Avian Diseases Journal Spring 2025 Update

Entering 2025 means that I have now completed my first year as Editor in Chief of Avian Diseases. It has been an eventful first year, but it would not have been possible without the incredible support of my three Associate Editors (Drs. Silke Rautenschlein, David Swayne and Haroldo Toro) and the Advisory Board. I have also received a considerable amount of assistance from Bob Bevans-Kerr and Nathan Bevans-Kerr. Our ability to maintain a high scientific standard would not be possible without our reviewers who volunteer their time to help the journal. I will return to this point later in this update.

Avian Diseases published four issues in 2024, and the Special Issue for 2024 has just been fully released. The four regular issues included 24 Original Articles, 6 Research Notes, 10 Case Reports and 1 Review. The Special Issue included 7 Invited Reviews, 9 Original Articles, 1 Research Note and 3 Case Reports. The entire issue was published Open Access, which should enhance the visibility of the articles we publish in Avian Diseases.

The Special Issue for 2025 will focus on avian metapneumovirus. If you have a research study or a case report related to this topic, please consider submitting it for the Special Issue. You can contact me with any questions. We hope to receive all manuscripts for this Special Issue by June 30. Like the 2024 Special Issue, the entire issue will be published Open Access. Authors of all papers that are not Invited Reviews will pay the AAAP member rate for Open Access charges.

With respect to reviewing articles for our journal, it is time to update our Reviewer Board. If you are interested in helping the journal with the review of submitted articles, we could really use your assistance. Ideally the Reviewer Board includes AAAP members who have experience publishing peer-reviewed papers and who have experience reviewing papers. However, we are planning a webinar that will help our membership learn the process of conducting a peer review. Remember, many of our published papers are Case Reports, and these papers require a different type of experience than traditional Original Research Articles. Please contact me if you might be interested in joining our Reviewer Board.

Finally, I have heard from some of you that it can be challenging to keep track of the articles we publish. When you used to receive a hard copy of the journal, you would browse the entire issue. With articles now being published online as soon as they are finalized, it can be difficult to stay up to date. I have worked with the AAAP office to create an email template that will announce the publication of each article as soon as it is available online. I will also send an email when each full issue is published that will list the papers included in that issue.

As you can tell, our ability to ensure that the journal fits your needs in these changing times requires your input. If you have ideas for improvement or just want to vent about something you dislike, I am always available. Don’t hold back; I can take it. I truly want to maintain Avian Diseases as a AAAP publication of which our membership can be proud.

I hope everyone has a great spring, and I look forward to seeing you at the Annual Meeting in July.

Sincerely,

Randall Singer, DVM, MPVM, PhD

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