Domestic Animal Endocrinology Rooted in the CVM


Editor’s Note:

With global impact in the field that continues to this day, Domestic Animal Endocrinology was created in the Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology nearly 35 years ago. Domestic Animal Endocrinology accomplished a number of technical firsts with respect to internet-based publishing. Indeed, technical practices adopted early on ultimately were reflected in publication practices of other scientific publications across a host of disciplines.

The College is proud to recognize this important and historically relevant contribution to science and to those whose vision and dedication to this discipline made it happen.

The following is Dr. James Sartin’s account of how this important, scholarly publication was started at the college:

A new scientific journal, Domestic Animal Endocrinology, was developed in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology in 1983. A group of five endocrinology faculty agreed to launch a new journal dedicated to endocrine research in animals of agricultural and veterinary significance. 

James Sartin and Robert Kemppainen from Physiology and Pharmacology, John Pritchett from Zoology, and Dennis Marple and Hardin Rahe from Animal and Dairy Science pooled personal funds and launched the new journal. A call for papers and subscription notices were mailed. An undergraduate student at Auburn designed the cover for the journal. Surprisingly, the manuscript submissions arrived quickly along with the first check for a library subscription from the Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Kemppainen handled subscriptions and business, Dr. Marple was production editor, and Dr. Sartin served as scientific editor. 

On a Saturday morning in January 1984, we gathered in a teaching laboratory in Physiology and Pharmacology, packaged the journals in envelopes and applied mailing labels to the envelopes. Domestic Animal Endocrinology was born. 

By the late 1980s, the journal was the highest-ranked journal in the ISI Veterinary Medicine category. The journal was later moved to the ISI Dairy and Animal Science category where it also spent time at the top of the list. In the early 1990s, the workload was becoming a burden, so the journal was sold to Butterworth Heinemann publishing company for professional production and advertising assistance. A few years later, Elsevier acquired Domestic Animal Endocrinology

Domestic Animal Endocrinology was at the forefront in utilizing the possibilities of the Internet. In 1994, we launched a gopher server with the help of the CVM computer group, then quickly thereafter, a World Wide Web platform. 

In early 1995, we began receiving manuscripts via email. Also in 1995, the computer group at the CVM made a form to receive manuscript reviews from the web. The reviewer pasted reviews into the form, pushed a button and the review was emailed to the editor. Unfortunately, the faster delivery of manuscripts to reviewers did not improve manuscript review times as much as we hoped. 

The journal provided an award for outstanding graduate student papers published each year and published special issues of review articles from international meetings. Domestic Animal Endocrinology grew from a quarterly publication to eight issues per year. By any measure of success, Domestic Animal Endocrinology had become a major journal in its discipline. 

Over the years, a number of Auburn University faculty were a part of the journal. Frank (Skip) Bartol, Dale Coleman, Don Mulvaney and Tim Braden served as associate editors, and others served as editorial board members and reviewers. 

After 25 years as editor, Dr. Sartin gave up the editorship. Although Domestic Animal Endocrinology is no longer housed at the Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine, the two will always be linked. 

For more information, visit: www.journals.elsevier.com/domestic-animal-endocrinology