Journal of Food Protection® Management Committee

Mission Statement: To provide guidance to the Executive Board on matters concerning the Journal of Food Protection®.

Next Meeting

Virtual: TBD

In Person: IAFP 2025

                   July 27, 2025, Huntington Convention Center, Cleveland, Ohio

How to Join

Involvement in committees and professional development groups (PDGs) offers Members the opportunity to share a wealth of knowledge and expertise. Members of committees and PDGs are the architects of the Association structure. They plan, develop and institute many of the Association's projects, including workshops, publications and educational sessions. Technical challenges facing the food safety industry are discussed, examined and debated. Members may volunteer to serve on any number of committees or PDGs that plan and implement activities to meet the Association's mission.

Standing Committees provide operational or functional support to IAFP. Individuals are appointed by the President-Elect and confirmed by the Executive Board. Membership appointments are for 3-year terms on a rotating basis with balanced representation from education, government and industry. All appointments may be renewed for one additional term. Requests for membership on a Standing Committee should be directed to the President-Elect.

Board Responses

2024 Board Response to Recommendations
  1. 1. The Committee recommends the nomination of Teresa Bergholz as incoming Vice Chair.

    Board Response: Board Response: The Board approves this nomination.

2023 Board Response to Recommendations
  1. To reappoint Marion Castle and Valentina Trinetta to another term on the JFP Management Committee.

    Board Response: The Board approved these appointments in Spring 2023.

  2. To appoint Alvin Lee, Erin Crowley, Sarita Raengradub, Dan Weller, and Kerry Bridges to the JFP Management Committee.

    Board Response: The Board approved these appointments in Spring 2023.

  3. To create a yearly award or recognition for outstanding peer reviewer(s) for the journal, which the scientific editors will develop criteria and select.

    Board Response: The Board approves this idea and would suggest establishing criteria and rubric for review by the Board.

  4. To create a statement or policy restricting and/or discouraging the use of colloquialisms or slang in JFP, which will be based upon the practice of the Annual Meeting Program Committee and enforced by the scientific editors.

    Board Response: The Board approves and recommends that this guidance be incorporated into the Instructions for Authors for JFP.

2022 Board Response to Recommendations
  1. 1. To reappoint Dr. Lauren S. Jackson as Scientific Editor to JFP for another 4-year term.

    Board Response: Agreed

  2. 2. To appoint Dr. Ian Young as Vice Chair of the JFP Management Committee.

    Board Response: Agreed

  3. 3. To express the interest and eagerness of the JFP Management Committee to work more closely with the IAFP Foundation to explore ways to provide means of affording article publishing charges for those who may be in situations or institutions where they cannot afford it.

    Board Response: Agreed. Additional research and investigation needs to take place. We suggest committee members work with the Foundation Committee to develop a proposal.

2021 Board Response to Recommendations
  1. 1. To reappoint Joshua Gurtler as a Scientific Editor to JFP for another 4-year term.

    Board Response: Agree.

  2. 2. To recognize and provide an award to Didi Loynachan for her many years of stellar service to IAFP and JFP.

    Board Response: Agree. Didi will be duly recognized.

  3. 3. To recognize and provide an award to Elliot Ryser for his many years of stellar service to IAFP and JFP.

    Board Response: Elliot will be duly recognized.

  4. 4. To express the interest and eagerness of the JFP Management Committee to work more closely with the Executive Board in the process of partnering with a big publisher and transition of the journal to an open-access model.

    Board Response: Agree. The JFP Management Committee Chair will be involved in the review of proposals.

2020 Board Response to Recommendations
  1. The Committee requests help of the new Diversity Council to increase diversity and representation of underrepresented groups within JFP authorship.

    Board Response: The Board will inform the Diversity Council of this request.

  2. The Committee asks the Board to reappoint Panos Skandamis to another term as Scientific Editor.

    Board Response: Agree.

  3. The Committee asks the Board to affirm the selection of Matthew Moore as Vice Chair of the Committee.

    Board Response: Agree.

  4. The Committee wishes to solicit support from the PDGs in encouraging members to submit ideas for review articles to be published in JFP.

    Board Response: Agree.

2019 Board Response to Recommendations
  1. The Committee recommends that a comprehensive review be conducted on the overall quality of the experience our JFP authors are receiving through their engagement with the Journal. This includes how long it takes to go from approval to publication, the quality, and calibration of reviewers' comments and should also include comparison to other journals published by similar organizations.

    Board Response: Agree. JFP is undergoing a review of all systems and working to tighten all time frames.

  2. The Committee recommends a new process be initiated to invite targeted authors to write reviews for JFP on specific, high impact/highly relevant and timely topics.

    Board Response: Agree. JFP Editors have already been inviting review papers for publication. Please provide an outline for the suggested, “new process” for Board consideration.

2018 Board Response to Recommendations
  1. In an effort to increase engagement of the Journal with IAFP Members, the Committee would like to recognize the John N. Sofos Most-cited JFP Research Publication Award at the Awards Banquet reception on Wednesday nights during the IAFP Annual Meeting.

    Board Response: The Board would prefer to keep this Award presentation at the Editorial Board Reception.

  2. The Committee would like to explore the use of podcast technology and potentially partner with existing podcasts to further engage members of IAFP and the scientific community in JFP. The podcasts could be 10-–15 minute “interviews” with JFP publication authors, explaining the research in a casual, informative manner.

    Board Response: Agree. Work with staff to implement.

  3. The Committee would like to request the Board approve JFP to require submitting authors to include a “highlights” section in all paper submissions to expand the Journal’s internet discoverability and impact on the scientific community.

    Board Response: Agree. Please implement.

  4. Recommend approval of Fred Breidt as Vice Chairperson.

    Board Response: Agree.

  5. Recommend the Board approve the establishment of a separate JFP Twitter account.

    Board Response: Agree. Work with staff to implement.

2017 Board Response to Recommendations
  1. The Committee would like to continue to work with Judy Luther to: a. Correlate article downloads with citations to get a better understanding of our metrics and our readership and, b. Run a distribution curve of our citations in conjunction with our impact factor.

    Board Response: Agree

2016 Board Response to Recommendations
  1. The Committee recommends that Sean Leighton be appointed to Vice Chair of the Committee.

    Board Response: Agree.

  2. The Committee recommends that the Board consider and support recommendations that have come out of Judy Luther’s approach.

    Board Response: Agree

  3. The Committee recommends that the Board support the development of a marketing and communication strategy to drive the timely promotion of the Journal. We recommend the allocation of resources to support the involvement of a marketing/communications specialist to lead this effort. Board Response: Agree.

    Board Response: Staff will work with Judy Luther to identify proper resources.

2015 Board Response to Recommendations
  1. The Journal of Food Protection (JFP) Management Committee suggests the following members to join the Board-led sub-committee (chaired by Alejandro Mazzotta) to address changes to JFP: Manan Sharma, Vijay Juneja, Sean Leighton, Elliot Ryser (representing the scientific coeditors). A Non-JFP Management Committee member suggested to be on the taskforce is Steve Kenney.

    Board Response: Approve and request the sub-committee add at least one more academic member.

  2. If an author chooses to publish their article in Journal of Food Protection under the “Open Access” the author should only be charged a flat $3,000 fee and not be charged for additional page charges.

    Board Response: Approved a $2,500 Open Access fee for members and $3,000 for non-member to begin immediately.

  3. Conduct a survey among IAFP membership seeking insights into the choice or reluctance to publish in Journal of Food Protection and Food Protection Trends with questions to be developed by Impact Factor Taskforce, JFP Management Committee, and Food Protection Trends Management Committee.

    Board Response: IAFP staff will look into the cost and determine if the survey should be jointly conducted for both journals or if a separate survey for each is needed. It will need to be determined if the survey has a readership or publishing focus.

  4. Ask the Scientific Editors to establish a formal effort (to be implemented at the Editors’ discretion) to invite authors (either previously published authors in JFP or other prominent authors) to submit a mini-review article to JFP.

    Board Response: The Board agrees and sets a goal that each Editor invite a minimum of two (2) review articles (and obtain) each calendar year.

  5. Request additional data specific to citations used to calculate Impact Factor from Thomson Reuters (as suggested by Judy Luther, consultant to JFP) to provide more data for Impact Factor Committee. Judy Luther should be consulted on specific data request to be made.

    Board Response: IAFP staff will look into what data is suggested and the cost associated with obtaining.

  6. Consider providing an incentive for JFP Editorial Board members to publish in Journal of Food Protection (e.g., reduced or eliminated page charges for an article on a recurring basis).

    Board Response: Board would need to know the benefits of doing so.

2014 Board Response to Recommendations
  1. The Committee recommends the “most-cited paper award” be named the “John N. Sofos Most-cited Paper Award.”

    Board Response: Approved.

  2. The Committee recommends that Vijay Juneja be approved as Vice Chair of the Committee.

    Board Response: Approved.

  3. The Committee recommends the reappointment of Dr. Elliot T. Ryser as Scientific Editor for another four-year term.

    Board Response: Approved.

  4. The Committee recommends initiating the search process for the replacement of Dr. John Sofos for the fourth Scientific Editor position, starting as soon as possible through the end of 2015.

    Board Response: Approved. Terms of all Editors will be studied to determine an appropriate structure.

  5. The Committee recommends that future Scientific Editors serve terms of 4 years for a maximum of up to three consecutive terms for Scientific Editors.

    Board Response: Approved. This will require a change to the IAFP Bylaws and will need to be voted on at the IAFP 2015 Business Meeting.

  6. The Committee recommends to the Board an award be established for the most downloaded publication.

    Board Response: Approved.