State of the Journal: 3 Years and Looking Ahead

On July 1, 2000, the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) appointed me as editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS). I followed the footsteps of Dr. William B. Applegate, who was preceded by Drs. David H. Solomon, Gene H. Stollerman, and Paul B. Beeson. From July 1, 2000, to December 31, 2000, the Journal was being moved from Dr. Applegate's editorial office in Memphis, Tennessee, to its new “home” in Los Angeles, California. Thus, my tenure as JAGS' sole editor-in-chief did not begin until January 2001. With this issue of JAGS, I realized that 3 years have swiftly passed—it seemed like a good time to review the past as well as to look ahead. Thus, I would like to highlight many of the changes and innovations that have taken place during these 3 years, acknowledge those who have contributed enormously to the Journal's success, update you on the current status of JAGS, and indicate some future directions that are being considered for the Journal. The single most dramatic and important change experienced by the Journal was moving from the traditional hard-copy submission and review process to the current on-line, Web-based process; this occurred in January 2001. Credit for initiating this innovation should go to the AGS Board of Directors of 2000 whose “marching orders” for the new editor-in-chief of JAGS was to “take the Journal into the future of publishing”—a paperless submission and review procedure. The beginnings of this paperless process had its “growing pains” not only for authors but also for our referees/reviewers, editors, and editorial staff. Despite the expected (and sometimes unexpected) glitches of an electronic world, we all persevered during the difficult first 6 months of using our Web-based system, ManuscriptCentral. Now, it is unimaginable that we could ever go back to the old paper submission/review process. Many of the newer features of the Journal involved reaching out to a wider audience of health professionals who provide care to older adults. We established a separate section for Nursing. Here, we are interested in articles focused on nursing issues, including innovations, service delivery, education, training, policies, and administration. The Drugs and Pharmacology section solicits papers on in-depth reviews of specific treatment or drugs, pharmacology, drug prescribing and related topics, and current or new information from the Food and Drug Administration or industry that might be relevant to the care of older adults. We expanded the former Ethnogeriatrics section to Ethnogeriatrics and Special Populations to attract papers not only on minorities and ethnic groups, but also on other unique elderly populations such as older victims of abuse and older prisoners. Nearly 40% of our paper submissions come from countries other than the United States. To help our readership become aware of and understand many of the unique and different aspects of healthcare delivery outside the United States, we established the International Health Affairs section. With the constant changing of healthcare regulations, policies, reimbursement methodologies, and issues of terminal care—which are often interrelated—it was important to provide a forum for papers addressing these issues. Hence, the former section on Ethics was combined with Public Policy and Medical Economics. We also merged two formerly separate sections, Models of Care and Managed Care, into Models and Systems of Geriatric Care, because these topics seem to be closely related. Last and most recently, we began the section, Old Lives Tales. This section invites readers to submit incidents, experiences, or stories that have been instructive to them or may have saddened or gladdened them as healthcare providers through their interactions with older patients and their families or caregivers. Most of the comments and feedback I have received from members of the AGS and readers of JAGS have been positive remarks on the quality and clinical relevance of the articles published. Part of this success is due to the field of geriatrics advancing and reaching a level of sophistication that parallels other specialties and subspecialties. You—the investigators, teachers, educators, administrators, and leaders—deserve the credit for elevating geriatrics to this high level. The Journal's achievements are also a result of the outstanding reviews and critiques provided by our editorial board members and external referees/reviewers. The quality of our reviews matches those seen in the best medical journals. In addition to the referees/reviewers, the editors of JAGS (deputy editor, associate editors, section editors, and assistant editor) have been extraordinary in their commitment and hard work in performing the difficult task of reviewing each paper carefully, assigning appropriate referees, and making decisions that best reflect the quality and relevance of the paper to our readership. All of this is done outside their regular jobs as academic and practicing geriatricians, with little remuneration. I am extremely fortunate to have such an outstanding group of editors—thanks for a job well done! Finally, the editorial office staff has been super, working nights, weekends, and holidays to ensure that your manuscript is properly uploaded, correctly formatted, and forwarded to me in a timely manner. They have met all publishing deadlines without failure, thus assuring that papers make it to press on time. The staff has responded quickly and courteously to authors' queries and concerns. The editorial staff will continue to strive to serve you better and more efficiently. How's the Journal doing today? Spectacularly, in my humble opinion. Each year for the past 3 years, the total number of submissions has continued to increase, which is reflective of researchers and educators selecting JAGS as the first choice for publishing their work. In 2000, the Journal had 750 submissions. In 2001 and 2002, submissions increased to 900 and 921, respectively. At the current rate of submitted papers, we anticipate that there will be approximately 1,050 submitted manuscripts for Q12003. With the on-line system of submission and review, the turnaround time from submission to final decision has greatly shortened, compared with the old paper process. Unfortunately, because of the rapidly increasing volume of submissions each year, accepted articles have experienced delays in publication date. We are beginning to rectify this delay by more rigorous reviews (thus decreasing the number of accepted papers but increasing the quality of published articles) and expanding the number of printed pages in the Journal each year. We have also enforced strict limitations on the number of text words, graphics (tables, figures, appendices), and references for all manuscripts. Shorter papers will facilitate publishing more articles per issue. In addition, I have also decided to eliminate the “Highlights” section of the Journal, effective with this issue, which will save a few more pages for regular papers. JAGS currently and for many years has been the most cited journal in the world in the area of geriatrics and gerontology. We are proud of this achievement, and such an accomplishment only occurs because of the high-quality papers that the Journal publishes. According to ISI's Journal Citation Reports, for the past 5 years, JAGS has maintained an international ranking for Impact Factor (IF) of between 2 and 5 for geriatric and gerontology journals. The IF compares the relative proportion of articles (in this case geriatrics and gerontology) published in a journal with that of other journals in the same rating category by calculating a numerical rating. Journals in the same category are then ranked by their numerical ratings. A hypothetical example will illustrate how the IF is calculated. To determine JAGS' IF for 2002, the citations received in 2002 to articles published in JAGS for 2000/2001 are divided by the number of source items in 2000/2001, that is, the number of papers published by JAGS in select categories—original articles, reviews, case reports, and articles in symposium supplements but not letters, editorials, abstracts, or commentaries. If JAGS' articles had been cited 500 times by all journals in 2000/2001 (including JAGS), and JAGS published 250 articles (source items) in 2000/2001, the IF would be 2.0 (500 divided by 250). Thus, it can be seen that the IF can be easily changed by increasing the number of citations or reducing the number of source item papers. Some journals have chosen to increase their IF ratings by publishing articles that reference primarily, if not exclusively, their own journal papers! The editors of these journals often write these papers. I bring the IF to your attention because some individuals and organizations place a high level of importance and status on a journal based on the IF rating. You, as the reader, should judge the relevance and importance of the IF, given how it is determined and how it can be easily manipulated. What's in the future for JAGS? I'm a firm believer in the adage, “don't mess with success,” but we can “fine tune” our successes and work on improving those areas that have been somewhat problematical. We plan to continue to improve the quality of papers published with rigorous, scientific reviews of each paper. Quality is the top priority for the Journal; then everything else will take care of itself. I have begun streamlining some of the review process, limiting the number of revisions requested (each revision adds, on average, another 2 to 4 weeks from the time of resubmission and re-review). Papers that are acceptable but have minor format, style, or grammatical deficiencies will generally not require a resubmission (and formal re-review), but the authors will be asked to make the necessary changes/corrections in the final draft sent to me. The publisher, Blackwell Publishing, Inc., and the JAGS editorial office have been discussing the possibility of rapid publication of papers online. Authors would have a choice of publishing their paper on-line within several weeks of acceptance or in the regular hard-copy journal (but not both)—the latter taking several months. This concept is in its early stages, and many factors have to be considered before such a proposal can come to fruition. Whether authors would choose such an option also remains to be determined. It's been a wonderful 3 years serving AGS, JAGS, and you, the readers of the Journal. I hope the Journal has met your expectations. I would be pleased to receive comments and constructive criticisms (as well as things you like about the Journal) by e-mail: ([email protected]), facsimile (310-631-0973), or regular mail (see editorial office address on the masthead page of the Journal). I look forward to my remaining years as your editor-in-chief.