Understanding ANR Publications

Peer review is required for any educational material that is 1) published as a UC ANR product, 2) assigned an ANR number, and 3) may be included in the ANR catalog. ANR peer-reviewed materials include publications, curriculum kits, videos, and CD-DVDs.

Content

Peer-reviewed materials should be directed at the needs of ANR clientele. Publications should be written or produced for a lay and/or professional user audience. As much as possible, they should relate research-based information to practical techniques or concepts that the clientele can use. Conference proceedings, textbooks intended primarily for academic audiences, primary reports of technical methods, research results and other academic research materials are not considered appropriate as ANR-numbered publications. However, under certain circumstances the Communications Advisory Board may evaluate the appropriateness of those projects.

Publications and other materials should contain original expression of content; the information may be commonly known or widely accepted and published or disseminated in other sources, but the expression of that information in the ANR publication should be the author's own, not merely reproductions or collations from other sources. Publications should also contain sufficient text content to convey extension-related information, techniques or concepts to the intended audience. For example, publications such as pest identification posters or cards should contain practical information about the insects, such as their habits, damage, or controls, or direct readers to other ANR-referenced publications with this information.

Durablity

ANR peer-reviewed materials must be available and useful to clientele over a period of time; this excludes one-time or limited-use materials such as newsletters, meeting handouts, short course materials, and public relations materials. This also excludes cost studies, although information on costs and feasibility of specific commodities may be included by authors as part of more detailed and comprehensive topical publications on a crop or agricultural enterprise; authors and Associate Editors need to ensure that such content is presented so as not to compromise the time-value of the publication.

In addition to the initial peer review, all ANR publications and products in distribution should undergo periodic review at least every five years to determine whether their content is up-to-date and remains accurate or should be revised or discontinued.

Scope

ANR peer-reviewed publications and other products should be intended for statewide or national use, although some regional materials may be acceptable. Materials intended only for single-county or local use or very specialized audiences are not suitable as ANR peer-reviewed publications.

UC authorship

The majority of authors on ANR peer-reviewed publications must be from ANR or the technical editor/coordinator or senior author must be from ANR. If this is not the case then the following is needed:

at least one author must be from ANR; and
there needs to be strong support from an ANR workgroup, statewide program, or coordinating body; and
a reasonable estimate that the product will be marketable and recover costs.