Human Factors Update:
New Journal Enhancements

By William S. Marras, Human Factors Editor in Chief

The world of publishing is changing rapidly, as you may have noticed. If we look beyond the human factors/ergonomics arena, we see an explosion of journals, many of them online-only publications, providing new options for authors considering where to publish and for readers considering what to read. We live in an information-packed world in which busy people need to glean knowledge from these publications quickly and efficiently. These are the main reasons behind some recent changes in Human Factors. You may have noticed some of these changes, and there are more on the way.

Précis, Key Points, and Structured Abstracts
     Beginning with the June 2010 issue, we will feature two additions designed to save readers time. The précis is a 50-word "teaser" about the article in the newly redesigned table of contents and will appear below the title and authorship of each article. The addition of the précis means that the table of contents will no longer fit on the front cover of the journal. So, as you may have seen, the contents page is now found inside each issue.

     The second new feature is a bullet list of key points at the end of each article. These bullet points will aid readers who need to find the article's "bottom line" quickly.

     Introduced in 2009, the structured abstract is a highly efficient way to summarize the content of the paper using subheadings (objective, background, method, etc.) that roughly correspond to the major sections in the full article. To make these abstracts even easier to read and absorb, each subheading will begin on a new text line. (Previously, the abstract was a single paragraph.)

New Cover Design
     Moving the table of contents inside the journal gave us the opportunity to incorporate a more visually interesting cover. We began using the new cover design with the first issue of 2010.

Length Guidelines
     It is much more difficult to write short than it is to write long. U.S. government granting agencies have drastically reduced the word limits for proposals, as have many high-impact journals. Therefore, in the interest of trying to improve the scientific standing of Human Factors, we have revised the length limitations for the most commonly submitted article types in order to keep manuscripts to a reasonable length. At the same time, we have lifted the limit on figures and tables, and we now accept other forms of communication besides straight text. The aim here is encourage authors to use the best reporting mechanism for their work.

     Complete details may be found in the Instructions for Authors, but here they are in brief:

• Research Articles report original research that is experimental (field or laboratory based), methodological, or theoretical in nature. Example: a single experiment or concept that is fully developed and includes a statistical analysis (when appropriate). Length: 4,500 words, excluding the abstract, key points, references, tables, and figures.
• Extended Multi-Phase Studies report on a sequence or series of closely related original studies that are best discussed collectively instead of through multiple original articles. Examples: more than one experiment or a mixture of experiments, observational studies, modeling, surveys, and ethnographic studies. The series must have a theoretical underpinning that makes its inclusion in the same report a logical progression. Each component (experiment) of the sequence of studies must be able to be statistically evaluated independently. Length: Multi-experiment series are limited to 4,500 words plus 3,000 words for each experiment (or model) beyond the first experiment, excluding the abstract, key points, references, tables, and figures.
• Brief Reports are for reporting preliminary observations in a timely manner, new and unique interpretations of previously published data, simple new techniques or new methodological approaches, or points of historical interest. These rapid-communication mechanisms for emerging ideas should have adequate data sample sizes to demonstrate statistical significance. Length: 1,500 words.
• Review Articles present a synthesis of previously published work on a specific topic of interest to the human factors/ergonomics community. These articles are intended to scientifically analyze a body of literature and synthesize the information in an original manner. Review articles must provide an original perspective on the literature, not merely summarizing but also extending knowledge on a topic. Review articles are solicited by invitation. Those interested in submitting a review article should contact the Editor in Chief prior to submission.

Publication Timing
     You may have noticed that the journal is running several months behind. Several factors have contributed to the delay. In recent years the journal's frequency was increased from four to six issues per year in order to eliminate a publication lag. This increased capacity has eliminated the backlog of accepted manuscripts, and time to publication has been shortened dramatically. However, we do not have a sufficient number of accepted manuscripts to fill the issues in a timely manner. Several initiatives are forthcoming that should help us get back on track. These include several planned special issues, special invitations for submissions, new classes of articles, and a soon-to-be-announced competition.

Conclusions
     In summary, we have begun to make changes to both the content structure and image of our journal that will place Human Factors in a stronger competitive position. We expect that these actions will result in a higher Impact Factor in the coming years. Although it may take time for authors to become comfortable with some of these changes, we strongly believe that we are building a stronger journal that will benefit all of us.

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