Editorial. Editorial policy issues - Environmental Science

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EDITORIAL Editorial policy issues I want to use this forum to bring two policy issues to the attention of Encironnzental Science nnd Technology readers. The first deals with our policy of reviewer anonymity in the processing of our research nianuscripts. T h e comments presented below are for the purpose of clarification and do not reflect any change in editorial policy. The second issue involves the transition to the use of the International System of Units (SI) in ES& T. Reviewer anonymity For many years it has been an operating policy in E S & T to maintain strict anonymity in the review process. Although this matter is not specifically addressed in our Editorial Policy statement, reviewers are requested in our Instructions to Reviewers to refrain from communicating directly w i t h authors or from disclosing their identities without prior editorial consent. The purpose of this policy is to protect the reviewer and to encourage impartial professional judgment in the peer review process. Since the scientific quality of the Research Section is strongly related to the quality of the review effort, it is imperative that our policy encourage the honest expression of this opinion. Occasionally, I receive letters or phone calls from reviewers expressing their preference to communicate directly with the author, as well as the editor, in the belief that this reduces processing delay and provides more meaningful criticism for the author’s consideration. ES& T’s editorial policy on this matter is that an author should not receive partial information regarding the status of a manuscript and that an author’s best interest is served by receiving all reviewers’ comments along with the editorial decision. I t is our general policy to provide authors with anonymous copies of all reviews with the editor’s decision. If a reviewer requests that the author know his or her identity, this can be done a t the time of the editorial decision.

SI Units The editors of A C S publications have agreed to adopt in each publication the usage of the International System of Units (SI) as outlined in the National Bureau of Standards “Guidelines for Use of the Metric System.” T h e transition to the new system of units will be gradual and sensitive to the special needs of each publication. There are seven base units in the SI system; the meter, kilogram, second, ampere, kelvin, mole, and candela, plus supplementary units for plane angle and solid angle. An additional set of units can be derived from these nine; some of which have special names such as the units for capacitance (farad), energy (joule), and force (Newton). Other derived units do not have special names such as area (m2), concentration (mol/m3) and volume (m3). The diversity of the scientific and engineering disciplines served by ES& T makes several of the SI units inconvenient. W e intend to retain, for example, the liter as a unit of volume in order to permit the use of molar concentrations. A complete list of the SI units and the exceptions to be permitted in ES& T will be published on this page in the near future. W e propose to phase our transition to the new units with a one-year voluntary compliance period beginning with the publication of the new units. After that time authors will be permitted to include other units only if their SI equivalents or acceptable exceptions are included parenthetically. At an even later date the use of the new units will become mandatory. In the meantime our readers are encouraged to comniunicate to the editors their thoughts about units that should be permitted as alternatives to SI units. These inputs will be considered by the Advisory Board and appropriate revisions will be published near the end of the voluntary transition period,

Volume 13, Number 6, June 1979

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