Having served as Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Tropical Insect Science (IJT) for the last 9 years, with this edition I am handing over the responsibility to my successor as 4th Director General of icipe Dr Segenet Kelemu, an Ethiopian scientist with vast experience in publishing in her field. I am confident that under her able leadership IJT will continue to thrive as the reference journal in tropical entomology.
My experience at IJT has been very rewarding. Over the last couple of years, the journal has changed considerably in terms of quality, authorship and readership, and geographical coverage. Today, there are geographically more diverse contributors from all fields of entomology, ranging from integrated pest management and biological control, to systematics, medical entomology and biodiversity/conservation.
One of the main reasons for this success was rejuvenating the Editorial Board of IJT, including the appointments of four Regional Editors for tropical Africa, the Americas, Asia and Australia/Oceania. This has facilitated a smooth journal peer-review process, and is reflected in the number of increased submissions from the areas that each represents. Concurrently, the Editorial Board has also increased from 16 to 24 members. Last but not least, many, many dedicated reviewers have helped to uphold the standards of IJT by providing their time and expertise to review manuscripts. I would like to express my sincerest gratitude and appreciation to all of you for a job well done.
Finally, a whole-hearted thank you to Ms Charlotte Sanginga and Ms Dolorosa Osogo who tirelessly and efficiently helped me steer the Journal's Secretariat, and the colleagues at Cambridge University Press.
It has been a great pleasure working with you all.
Christian Borgemeister
Outgoing Editor-in-Chief
2 December 2013
Let me first express my appreciation to the outgoing Editor-in-Chief, Professor C. Borgemeister for his excellent work at bringing the International Journal of Tropical Insect Science (IJT) to its current standard as a now reputable journal of choice for scientists working in the field of tropical entomology. It is my conviction that we (including the Editorial Board members) will strive to maintain the same targets set by Professor Borgemeister for transforming IJT into an outstanding journal in tropical entomology. We are also pleased that he will be joining the Journal's Editorial Board.
I take great delight in my role as the incoming Editor-in-Chief of the journal and in my responsibility for screening, selecting and editing manuscripts supporting all fields of entomology. A planned editorial upgrading process should improve the relevance and originality of the content of accepted papers and also shorten the turnaround time from submission to acceptance and publishing of papers.
We are happy to announce that in 2007, IJT joined the Cambridge University Press (CUP) journals' publishing programme. With their support, multilingual flyers publicizing the journal in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese have been developed, in an attempt to raise the profile of and attract more scientists to publish their findings in IJT.
Additional measures to target a broader customer base have resulted in increasing dissemination, usage and citation of journal content. There is a 12.3% increase in submissions in 2013 (based on 2012 figures), with a regional coverage from four continents. The total subscription revenue to the journal has also risen.
All this means that IJT is in very good shape and the improvements should serve to attract entomologists from tropical regions to publish their findings in the journal. It is my hope that you will, as usual, continue to build the reputation of this worthy journal, hand-in-hand with me. This should enable it to become the reference tool in tropical insect science.
Segenet Kelemu
Incoming Editor-in-Chief
2 December 2013
