Diabetes Care: Moving (a Little) in the Winds of Change

Upon completion of my first year as Editor-in-Chief of Diabetes Care , and on behalf of our Editorial Board and staff, it is time to consider our success and evaluate the challenges ahead. Also, after 30 years, it is appropriate to thank our founding Editor Jay Skyler, who reflects on the history of the journal in a separate Editorial in this issue (1). First, I am pleased with the very smooth transition of the journal, which was achieved with very little, if any, increase in turn-around time of manuscripts or publication delays. This was obviously due to the continuation of the tenure of many of the Associate Editors from the previous editorship and, most importantly, the retention of our outstanding team in the editorial office. The journal’s continued success can be judged by the higher and progressive rise of its impact factor, its worldwide readership, and its increasing submission rate. The latter must reflect increased funding for clinical research in diabetes over the last few years. While we are delighted with this increase, it presents new challenges, such as a 75% rejection rate, resulting in some disgruntled authors. Inevitably, many well-written manuscripts on well-conducted studies do not meet our priorities at the time of submission. This has resulted in a greater portion of manuscripts being rejected without full peer review, although an Associate Editor or I will have always reviewed the manuscript, and the short decision time may be a benefit. We continue to …