In an Anniversary Year, Diabetes Care Takes a Selfie

This issue marks Diabetes Care's 40th anniversary.The journal's first issue appeared in January 1978, with Jay Skyler as the cofounding Editor in Chief (EIC).Five of the 14 contributions to the issue concerned urine testing for glucose (1), and we were all much younger.To commemorate this historic event we will present in an upcoming issue, as a "Profile in Progress," the story of this no-longer-young journal and how, over time, it has evolved into a life of its own, transcending the many individuals who have worked for and contributed to it.In recent January issues of Diabetes Care it has been customary for the EIC to comment on the state of the journal (2).On this occasion, having completed my first year in this role, I propose to begin by celebrating the announcement made in July that Diabetes Care had earned the highest impact factor ever attained by an American Diabetes Association (ADA) journal.The journal's score for this index of influence increased from 8.9 the prior year to 11.9 in 2017, higher than that of all other journals focused exclusively on diabetes.It is a remarkable increase, and if I were a crafty politician I would claim all credit because it was announced soon after my appointment as EIC.But, in truth, this achievement resulted from the work of William T. Cefalu, the outgoing EIC, and the outstanding associate editors (AEs) and editorial staff during the last 2 years.It is likely also related to the increase of interest in diabetes itself.The diabetes community is clearly looking to us to present the newest and best research and commentary.I believe that in 2017 we have been able to meet that expectation, with articles that match or exceed those in previous years.Moreover, circulation of the journal's print editions remains high, the website received 12 million page views in the last year, and our financial status continues to satisfy our managerial colleagues in the ADA.And, just possibly, we can do even better.How can we improve in 2018?To lay a plan, it may help to consider who we represent and what we aim to accomplish.The ADA, Diabetes Care, and the greater diabetes community are all composed of people with widely varying backgrounds, interests, needs, and skills.Among the ADA's several journals, Diabetes Care holds a central position between the laboratory and animal studies presented by Diabetes and the clinical topics featured by Clinical Diabetes and Diabetes Spectrum.We are expected to inform our readers how insights from basic research can be translated, through clinical research, into better care for people with diabetes.To address a question often posed to medwhat is Diabetes Care looking for in a submission?dI offer the following answers.We are interested in all kinds of human scientific inquiry regarding diabetes: epidemiology, physiology, pharmacotherapeutics, behavioral interventions, health system research, and public health.We aim to report successful translation of science into action, drawing on the work of basic scientists, clinical researchers, clinical endocrinologists, diabetes educators, and other health care specialists.It is a broad range of scientific inquiry and requires a lot of collaboration.We want the best-designed and best-executed studies, with balanced analysis and discussion of their implications.Above all, we value noveltydnew ideas that will lead to greater success in treatment of individual patients.Even a beautifully conceived project may be of lesser interest if it offers nothing new.Starting with these principles, we do not expect to make large changes in format in 2018.This has already been improved and extended in recent years, as was well described in last year's January issue (2).Each issue will include a selection of original articles, some of them highlighted by expert commentaries.Each issue will also contain special features, including review articles and perspectives on topics of high interest, official statements by the ADA, and reports of consensus conferences and expert forums.