Executive Editor’s message

Digital object identifiers

I am writing my message today from my newly set-up home office. Yes, you guessed it, I am working from home now due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic social distancing recommendations.

For those of you who do not know, I live in Canada, which is now essentially “closed”. So much change has happened in so many aspects of everyone’s lives over the past weeks and months. Sometimes change is good, but the change lately has been uninvited. I was unable to attend the AASV Annual Meeting in Atlanta, but I hope that those of you who did attend enjoyed the meeting. It must have been dramatic foreshadowing to chair the Journal of Swine Health and Production Editorial Board meeting remotely via video conference because little did I know that virtual meetings were going to be my new normal, an uninvited change. But, all this change lately is not going to be our forever normal. I hope that by the time my message reaches you that you are all well and that we have turned the corner with respect to our global COVID-19 control efforts.

One new invited change has been introduced at the Journal of Swine Health and Production. We are in the process of introducing digital object identifiers (DOIs) to our JSHAP peer-reviewed publications. Essentially, a DOI is a digital fingerprint for an electronic object. The use of DOIs is favored over the use of URLs as it is a more permanent and reliable digital link to an object, such as our published manuscripts. Additionally, DOIs are favored over URLs because it is easier to accurately link an object with other digital information such as citations, article corrections or retractions, and supplementary materials, to name a few. Even though the Journal of Swine Health and Production has been available online since 2007, the introduction of DOIs to our publications will increase accessibility. The journal staff is excited to see this implemented – watch for more details in the near future.

Terri O’Sullivan, DVM, PhD
Executive Editor