The Philippine Journal of Fisheries (TPJF) Editorial Board Meeting was held at NFRDI Conference Room, Quezon City last February 21, 2018. The meeting was headed by Dr. Mudjekeewis D. Santos, Editor-in-Chief of TPJF, and was attended by the board members from the academe, non-government agencies, and BFAR-NFRDI. The Editorial Board members present were: Mary Beth B. Maningas, Ph.D. (Professor, UST), Karl Marx A. Quiazon, Ph.D. (Associate Professor, CLSU), Emmanuel A. Vera Cruz, Ph.D. (Professor, CLSU), Ephrime B. Metillo, Ph.D. (Professor, MSU-IIT), Minerva SD. Olympia, Ph.D. (Retired Professor, UPV), Angel B. Encarnacion, Ph.D. (Agricultural Center Chief II, BFAR-2), Professor Nygiel Armada (COP, ECOFISH), Edgar C. Amar, Ph.D. (Scientist, SEAFDEC-AQD), Mary Jane Amar, Ph.D. (Scientist I, UPV), Cesar Villanoy, Ph.D. (Professor, MSU), and Nerissa D. Salayo, Ph.D. (Associate Scientist, SEAFDEC-AQD).
Dr. Santos presented the accomplishment of the journal last year. He started by showing the screenshot of the editorial board (EB), which can be found on the journal’s website, and jokingly did a roll call of the EB members. This was followed by the update on the journal’s website. The old URL of the website was fisheriesjournal.ph, now the website is being hosted by NFRDI servers, and thus the new website URL is http://www.nfrdi.da.gov.ph/tpjf/. This transfer of servers or hosting is important in order to discriminate TPJF from predatory journals which is more rampant nowadays compared before. Dr. Cesar Villanoy mentioned about the open journal system (OJS) which can be adapted by TPJF. Dr. Santos explained that they have tried to incorporate OJS to TPJF’s website but, unfortunately, NFRDI’s servers were not able to host or maintain OJS. This is something that the journal staff still have to work on.
Promotions of the journal to various conferences were also mentioned:
• 12th Annual Meeting and Scientific Convention of the Outstanding Young Scientists Incorporated (OYSI) last July 11, 2017 at the Manila Hotel with about 150 participants;
• 39th Annual Scientific Meeting of the National Academy of Science and Technology, Philippines (NAST PHL) last July 12-13, 2017 at the Manila Hotel with about 700 participants;
• 14th National Symposium of the Philippine Association of Marine Sciences (PAMS) last July 14, 2017 in Chateau Royale, Nasugbu, Batangas with about 300 participants;
• 49th Annual Convention of the Federation of Institutions for the Marine and Freshwater Sciences (FIMFS) last October 18-20, 2017 in ZSCMST, Zamboanga City with about 300 participants; and
• National Stock Assessment Program (NSAP) Year-End Review and Planning-Workshop last November 2017 in Estancia, Iloilo with about 70 participants
The social media presence of the journal was also mentioned focusing on the journal’s Facebook page with almost 500 likes up to date.
Five special issues/books were published last year under TPJF and these are:
• Pollution in Manila Bay Aquaculture Farms: Status, Impacts, and Remedial Options;
• Fisheries resources and Ecological Assessment of Manila Bay 2012–2015;
• Napoleon Wrasse: Philippine Status Reports and National Plan of Action 2017-2022;
• Napoleon Wrasse: Philippine Status Reports and National Plan of Action 2017-2022;
• Sharks and Rays: Philippine Status Reports and National Plan of Action 2017-2022
As for the regular issue which will be TPJF Vol. 25 No. 1, it will be released early next month online and through printed copies. Screenshots of the journal cover, manuscript title page, body, graphs, and tables were shown to the board members. Dr. Santos then related a conversation between him and Dr. Perry Aliño of UP MSI about the possibility of publishing their book report under the ECOFISH Project re Philippines Status of the Marine Resources Report (SMRR) as a special issue of TPJF. The board members suggested Ms. Moncawe to search for the ISI requirement to make sure that TPJF will be qualified to apply.
The last update is on TPJF’s digitization program. As of now, 27 previous journal issues were retrieved, scanned, and uploaded on TPJF’s website for free access to everyone while five (5) issues are still missing.
As a result of the discussions, the following suggestions came out which serves as TPJF’s 2018 action points:
• The two special issues of Manila Bay which were published under the journal’s print ISSN should be converted to a regular issue. Thus, the two special issues will be TPJF Vol 24 No. 1 and No. 2. This makes the next issue of the journal to be Vol. 25 No. 1 which is composed mostly of NSAP proceedings;
• The Manila Bay regular issues can then be uploaded to TPJF’s website in order to comply with the requirement of E-ISSN which is to be able to provide a URL that shows the recent journal articles, publisher, editorial board, and others;
• Since there will be online releases of the journal, it is a must to apply for DOI;
• To contact the target scientific conferences to offer sponsorship from the journal;
• There will be no fixed term for editorial board membership, rather TPJF will keep adding new members to the editorial board list;
• Regarding the Short Training Course on Proposal and Scientific Writing, Dr. Edgar Amar mentioned that module development is a critical part of this training. The IMRaD (Introduction, Method, Results, and Discussion) format or process flow was highly recommended by Prof Armada to be used or adapted in this training. Beginners level for the technical writing was also suggested;
• Dr. Mary Beth Maningas also recommended that paper submissions should be in publishable format and thus should also be taught to researchers/students;
• Dr. Nerissa Salayo, on the other hand, asked about papers that need major revision. She suggested that the journal should set strict deadlines to authors to review their paper. In most journal, there is a 60-day deadline to revise, otherwise it cannot be accepted anymore;
• To remove the acknowledgement part of each paper sent to reviewers;
• To remind the reviewers if their comments will not be taken into consideration;
• To visit other libraries or institutions that might have the five missing issues of TPJF;
• To make a publication incentive policy for NFRDI researchers; and
• To amend NOO 078
The planning workshop was adjourned by Dr. Santos at around 12:00 NN of the same day, thanking the Editorial Board members and the NFRDI division/center chiefs for their attendance and active participation.