 41.9 days. The time from submission to publication is favorable when compared with other society-based publications. The acceptance rate for the past year was 65.7%.

I also know the impact factor for journals is important to many authors. The Weed Science impact factor has been relatively flat the past 3 years. For 2023, Weed Science had an impact factor of 2.1. The decline can be attributed to fewer articles published in 2022 and 2023. The 5-year impact factor was 2.5 for 2023.

For the year preceding October 1, 2024, the journal depended on 213 unique reviewers. The excellent reputation of the journal would not be possible without the cutting-edge research submitted by authors and the diligent work of the editorial board and the hundreds of referred reviews that are submitted annually. I wish to thank the members of the editorial board and reviewers for 2024.