MU is home to AgBioForum — an electronic journal focusing on the economic, social, and ethical implications of agrobiotechnology. The Economics and Management of Agrobiotechnology Center (EMAC) in the Department of Agricultural Economics has published the journal since 1998. Despite its short tenure, AgBioForum has become a leading source of original refereed socioeconomic research on agrobiotechnology with a diverse readership and authorship.
 

The lineup of authors have included world class academic experts but also several CEOs of companies and industry organizations, key government officials from the FDA, USDA, the United Nations, the EU Commission, filmmakers and publishers of media.

The uptake of AgBioForum's research by top scientific journals has been rapid and speaks to the value of its quality. For example, AgBioForum earned a calculated impact factor of 0.382 based on JCR 2001 Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) citations. The SSCI only counts citations from the top international journals in any given category. Based on this calculated impact factor AgBioForum is ranked 6th among leading international agricultural economics journals in 2002 and ranked 5th in 2003.

Fast Readership Growth

AgBioForum has experienced continued and fast readership growth. Usage statistics, generated from the AgBioForum web server logs, indicate that readership has increased rapidly since its inception.

In 2003, approximately 65,000 unique readers visited the website of AgBioForum. Based on statistics through the first quarter of 2004, we expect 95,000 unique readers to visit AgBioForum by yearend — a 46% increase over the previous year. In parallel, the membership of AgBioForum has also steadily expanded currently numbering approximately 4,600 registered members. In all, over 280,000 readers have accessed the journal since its inception.