In May 2008, ScienceWatch.com named
Advances in Atmospheric Sciences a
Rising Star among Geosciences journals. According
to Essential Science Indicators from
Thomson
Reuters, the journal's current citation record
includes 764 papers cited a total of 1,658 times
between January 1, 1998 and February 29 2008.
Advances in Atmospheric Sciences was founded in
1984 and is sponsored by The Chinese Committee for
International Association of Meteorology and
Atmospheric Sciences (IAMAS), and the Institute of
Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. It is
co-published by Springer and Science Press.
In the interview below,
Co-Chief Editors Guoxiong Wu, Huijun Wang, and Da-Lin Zhang,
talk about the journal's history and citation
achievements.
Did you expect Advances in Atmospheric
Sciences to become highly cited, or is this surprising to
you?
Yes, we expected to see more citations of Advances in Atmospheric
Sciences (AAS), but not to the extent that it happened. It is
indeed a little surprising to us.
How would you account for the high citation rate of
AAS?
We believe that although it is still too early to tell, the high citation
rate may be attributed to the following factors: the international
orientation of the journal (including the close collaboration with
Springer), the periodically recycled international editorial board, and the
significant increase of international submissions, the Web-powered review
editorial system, and more strict quality control for both the printed and
electronic publications. These improvements appear to be very effective.
Moreover, in August 2007, one of our co-chief editors, Prof. Da-Lin Zhang,
on behalf of the editorial board, wrote an official email to apply for the
promotion of AAS to be one of the core journals of the Thomson
Reuters SCI collection on the basis of the demonstrated overall
improvements.
For your information, we have also noted a sudden increase in downloading
AAS papers from Springerlink (see Table 1). AAS’s
publications can now be obtained timely and conveniently through
Springerlink. Moreover, with the strategic collaboration between Springer
and Google, the accessibility of the Springerlink has been optimized by the
powerful search engine, which could partly explain the sudden increase in
downloads.
Table 1. Downloads of AAS papers on Springerlink (provided by
MetaPress).
Year
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
YTD
total
2006
0
20
66
105
90
115
93
153
127
138
173
255
1335
2007
234
7740*
171
519
408
653
482
32202*
534
538
860
1022
45363
2008
3402*
312
598
4312
Note: * denotes the sudden increase.
Would you give us a brief history of the
journal?
AAS, launched in 1984, is an international journal on the
dynamics, physics, and chemistry of the atmosphere and ocean. It covers the
latest achievements and developments in the atmospheric sciences, including
marine meteorology and meteorology-associated geophysics, as well as the
theoretical and practical aspects of these disciplines.
Papers on weather systems, numerical weather prediction, climate dynamics
and variability, satellite meteorology, remote sensing, air chemistry and
the boundary layer, clouds, and weather modification can be found in the
journal. Papers describing the application of new mathematics or new
instruments are also collected here.
In 1999, as the only one among peer-reviewed journals on atmospheric
sciences in mainland China, AAS began to be abstracted by Thomson
Reuters (then ISI).
In 2000, the journal established a strict workflow and a peer-review system
for all submitted manuscripts. At least one reviewer from overseas and one
from China are selected for each paper. Also in this year, with the new
enrollment of many internationally renowned editors, the policy of a
periodically recycled international editorial board started to be more
effective.
Since 2002, native English-speaking editors have been hired to improve the
clarity, consistency, and accuracy of the manuscripts accepted for
publication in AAS.
In 2005, AAS signed the co-publishing contract with Springer.
What historical factors have contributed to the success
of AAS?
Before 2008, AAS was the only journal in the field that was
abstracted by Clarivate in mainland China. The international
recognition of the journal has promoted its development as demonstrated by
Journal Citation Reports® yearly
reports. Please see Table 2 for details.
Table 2. Statistics from Journal Citation Reports
Year
Total Cites
Impact
Factor
Immediacy
Index
Self-citation frequency
2001
146
0.327
---
---
2002
172
0.288
0.072
56 (32.6%)
2003
231
0.449
0.069
88 (38.1%)
2004
404
0.603
0.116
189 (46.8%)
2005
402
0.668
0.034
102 (25.4%)
2006
483
0.579
0.126
144 (29.8%)
The active participation of overseas reviewers has helped to ensure the
scientific quality of journal publications. The proofreading service has
improved the readability of AAS publications. Furthermore, with
the combined effort and wisdom of an international editorial board, the
journal has been improved considerably in both its printing quality and
scientific contents. Because of the outstanding performance, AAS
has been sponsored three times with the National Natural Science Foundation
of China (NSFC) Fund for Key Academic Journals.
With Springer’s flexible distribution channels and marketing
strategies, accessibility of AAS has been greatly improved since
2006, which is shown in AAS’s subscription increase and
downloading rates.
Have there been specific developments in the fields
served by AAS that may have contributed?
There have been several specific developments in recent years that have
contributed to the improvement of the journal. First, AAS is a
journal published by the Chinese National Committee for IAMAS
(International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences) and IAP
(Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences). Prof.
Guoxiong Wu, President of this National Committee, and now President of
IAMAS, is the Chief Editor; Dr. Huijun Wang, the Director of IAP, and Prof.
Da-Lin Zhang of Maryland University are the two Co-Chief Editors.
"As the key journal in
this field in mainland China, AAS has reported a
lot of valuable works by Chinese
researchers."
Since 2003, many prestigious IAMAS experts, such as the former President,
Prof. Huw Davies, the former President of ICMA, Dr. Kevin Hamilton, the
former President of ICDM, Dr. Peter Baines, and others have contributed to
the development of AAS by submitting their outstanding research
results. All these appear to help increase the citation of AAS.
Second, AAS has tried to follow the frontier development of the
field, with organized special issues on Asian monsoons and climate change,
etc. These have also attracted many interested readers. In addition,
AAS has published more papers related to the Chinese National
Committee for World Climate Research Program (WCRP) and regular
International Workshops among China, Japan, and Korea. These papers are of
generally high quality.
Research in mainland China is specialized in the dynamics of East Asian
monsoons, climatic system models, climate prediction, and global climate
change. As the key journal in this field in mainland China, AAS
has reported a lot of valuable works by Chinese researchers. In turn, they
have been granted with honors for their outstanding contribution, to name
but a few here.
Prof. Qingcun Zeng et al. were honored with the National Natural
Science Award (2nd Class) in 2005 in acknowledgement of their research on
"Climate System Model, Numerical Climate Simulation and Climate
Predictability Study." Fourteen of his listed 44 publications in the Award
were published in AAS.
For their profound research on "Land-Sea-Surface Interaction and Its Impact
on Subtropical Anticyclone and the Climate in China," Prof. Guoxiong Wu
et al. won the 2007 National Natural Science Award (2nd Class). Of
the 10 most important publications, the one published in AAS
ranked 2nd.
Prof. Ronghui Huang and his collaborator are applying for the 2008 National
Natural Science Award of China. Five of the 10 listed key publications for
the application were published in AAS.
What, in your view, is this journal’s main
significance or contribution in the field of Geosciences?
Since the launching of AAS in 1984, the journal has aimed to
promote the distribution of the most up-to-date achievements by researchers
in China and abroad. Since AAS became a member of SCIE, RA,
CC/PC&ES in 1999, it has played an important role in communication
between Chinese and foreign scientists. For example, AAS was
ranked 14th by number of papers in the
top 20 journals publishing on
"Tropical Storms" according to the July 2006 Special
Topic from Essential Science Indicators. AAS is also
the only English language journal in Earth Sciences that has been funded
by the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC). The increase in the
citation rates also signified the readers’ recognition of the
journal’s performance.
How do you see your field(s) evolving in the next few
years?
"AAS has become a window
for scientists to view the domestic research
progress in atmospheric science and to know the
developments abroad."
In recent years, a large amount of funding and resources have been pooled
together in mainland China to support the researches of the dynamics of
East Asian monsoon systems, earth system models, climate change and
prediction, integrated research of East Asian environmental changes and
regular human activities, atmospheric chemistry, atmospheric environmental
change and prediction, mid-layer atmospheric physical-chemical process, and
developing remote sensing techniques to monitor and model environmental and
climate change etc. The new and broadened range of research will be one
special focus for AAS.
In the foreseeable future, the following fields will develop very fast and
provide challenges and opportunities for the development of AAS:
After the publication of the IPCC AR4, climate change over the
world and its regional projections over Asia have become and will
continue to be a hot topic;
Severe weather and climate events that have occurred frequently in
the recent years and caused great damages to the society. The
diagnoses and predictions of these events will attract many
research efforts;
Efforts in improving climate and weather prediction models and in
reducing prediction or projection uncertainties will be enhanced
substantially. People would like to see a much better outcome from
the IPCC AR5 in a few years;
Field observations, including in situ and satellite, will
further improve our understanding of the behavior of the climate
system. The Asian Monsoon Years (AMY) campaign, taking place from
2007 to 2012, involves about 23 research projects in the Asian
societies that will produce many new observation results and shed
new light on the existing climate changes.
What role do you see for your journal?
First, our journal provides a convenient and reliable platform for
researchers in this field to present their work. Second, the editing
service (including proofreading, typesetting etc.) has optimized the
readability of the papers. You can now find in AAS many of the
recent research results of most of the national key programs funded by
NSFC, MOST, or CAS. AAS has become a window for scientists to view
the domestic research progress in atmospheric science and to know the
developments abroad.
Finally, we would like to thank you again for providing this encouraging
news. We are confident that AAS will continue to grow and improve
with wide support from our meteorological community.
Advances in Atmospheric Sciences
Guoxiong Wu, Huijun Wang, and Da-Lin Zhang, Co-Chief Editors
Springer and Science Press, publishers
Chinese Committee for International Association of Meteorology and
Atmospheric Sciences (IAMAS), and the Institute of Atmospheric Physics,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, sponsors