P R O G R E S S  R E P O R T S

AgBioForum: Leading the Debate on the Socioeconomics of Biotechnology
Submitted by Nicholas Kalaitzandonakes

Kalaitzandonakes: KalaitzandonakesN@missouri.edu
Considerable progress has been made towards extending AgBioForum's reach as the definitive journal on the economics and management of agrobiotechnology. AgBioForum has continued its critical role in informing the general public, private and public decision-makers, and the scientific community on the socioeconomics of agrobiotechnology. Specific goals that were met on the project include content, readership and technical targets. These goals and their achievement are outlined below.

Content/Readership Goals

  • During the funding period (2 years), AgBioForum published 7 issues (specialized and submitted) on various topics including a special issue on "Agricultural Biotechnology in China" and a special issue on "Soybean Biotechnology." Each issue consists of 6-11 articles from top experts in industry, academia, law, policy, and media.
  • The editorial board was expanded to include additional internationally recognized experts. The new editors bring the necessary knowledge, expertise, and input to ensure the journal's continued vitality and future success. New members of the editorial board include:

    • Julian M. Alston, a Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics of the University of California, Davis.
    • Steven Buccola a Professor of agricultural and resource economics at Oregon State University
    • Robert E. Evenson a Professor of economics at the Economic Growth Center of the Yale University Department of Economics.
    • George Frisvold a Professor and Extension Specialist in Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of Arizona.
    • Dermot Hayes the Pioneer Hi-Bred International Chair in Agribusiness, a Professor in the Department of Economics, and a Professor in the Department of Finance at Iowa State University.
    • Wallace E. Huffman the C.F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor of Agriculture and Professor of Economics and Agricultural Economics at Iowa State University.
    • James F. Oehmke a Professor of Agricultural Economics at Michigan State University.
    • Pier Paolo Saviotti the Research Director in INRA Grenoble and in IDEFI, Sophia Antipolis.
    • Spiro E. Stefanou a Professor of Agricultural Economics at Penn State University.
    • David Zilberman a Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at U.C. Berkeley.
  • One of the major objectives for the funding period was to increase the number of annual submissions to the journal. A viable pipeline of articles is a critical indicator of the vitality and viability of a journal and also an indicator of the continuing importance of its field of interest. AgBioForum's article submission rate increased by 76% during the funding period. The ongoing recognition of AgBioForum by libraries and academic indexes made AgBioForum an increasingly attractive vehicle for prospective authors to disseminate their research. Using the Social Science Citation Index, which ranks journals according to their citation rate, AgBioForum has a calculated impact factor of 0.382. Such factor places AgBioForum near the top of all agricultural economics journals, despite its short tenure.
  • AgBioforum has continued to grow its North America audience. In 2003, 20% of the hits to the website came from US educational institutions and 17% from US commercial users.
  • AgBioForum has also continued to expand its international audiences. In 2003, readers from 131 countries accessed articles published in AgBioForum. European countries include the UK (3,649 unique visitors), France (4,335 unique visitors), Germany (2,167 unique visitors), the Netherlands (1,517), and Italy (970) among others. Top Asian countries accessing the site include Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China among others.
  • Unique visitors to the site numbered 52,322 in 2002 and 65,010 in 2003 - an increase of 24%. Overall hits to the site also grew from the previous two years. In 2003, there were 1.2 million hits to the site.
  • Over the funding period, the linkability of ABF in the WWW has increased dramatically. ABF's site popularity is high. AgBioForum is now listed on the top WWW search engines, including: Altavista, MSN, Alltheweb, AOL, Excite, Google, Iwon, Looksmart, Lycos, overture, Netscape, and Yahoo. Typing in the keyword "AgBioForum" generates from 6,910 (Google) to 18,100 (Yahoo) links to our site. This linkage rate has drastically increased from 2001, at which time the same key word generated 773 (Yahoo) to 1,980 (Google) links. This is an increase of 900%.
  • AgBioForum continues to be added to internationally recognized indexes. AgBioForum is now indexed in the Journal of Economic Literature (JEL), JEL-online, ECONLIT, AGRICOLA, CABI, BIOSIS Previews, and Biological Abstracts. Continued inclusion in these indexes will ensure the future vitality and continuing success of the journal. To understand the impact of inclusion in these indexes it is instructive to look at their reach. BIOSIS Previews is the reference database in the life sciences. Coverage includes traditional areas of biology, such as botany, zoology and microbiology, as well as related fields such as plant and animal science, agriculture, pharmacology and ecology. The BIOSIS Previews database includes the contents of Biological Abstracts (1969 to present). In addition, the BIOSIS databases are used by researchers, librarians, information specialists, product development experts, competitive, intelligence professionals, faculty, students, legal experts, government officials, and venture capitalists.
Technical Goals

  • A new server software platform was added to existing capabilities in order to simultaneously host the AgBioForum and IMBA sites and provide faster, more secure access.
  • Enhanced AgBioForum's databases to facilitate timely information from readers to authors.
  • Completed the first version of an automated, web-based review process that is being used in ABF. The new web-based process eliminates much of the communication/documentation needed that has been done manually to date. Authors are able to track the progress of their manuscript throughout the review process online. Reviewers are able to access articles and provide feedback online as well. Development of additional features that facilitate the work of the editor, advising editors, managing editors and reviewers was completed in this funding period.