© 2008 American Thoracic Society doi: 10.1164/rccm.200801-074ED
Performance and Continuing Evolution of the AJRCCMAmerican Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine The AJRCCM continues to be the preeminent international journal in respiratory, critical care, sleep, and environmental medicine. Our impact factor rose to its highest level ever for 2006, the last year reported, being at 9.1. This is the first time that the impact factor for the AJRCCM has been above 9, a major and important achievement for the Journal. Despite issues with the level of funding from the National Institutes of Health in the United States, we processed a large number of high-quality research submissions, 1,841, during 2007. As in previous years, the largest number of submitted and published manuscripts came from the United States. However, approximately 70% of our submitted articles were from outside the United States, underlining the truly international nature of the Journal. Similarly, the majority of accepted manuscripts also came from outside the United States. The acceptance rate for the AJRCCM is presently 17%, a highly competitive situation, but no worse, and, in some cases, even better than, other major subspecialty journals (1). Our statistics for manuscript handling continue to improve. The lag time from submission to first decision averaged 30 days during 2007. However, this figure is somewhat misleading in that approximately 15% of our manuscripts are directly rejected after review by the editors. Directly rejected manuscripts include those that fall outside the focus of the Journal on translational and clinical studies relating to pulmonary, critical care, sleep, and environmental medicine. Manuscripts are also directly rejected if there is little chance that they will ultimately be accepted at the Journal. Although authors may be disappointed that they don't receive formal reviews on their paper, we believe that this direct rejection process is helpful since it permits the authors to submit their manuscript without delay to an alternate journal. Our publication lag, the time from acceptance of a manuscript until it appears in print, has averaged 2.35 months over the past year, which puts us in the top tier of biomedical journals in terms of this parameter. Although the AJRCCM continues to do well in publishing the most important manuscripts in respiratory, critical care, sleep, and environmental medicine, the editors believe that we can do even better in this core mission. In particular, we are committed to publishing the best work not only in respiratory and critical care medicine but also in environmental and occupational health as well as sleep. In particular, we hope that investigators recognize that the AJRCCM is the most appropriate venue not only for critical care articles relating to pulmonary issues, such as acute lung injury and mechanical ventilation, but also is the preferred journal for contributions relating to nonpulmonary issues, such as sepsis and acute kidney failure. Similarly, we have added a second Associate Editor to handle contributions focused on sleep and control of breathing. Our submissions in these areas have been increasing and we hope that this trend continues. Finally, attracting more articles in environmental and occupational health remains a priority for the AJRCCM. The AJRCCM publishes a substantial number of observational studies. There has been increasing attention concerning the quality of such research and the optimal manner of reporting their results. The STROBE initiative (Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology) has recently presented its recommendations to improve the quality for reporting of observational studies (2, 3). In its statement, the STROBE initiative presents a 22-item checklist that should be addressed in reports of observational studies. While completion of this checklist is not mandatory for submission of observational studies to the AJRCCM, we strongly recommend that authors review this document in preparing their manuscripts as following these guidelines will substantially strengthen their reports. Since 2005, the AJRCCM has required that clinical trials be registered according to ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors) guidelines (4, 5). While all randomized clinical studies do not need to be registered, those in which there was a medical intervention and clinical outcomes were determined should be registered. The safest course is still registration for studies that investigate physiologic or cellular mechanisms, with endpoints that are not directly clinical relevant. However, the editors will judge the need for registration for such trials on a case-by-case basis. The AJRCCM would not be successful without the dedicated assistance of our reviewers. Last year, 2,431 reviewers considered manuscripts for the AJRCCM. We now provide continuing medical education certificates to our reviewers, and a total of 5,877 were sent out during 2007. The Journal should provide a forum for communication between the readership and authors of articles that appear in the AJRCCM. We welcome letters that comment on articles published in the Journal. The fundamental goal for the AJRCCM is to publish the most important, useful information in respiratory, critical care, sleep, and environmental medicine. While it is gratifying that almost 2,000 articles per year are submitted to the AJRCCM, there are still superb articles published in our core areas that have never been sent to the Journal. Authors choose their journals based on many considerations, but we sincerely hope that they realize that the AJRCCM is truly interested in publishing the highest quality manuscripts in a broad range of translational and clinical topics relating not only to respiratory and critical care medicine but to sleep and environmental issues as well. FOOTNOTES Conflict of Interest Statement: E.A. has no financial relationship with a commercial entity that has an interest in the subject of this manuscript. REFERENCES
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