In 2000, Dr. Andrew (Beau) Watson proposed to ARVO the creation of an entirely new kind of journal: open access, online, and digital. The ARVO Board of Trustees approved the concept and made Dr. Watson Editor-in-Chief. He launched the Journal of Vision, accepting manuscript submissions in January 2001, and publishing the first article in May.
He convinced a stellar group of vision scientists to join the Editorial Board. He designed the look and the user interface for the journal and tirelessly promoted it to his colleagues in presentations at scientific meetings. This was all new technology then, and, internally, there must have been countless unexpected issues to resolve, but this was invisible to users of the journal. We all found it lively and seamless. In 2003, to improve the quality and reduce costs, Dr. Watson brought production in-house. With hindsight, this was a wise and brave decision. To further offset the costs to ARVO, Dr. Watson brought in over $100,000 in funding from extramural sources.
The journal, now almost 12 years old, is a resounding success. It is growing rapidly in submissions, published papers, and online usage. The journal now receives, on average, one to two submissions per day and publishes an article every one to two days. And it lives up to the online aspiration, with approximately 2,000 Internet sessions per day—many of them now on mobile devices (like iPads) that didn't even exist in 2001. JOV has an Impact Factor of 3.376, placing it first among Vision Science journals.
It is an honor and a privilege to serve as the second Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Vision. I have a long, rich, and varied involvement with JOV. I was a member of the ARVO Long Range Planning Committee that supported the proposal to start the new electronic journal in 2000. I served on the ARVO Publications Committee (2002–2003), and on the “JOV subcommittee” that developed and approved the financial plan for JOV. I served on the founding Editorial Board of JOV, published almost two dozen papers in JOV, served as a referee on multiple occasions, and I am honored to have been listed in the top 10 most cited authors in the JOV index (JOV announcement April, 2010).
I'm a huge fan of JOV, in part because it is open access and always freely available, and because it is an innovative model for on-line publishing, and provides some article-level metrics. JOV has a distinguished international Editorial Board, and the published product is high quality and esthetically pleasing.
Starting in January, JOV will have four Associate Editors—David Burr, Marisa Carrasco, Eileen Kowler, and Denis Pelli—who, in addition to the Editor-in-Chief, will receive manuscripts directly and either distribute them to Editorial Board Members or handle them themselves. We anticipate that this structure will help ensure that manuscripts are handled efficiently by Editorial Board Members with the appropriate expertise. The JOV Editorial Board is a “working” board in which Board members act as action editors, assigning reviewers and making the editorial decisions.
A recent innovation has been the addition of a new section of the journal: Methods. The increasingly technical nature of vision science, the need for an open access venue for description of substantial new technical developments, and the unique capabilities of Journal of Vision for publication of code and demonstrations have convinced us of the value of publishing methods reports in the Journal of Vision. We believe that the addition of Methods will increase the significance of the Journal of Vision as a critical publication venue in vision science. Denis Pelli will serve as Associate Editor for Methods.
In closing, I am deeply honored to take on the role of Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Vision. The Journal has been an integral part of my professional life for more than a decade! I want to add my personal thanks to the Founding Editor, Beau Watson, who made Journal of Vision not just a reality, but the preeminent journal in the field.
I look forward to hearing from you as we move forward—always open and forever free!