There have been a number of changes at the Journal of Physical Oceanographyduring the past year. First, the editorial staff has changed, with Nelson Hogg replacingEli Katz in January and Peter Müller replacing Greg Holloway in August. (Both Eliand Greg continue to serve JPO in an advisory capacity, and their assistance is greatlyappreciated.) Second, the mission statement of the journal has been modified somewhat.This statement outlines the scope of the journal, and it appears in each JPO issue onthe inside front cover. Briefly, it states that JPO seeks all scientific papers that in someway contribute to the understanding of ocean physics. There are always a few papersthat treat subjects that reside on the boundaries of this mission. Authors who are unsureif their paper is appropriate for JPO should consult one of our editors.
Finally, as part of a concerted AMS effort to reduce the production time of submittedarticles, we instituted several new editorial policies at JPO designed to shorten thereview time. Specifically,
1) we now contact all potential reviewers in advance to ensure that they have the interest,and the available time, to review a manuscript;
2) if a review has not been sent to our office within 40 days from the time it was mailedto a reviewer (i.e., 30 days plus 10 days transit time), we remind the reviewer thatthe review is due at the editorial office;
3) if a review is not received within 2 weeks after the reminder, we obtain an additionalreview from a reviewer who agrees to provide it within 2 weeks of receipt.
According to these policies, the time taken for an initial review to be returned to ouroffice should not be more than 60 days. If an author has not received an editorialresponse shortly after this time, he/she should feel free to contact the editor to find outthe reason for the delay. Our initial statistics do indicate that these policy changes haveindeed shortened the JPO review time significantly, and we expect further improvementduring the coming year.
