It has been an interesting couple of years in science as in other aspects of life. We appreciate the efforts of all to continue submitting and reviewing submissions during trying times. We are always appreciative of the efforts of reviewers and associate editors.
Weed Science continues to be one of the premier journals in the discipline and in the agronomic sciences. The editorial board and the staff strive to improve the efficiency of the publication process and improve the scope of the journal. Weed Science seeks to publish more reviews and symposium articles. This past year, Weed Science published a special issue on weedy rice and a review in every issue published this year. For the coming year, we have some interesting reviews lined up and hope to expand the 2015 special issue on research methods.
There are a few initiatives we are trying to pursue. We hope to add some reviewer training sessions for those interested in reviewing for the journal or wanting to hone their skills. We are exploring the possibility of adding graphical abstracts to the journal. Finally, I would like to point out to those who may not be aware that Weed Science, like the other WSSA journals, is a what we call a hybrid journal and does publish open access articles. There is a growing trend toward publishing in the open access format, and our data show that articles published open access tend to have more downloads, social media mentions, and citations over time.
For the 12 months preceding October 1, 2021, 197 manuscripts were submitted to Weed Science compared with 222 in the previous 12-month period. Of the manuscripts submitted, 41.7% were accepted compared with 43.8% the previous year. The time from submission to first decision was 38.5 days this past year compared with 36.9 days for the previous year.
We are happy to report that the impact factor for Weed Science increased from 2.258 to 2.713 for this past year, and the 5-year impact factor increased from 2.441 to 2.868. I do want to point out the calculation for impact factor changed a bit this past year, so all journals saw a greater than average year to year increase in the impact factor. Nonetheless, it is a testament to the quality of submissions and review process.
For the year preceding October 1, 2021, the journal depended on 258 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 2021.
Editorial Board 2021
Muthukumar V. Bagavathiannan
Nathan Boyd
Ian Burke
Carlene Chase
Bhagirath Chauhan
Sharon Clay
Timothy L. Grey
Erin Haramoto
Prashant Jha
Mithila Jugulam
Vipan Kumar
Ramon Leon
Sara Martin
Chris Preston
Dean Riechers
Hilary Sandler
Steven Seefeldt
Debalin Sarangi
Patrick J. Tranel
Te-Ming Paul Tseng
Martin M. Williams II
Chenxi Wu
Weed Science Reviewers 2021
Seth Bernard E. Abugho
Albert Adjesiwor
Pedro Luis Costa Aguiar Alves
Rouhollah Amini
Lars W. J. Anderson
Neil O. Anderson
Rosalyn B. Angeles-Shim
Jamshid Ashigh
Elham Badalzadeh
Rajesh Barua
Suma Basak
Nicholas T. Basinger
Carol Baskin
Shawn C. Beam
Clint Beiermann
Chris Benedict
Sarah Berger
Göran Bergkvist
Mark Lee Bernards
Thierry E. Besancon
Mandy Danielle Bish
Lucas K. Bobadilla
Christian Bohren
Catherine Borger
Daniel Brainard
Whitney B. Brim-DeForest
Simon Brooks
James T. Brosnan
Caio Augusto Brunharo
Jessica R. Bugg
John Tyler Buol
Erin Burns
Shane Campbell
Zhe Cao
Andrea Cavalieri
Buddhika Sampath Chamara
Rakesh S. Chandran
Graham William Charles
Michael J. Christoffers
Robert Cicchillo
Drake Copeland
Roberto Javier J. Crespo
Caleb D. Dalley
José Luiz Carvalho de Souza Dias
Masilamany Dilipkumar
J. Anita Dille
Espinosa-García Espinosa
Peter M. Eure
Yan-Ming Fang
Jason Ferrell
Michael L. Flessner
Reginald Fletcher
Silvia Fogliatto
Michael Fulcher
Karla Gage
Todd A. Gaines
Zahoor A. Ganie
John F. Gaskin
Roland Gerhards
Katherine M. Ghantous
Sambuddha Ghosal
Ken Giller
Thomas K. Gitsopoulos
Danica Goggin
Robin Gomez
Clebson G. Gonçalves
Greta Gramig
Robert H. Gulden
Jiuxin Guo
Nathan Daniel Hall
Nick T. Harre
Erika J. Haug
Marshall Hay
Gerald Matthew Henry
Jerri Lynn Henry
Erin C. Hill
David P. Horvath
Verónica Hoyos
Cynthia Huebner
Joseph T. Ikley
Lynn Ingegneri
Suphannika Intanon
Marie A. Jasieniuk
David H. Johnson
Christopher Johnston
Anestis Karkanis
Nicholas E. Korres
Robert J. Kremer
Anil Kumar
Vipan Kumar
Martin Laforest
Sarah Lancaster
Stephanie Lavergne
Erik A. Lehnhoff
Deying Li
Gui Li
Meng Li
Shaoshan Li
Steve Li
Rui Liu
Mark M. Loux
Neil William MacDonald
Gulshan Mahajan
Mayank S. Malik
Misha Rose Manuchehri
Buddhi Marambe
Claudia Elizabeth Marchesi
Joseph H. Massey
Amar Matloob
Maor Matzrafi
Cara McCauley
Mohsen B. Mesgaran
Stephen L. Meyers
Lindsey Milbrath
Muhamad Shakirin Mispan
Marcelo L. Moretti
Brent Murphy
Huong Nguyen
Stephen John Novak
Dennis Calvin Odero
O. Adewale Osipitan
Maria Dolores Osuna Ruiz
Daniel Owens
Balaji Aravindhan Pandian
Ronald Edward Peachey
Lora Perkins
Kirrilly Pfitzner
Cristiano Piasecki
Luan Pierre Pott
Rao Rachaputi
Neha Rana
Sandeep Singh Rana
Gulab Rangani
Corey V. Ransom
Dawn Refsell
Joel Reyes-Cabrera
Sonia Rios
Jonne Rodenburg
Jai S. Rohila
Christopher Rouse
Aritz Royo-Esnal
Marvin E. Ruffner
Matthew Ryan
Brian J. Schutte
Lauren M. Schwartz-Lazaro
Xueyan Sha
Nooshin Shahbazi
Shaun Michael Sharpe
Lovreet Singh Shergill
Vijay Singh
Lynn Sosnoskie
Douglas J. Spaunhorst
Benjamin Patrick Sperry
David E. Stoltenberg
Harry John Strek
Nithya Subramanian
Hudson K. Takano
François J. Tardif
Breanne D. Tidemann
Ilias S. Travlos
Juan Camilo Velásquez Rodríguez
Roman Boris Vercellino
Michael Walsh
Li Wang
Sarah Ward
Dai Wei-Min
Rodrigo Werle
Scott Neil White
Christian J. Willenborg
Dong-Hong Wu
Marcos Ezequiel Yanniccari
Inacio Yano
Melinda Yerka
Carla Yerkes
Bryan G. Young
Bernard H. Zandstra
Qi Zhang
Can Zhao
Gladis Zinati
Lewis H. Ziska
