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Rebooted

Year: 2013
Type: article
Abstract: In my first editorial as Editor-in-Chief of The American Journal of Pathology (AJP) in January 2013,1Roth K.A. A new path (and editor) for AJP.Am J Pathol. 2013; 182: 3-4Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF Scopus (1) Google Scholar I introduced new editorial leadership and made a commitment to work tirelessly to once again make AJP the preeminent investigative pathology journal. The year has flown by quickly, and significant progress has been made — a reboot of sorts — to recapture the spirit of discovery and excitement that has characterized AJP throughout its long existence. AJP leadership and staff made a major effort in 2013 to evaluate and improve upon our standard operating procedures (SOPs) to ensure that authors and their submissions were treated professionally and expeditiously. AJP hired additional staff and realigned responsibilities to more efficiently shepherd manuscripts through the review process. A more vigilant approach to tardy reviewers and an emphasis on fair, but rapid, assessment of reviewers' comments by Associate Editors and the Editor-in-Chief led to a dramatic decrease in turnaround times for all categories of articles. We are particularly pleased that the average time to first notification for reviewed research articles, our largest category of submissions, decreased from 42 days in 2012 to 34 days in 2013. For editorially rejected articles (those determined by the Editors to be outside the scope of AJP or of low publication priority), author notification time declined from 12 days in 2012 to less than 5 days in 2013. We continue to assess and revise all aspects of editorial workflow with the goal of providing AJP contributors and reviewers the best possible experience. AJP strives to publish outstanding papers focused on the molecular and cellular mechanisms of disease pathogenesis. The vast majority of such articles are in the format of Regular Articles, containing previously unpublished data that critically address a clearly stated scientific hypothesis. Such articles are the foundation of AJP's success and will always remain its top priority. Quality demands high standards, and as a consequence, not all AJP submissions can be accepted. Although we do not employ an absolute number of manuscripts that we will accept, throughout the last several years, AJP's acceptance rate for regular article submissions was more than 40%. All of these accepted articles were worthy of publication; however, the scientific scope of these articles varied tremendously. We decided to take a more selective approach, and the number of primary research articles published in the AJP has purposefully declined. This past year, we continued to emphasize quality, and the overall acceptance rate decreased to less than 30% of submissions. Of course, this has led to disappointment for some authors whose submissions were not accepted, but we hope that these investigators will remain loyal to AJP as we continue to enhance the impact of this publication. The decision of which articles to accept or reject based on publication priority is the most difficult and subjective decision faced by an editor. Luckily, these decisions are not made in a vacuum, and we rely heavily on the expertise of Associate Editors and accomplished reviewers. In particular, the AJP Editorial Board has always included outstanding scientists and investigative pathologists who have served the journal's mission well. However, Editorial Board turnover had been low in recent years, and in evaluating its roster, we felt that additional diversity in experience, scientific focus, and expertise was warranted. In 2013, we rotated off approximately one-fourth of the members to allow other scientists an opportunity to participate and to promote the careers of junior and mid-career investigative pathologists. We plan to impose more strict term limits on Editorial Board membership in the future and to more regularly re-invigorate the Associate Editor and Editorial Board roster to achieve a balance of experienced wisdom and youthful enthusiasm. At the same time, we will encourage former Associate Editors and Editorial Board members to remain active participants in the AJP as authors and reviewers. In recent years, new tools have emerged in the realms of Omics and disease classification, yielding technological advances to facilitate such explorations in nonconventional yet insightful ways. AJP continues to adapt to the changing methodological landscape and research environment by evolving its scientific scope in response to novel and thought-provoking data that challenge previously accepted diagnostic criteria and disease classifications. Such a scope shift has occurred in response to hypothesis-generating research that sets the stage for the design of critical hypothesis-testing experiments that challenge investigative pathologists to develop new experimental models and creative approaches. At AJP we have set the bar high for non-traditional descriptive investigations of disease pathogenesis, but we welcome all manuscripts with the potential to drive advances in all aspects of experimental pathology. As a further consequence to its evolving scope, AJP strives to increase the number of published review articles. Well written Reviews by leading investigators document milestones of past accomplishments and elucidate new directions for future progress. Rapid changes in our understanding of disease mechanisms, evolving concepts in systems biology, and new informatics approaches to disease classification and diagnosis deserve special attention, and we will attempt to highlight these and other advances in future AJP Reviews. This past year we were pleased to publish two theme issues of review content on Small Animal Imaging2Jelicks L.A. Tanowitz H.B. Albanese C. Small animal imaging of human disease: from bench to bedside and back.Am J Pathol. 2013; 182: 294-295Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (6) Google Scholar in February 2013, organized by AJP Associate Editor and Special Editor Dr. Herbert B. Tanowitz, and Breast Cancer3Coleman W.B. Breast cancer personalized medicine: challenges and opportunities.Am J Pathol. 2013; 183: 1036-1037Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (5) Google Scholar in October 2013, organized by Special Editor Dr. William B. Coleman. Look to the February 2014 issue for the Liver Pathobiology Theme Issue, curated by AJP Associate Editor and Special Editor Dr. Satdarshan P.S. Monga. The AJP has made efforts to increase the visibility of the Journal. Commentaries and news releases continue to focus attention on impactful research published in AJP. In addition, each month we select two Regular Articles for immediate free access. These Editor's Choice articles represent scientifically interesting manuscripts that should appeal to a broad audience. Since review articles often appeal to readers wishing to gain insights into a rapidly developing field, all of our Reviews, Mini-Reviews, Perspectives, and Editorials are immediately accessible to online readers. This past summer, AJP began delivering information and content to its readers in a variety of new formats. Elsevier launched a free app for the iPad, which enables anyone to view the Table of Contents and article abstracts, and subscribers can access the complete content (http://ajp.amjpathol.org/content/mobileaccessinstructions). AJP also made its debut on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/AJPathology) and on Twitter (@AJPathology). Both forums offer frequent posts that alert followers to new issues of AJP, free articles, timely research papers, and events and information of interest to experimental pathologists and anyone interested in disease mechanisms. Well over 100 people follow AJP on Twitter, more than 500 people ‘like’ AJP's Facebook page, and authors are notified when their papers are featured. Subsequent sharing of posts has resulted in some articles reaching almost 1000 individuals. We view our foray into social media as a way to increase the visibility of AJP, to showcase the outstanding work of the journal's authors, and to provide an online community for researchers in investigative pathology. In total, the AJP has made great progress over the last year, and we look forward to 2014 filled with exciting science and interesting articles. We hope you are as excited as we are about AJP version 2.014. Your continued support and involvement with the Journal is much appreciated.
DOI: 10.1016/j.ajpath.2013.11.001
Language: English
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $2,800
OpenAlex ID: W87989709
FWCI:
Cites: 3
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Related to: 10