Collexis Reviewer Finder Case Study:American Association for Cancer Research

Judy N. QuongASIDIC Spring Conference

March 23, 2010

@2010 AACR

American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)

• Founded in 1907, world’s oldest scientific society devoted to cancer research

• As of 2009, > 29,000 members in 89 countries

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AACR Publications

• 11,000 submissions• 7,500 manuscripts sent out for review – 2 reviewers per manuscript

• 3,300 published articles

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The Old Process

• We rely on a volunteer editorial board• Reviewers identified using our online

submission and review system (EJPress)• Difficult to identify reviewers• Search interface• Expertise profiles not up-to-date

• Time wasted going out to google or Pubmed

• Limited reviewer pool@2010 AACR

Alternatives

• Enhance current system– Had only basic search function– No taxonomy– Require creation and maintenance of

expertise profiles

• Create our own system• Purchase 3rd party system

@2010 AACR

Collexis Reviewer Finder• Designed to easily interface with other systems• Vastly expands the pool of potential reviewers by using

the Collexis BiomedExperts database– Able to indicate editorial board members from

‘others’– Journal-specific– AACR-specific

• The system can be configured to be semi- or completely automated

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Implementation

• Interface with the EJPress manuscript submission system

• Beta test:– subset of editors from each of the 6 journals

given own papers and previously assigned manuscripts

• Training slides and in-person/web-based demos

• Rolled out journal-by-journal

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The Experience• Overall, we consider it a success• Few blips in integrating the two systems

were easily overcome• Easy to use – most users do not have to

modify the default parameters• Wish List– Customizability– Keyword searches

@2010 AACR

@2010 AACR