JDS Quarterly Update — Fall 2025

Publishing relevant papers for distillers has slowed. As the industry experiences a slight decline, there is a growing need for solid information and a quality control mindset to help distillers become the best spirits producers possible. That was the basis for creating the Journal of Distilling Science (JDS), dedicated to a single field. While it took off slowly during the COVID-19 pandemic, it has remained a steady work in progress and, like other journals, has experienced its own ups and downs. At the time, it was to be associated with the newly emerging Society of Distilling Scientists and Technologists. Now it is the new Society of Spirit (SOS) that is linked to the journal. We have a growing body of members dedicated to promoting the best within the industry and assisting each other to attain that goal.

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The world of scientific publishing has been fraught with controversy in recent years. Some lead editors have resigned from mainstream journals because they lost confidence in their committees and rejected the publishing houses’ big-business, profit-driven ideologies. Moreover, many journals today suffer from poor peer-review integrity, if any at all. This is made worse by the “publish or perish” mentality, which has grown out of proportion. Even with open-access journals, some publishers demand large payments from authors to publish their work. That approach used to have to be labeled “as (an) advertisement” in some key U.S. journals.

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When I published my own work, colleagues in the industry noted that for some biochemical journals, only 10 percent to 15 percent of submitted manuscripts conveyed significant new findings or insights. That was in the 1980s! One wonders if that is even less these days. With AI now taking a more dominant role in searching the burgeoning/voluminous literature, it is easy to draft papers without one’s own thought going into the process. Sadly, we are seeing this happen more frequently, including withdrawals of published material when it turns out cited articles do not exist. Even without any apparent involvement of AI, this journal’s resolute and esteemed (and unpaid) reviewers have rejected several “original content” papers based on poorer than expected entries. If you persist with a “publish or perish” mentality, please publish elsewhere.

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The JDS is for publishing high-quality original material. We also seek reviews; however, a review without critical input, insight and commentary from author(s) is simply a base summation of the literature and studies involved in that topic’s discovery. It becomes a simple citation list only. It needs more, much more. Original works need to be clear, succinct, and relevant to distillers. A few submitted — and later rejected — manuscripts were strong in parts but rambling elsewhere or tried to tie too much together.

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A key concern for the distilling industry is the clear lack of quality control methodology manuals for distillers. Brewers and winemakers have volumes of information to assist them in producing quality beverages. The Society of Spirit and several other bodies are getting set to introduce a program of quality control oversight and a need for solid, vetted methods of analysis could well form a critical part of publishing within the JDS. Fully peer reviewed of course. If you can thrive without the “publish or perish” imperative and wish to contribute valuable work that better serves distillers — your most relevant audience — then please publish with us. Papers are now published online on an “as accepted and revised as necessary” basis and may also appear in print, either as individual articles or in special topic editions. Advertorial articles are not permitted. It is free to publish your original works and reviews here. The journal is sponsored in part by usually three companies at a time. No advertisements are allowed, though a simple call-out of thanks is made to them for supporting our industry and publication.  

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When first appointed as “Chief Editor,” I chose to drop the “chief” moniker and go with “Lead Editor” instead — grounding us in service to our community, not elevating ourselves above others. Our team of reviewers is far more worthy of reviewing many of your manuscripts than I. So, I hereby thank all the current and former review body members for their input and reviews to date. If you would like to join the board, please let us know. If you would like to author a paper or a coherent review, please reach out to us, or help us build the methods manual section — join in.

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Finally, I would like to encourage reviewers to step up and assume the role of joint editors and to take over any lead role when called for. We have already brought on Dr. Harmonie Bettenhausen as a joint editor and hope she will continue in that role. With volunteer reviewers and editors, the idea is to avoid bias so we can truly review and vet all manuscripts, and allow only the best in educational and relevant content for our distilling audience. If that means only 10-15 percent is publishable, then so be it.

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Respectfully,

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Gary Spedding
‍Lead Editor, Journal of Distilling Science