Cooperative Extension Publication Procedure

Owned by Gilbert, Samuel Z - (szgilbert)
Nov 21, 2023
4 min read

Updated 3/17/2018

All Cooperative Extension publications are peer-reviewed. Peer-review allows other experts within the field to review your publication and verify information. Publications that have undergone peer-review are often of higher quality, are better respected, and add to a reliable body of knowledge. Peer-reviewed publications are also necessary to obtain continuing status and promotion. This is a blind peer-review process, so authors may make suggestions for reviewers, however, it is the assigned Associate Editor’s choice of whom to ask to review the document. Reviewer identity is not revealed to the author.

To expedite the production of Cooperative Extension publications, faculty should adhere to the following procedures:

  • AUTHORSHIP

First authorship is restricted to University of Arizona employees. Classified staff must have an extension faculty member as a co-author. Students may be able to publish as a co-author if an Extension faculty member is a co-author – this is at the discretion of the Extension Publications Editor (EPE).  A non-faculty author may be first author, however the faculty member will be listed as the contact person and all correspondence, both prior to and post publication, will be to the faculty member. The faculty member is responsible for informing co-authors. Non-University of Arizona people may be authors, but not first authors and all correspondence and contact is via the University of Arizona faculty member.

An individual must make a substantial, original contribution to the scholarly work to be considered an author.

For older publications being updated, the primary credit will be given to the most recent revision author with an acknowledgment to the original author.

Publications which contain substantial material from another publication(s) are considered to be “adapted” and therefore will not be assigned an AZ number or authorship. The submitting faculty will be listed as the contact and given credit as “adapted by …” The publication may still be listed on the publications website.

If a first time publication is published after an author has retired or left the university, s/he may remain an author, but a current Extension faculty member must also be an author and will be listed as the contact person.

  • SUBMISSION

Author will submit their publication as a word.doc to the FastTrack review website where s/he will enter the data, including proposed reviewers (with email addresses).  If the author does not have a username and password for the FastTrack site, contact the EPE.

EPE contacts the appropriate Associate Editor to start the review process.

  • REVIEWS AND DISTRIBUTION

Associate Editor, with recommendation from author, decides on appropriate reviewers for publication and sends out for review via FastTrack. A minimum of 3 reviewers is required with one out-of-state reviewer recommended. (If the author has any questions about the status of the
reviews, the author should first check the status on FastTrack before contacting the Associate
Editor directly.)

After reading the reviewer’s comments, Associate Editor either accepts or rejects publication via FastTrack.  The FastTrack system will automatically forward an email notifying the author of the decision.  The email will include reviewer’s comments.

If accepted, the author makes revisions and addresses, in writing, each comment made by reviewers, attaches reviewer comments (and response to them) to final version and emails it all to the Associate Editor.  This is NOT done through the FastTrack system but rather through normal email.

The Associate Editor reviews final draft and if acceptable, forwards all material to the EPE via email. The EPE will follow up with the Associate Editor via email. Authors may appeal an Associate Editor's decision directly to the EPE.

If rejected, the author may have the opportunity to resubmit.  This decision will be made by the Associate Editor.

The publication must be available electronically to CALS CCT for distribution and archival purposes.

CALS has the right to distribute the publication even if another source is also distributing the publication.

If the publication is a training manual that needs to be distributed only to people attending a training, the material can be distributed by the agent/specialist, however, CALS CCT must be given an electronic copy of the material for archival purposes.

An author always has the option to not use the Extension peer review process (in which case it would not be a CALS publication) and have the publication reviewed from an outside source.

The EPE gives final approval for publication and distribution to the CALS CCT.

  • PUBLICATION

Once approved, the final draft will be sent to the EPE ensuring all review feedback is incorporated or addressed. The publication is then put on the Extension template and given to the author to ensure accuracy and correct formatting.  Once the author approves the templated draft, the EPE will work to have the final publications reviews for ADA Accessibility and then uploaded to the Publications repository on extension.arizona.edu.

The author will be notified once the publication is active on the site.

  • FOLLOW-UP

EPE initiates a review every two to five years (depending upon publication’s content) for content accuracy and relevance.

Corresponding/first authors who are current employees are encouraged to update their original publications.

Authors wishing to update other authors work should contact the original author if possible to collaborate on an update.

If an original author cannot update the original publication, new authors are encouraged to write a new publication, with new title and give reference to the original publication where appropriate.

Updates that do not require significant content changes will not require re-review; updates that require significant content changes will require official review; review status will be determined by the submitting author and the EPE.