Many of us think of academic publishing from the point of view of an author. We want to submit our manuscripts to top journals that will disseminate our findings to key audiences and increase our publication counts to benefit our CVs, grant applications, and overall career advancement. Have we really thought about publishing from the journal or professional society point of view? I can frankly say that I had not, but given my role as Public Relations Officer includes the SSC’s publications, I want to share my new thoughts on the importance of publishing in the Canadian Journal of Statistics (CJS).
Why choose CJS for your next submission?
Publishing in CJS showcases Canadian-based statistical researchers to the world. Canada has a strong reputation in the statistical sciences. As noted in Statistics in Action: A Canadian Outlook (https://ssc.ca/en/publications/statistics-action), “Canadian statisticians have made major contributions to many […] areas of statistical theory and methods, as well as to the foundations of statistical inference.” Your submissions help build on our reputation for excellence. The SSC’s annual CJS Award for best paper and CJS’s special issue of prize winners further publicize research and career achievements.
Publishing in CJS introduces new researchers to the Canadian statistics community. CJS access is a benefit of SSC membership and many statisticians in Canada faithfully read CJS. Newer researchers publishing in CJS will gain recognition in Canada and benefit from the extensive editorial assistance provided. Participants winning the SSC’s case studies competition are especially encouraged to submit their work to broaden its audience. Links for articles as they are published are posted on the SSC’s social media.
CJS is on an upward trajectory. The impact factor of our journal is increasing, and we want to continue this momentum! Submitting your high-quality work to the journal perpetuates the “virtuous cycle”: highly-cited articles bring greater attention and impact to the journal, which in turn brings more attention to each article. This is good for the journal, good for the SSC, and good for our community.
Publishing in CJS provides financial support to the SSC. Members may not realize that the SSC relies on revenue from publishing to fund its activities. Revenue from CJS provides up to 20% of the SSC’s income per year and this revenue helps keep membership dues and registration fees for the annual scientific meeting low. Your support of CJS through submission ensures that we have a strong publication record that fosters beneficial publishing agreements that ultimately support the SSC’s mandate.
Publishing an open access article in CJS provides additional visibility to your work and is often free through institutional agreements. The publishing landscape has changed dramatically. Moves by funders to require or encourage that research findings are available freely to readers has spurred the open access movement. Open access requirements have changed the publishing business model. If everyone can read for free, libraries, organizations, and individuals no longer need subscriptions and publishers lose subscription revenue. To make articles open access, publishers have moved to have authors pay fees for their article to be open access which can be prohibitive. Transformative agreements have become increasingly prevalent where contracts are negotiated between publishers and institutions so that the institution’s authors can have their articles published open access for no or reduced fees. By choosing the open access option when you want to publish in CJS, you not only enable anyone to read for free but a portion of these fees are also returned to the SSC from the publisher.
Publishing in the CJS’s new Applications and Case Studies section helps bridge the gap between research and practice. This section expands opportunities for applied researchers by providing a dedicated venue for high-quality work in statistics and probability and increasing its visibility within the community. By submitting to this new section, you can showcase your important applications, case studies, software, and unique national data resources, while informing our community of researchers and practitioners.
How can you submit to CJS?
Submitting to CJS is easy thanks to the LaTeX template and online submission. Check out the details at https://ssc.ca/en/publications/canadian-journal-statistics. There are links to the online library for authorship guidelines, details on the new Application and Case Studies section, and online submission. The cjs-rcs-article (https://cjs-rcs.gitlab.io/) has been developed specifically for the CJS but can be used for broader purposes.
I know that authors have many options for publishing their research contributions. I hope this article has highlighted the importance of publishing in CJS so that we can continue to grow the publication to the benefit of us all. I thank Alexandra Schmidt (CJS Editor-in-Chief), Jinko Graham (CJS Editor of Applications and Case Studies), and Erica Moodie (SSC President) for wise edits that improved this article.
Rhonda J. Rosychuk, PhD, P.Stat.
Public Relations Officer