Editorial

Citation

Finch, E. (2006), "Editorial", Facilities, Vol. 24 No. 13/14. https://doi.org/10.1108/f.2006.06924maa.001

Editorial

The journal Facilities will be celebrating 25 years of existence in 2007. Prior to this, the journal will be introducing an online submission system for authors, known as JADE. For the journal this is a major development and provides an opportunity for improving the quality of submissions and engaging a wider community of referees.

For those that have written for the journal before, you will be aware of the need to produce a structured abstract and a copyright form. The front-end of the online submission system captures this information at the point of submission, thus dispensing with the inevitable delays that arise from chasing requisite documents. This in turn will inevitably help with improving turn-round time to print.

For those acting as referees, the system provides a managed environment for reviewing papers. Inevitably, reviewers may still want to print out the document in order to consider the papers merits, but the feedback, in electronic form, provides a versatile and consistent reviewing mechanism. Reviewers play a pivotal role in the journals operation. Whilst the Editorial Advisory Board will often initiate new directions and introduce special issues, it is the referees that provide the vital feedback. This feedback is much more than a simple “accept” or “reject”. Indeed, the constructive and creative feedback often transforms a mediocre paper into something highly original and useful. For this reason, the continued involvement of referees in the reviewing process is much appreciated and provides an essential guide in the journals evolution.

Edward Finch