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The Swan Is Singing

Editor in Chief

rstanley{at}uabmc.edu

Let music sound while he doth make his choice; Then, if he lose, he makes a swan-like end, Fading in music.

William Shakespeare

The Merchant of Venice

The past 5 years have been a most memorable time for me. When I became the Editor in Chief of the AJR in July 2003, I felt somewhat overwhelmed by the task at hand and by the challenge of measuring up to the many accomplishments of my predecessors. Dr. Rogers, in particular, turned over a superb journal to me that summer. He and his team in Winston-Salem had clearly enhanced the quality and popularity of the journal.

View larger version (123K): [in this window] [in a new window] [as a PowerPoint slide]   Robert J. Stanley, MD

Now I have the opportunity to reflect on the past 5 years and see what has been achieved. I had decided at the start to convert the journal to a Web-based, online submission, review, revise, and publish format. Although the official version of the journal was already hosted online by HighWire Press of Stanford University starting in 2000, paper manuscripts were still submitted and sent out for review via the U.S. Postal Service. After due diligence, we adopted a Web-based process that has grown and evolved over time to the robust system used today by more than 4,000 authors, reviewers, and editors. It allows us to follow all aspects of the journal process online more quickly and completely.

The first group deserving my heartfelt thanks is the contributing authors from all over the world. Without their submissions, we would not have a journal. They were the ones who had to work with the new electronic process as we proceeded up the steep learning curve. During the brief period of 5 years, I have been impressed with the remarkable evolution of our specialty. I personally read most manuscripts accepted, and I experienced the same educational advance that our many loyal readers did.

During my 5-year term, I had the pleasure of working with the following associate editors: Felix Chew, Howard Forman, Marcia Javitt, James Provenzale, Eric Stern, and, more recently, Patrick Colletti and Mark Lockhart. Their scholarly and consistent approach to the needs and operation of the AJR and AJR Integrative Imaging made for a very smooth operation here in the editor's office in Birmingham. I sincerely thank all of them for their loyalty, dedication, and personal hands-on commitment to the consistency and high-quality review of every manuscript submitted to the AJR.

Over the span of 5 years, the reviewer pool was enlarged 250%; it now includes approximately 400 international reviewers, representing 36 countries. The latter was made possible by the Internet-based transmission of manuscripts. Communication in near-real-time is now possible across the globe, and concerns over paper copy mailing systems are eliminated. Sixteen of our reviewers—superstars all—completed reviews on 12 or more manuscripts during the 12 months of 2007. The average number of reviews per reviewer was 3.7 during that period of time, and the average time to completion of the review has been 17.7 days. This wonderful sharing of time and expertise in the peer review process has greatly contributed to the success of the journal. We simply could not produce a quality journal without this scholarly contribution. For the entire editorial team, let me extend my heartfelt thanks to our entire corps of reviewers.

The absolute number, as well as the percentage compared with all submissions, of original research studies submitted to the AJR has continuously risen over the past 4 years from 653 in 2004 to 891 in 2007, with an expected 930 for 2008 based on April 2008 year-to-date figures. This trend is most encouraging, and I anticipate a rise in the journal's impact factor, which generally lags by 2 years, in 2009 or 2010 due to the increase in citable types of articles.

Other data of great interest to our contributors are the decreasing time to first decision, which for the year 2008 to date is 29.5 days from the day of submission, down from 39.7 for the year 2007, and a reduction in the length of time from final acceptance to publication, from the low of 13 months in 2005 to 5 months in 2007 and the first four months of 2008. This is primarily due to the expeditious manner in which our reviewers complete their reviews. Fine tuning of the processes involved in handling the submitted manuscripts, both at the beginning and the end of the cycle, in the Leesburg office of the AJR, has also shortened the length of the production pipeline.

Manuscripts representing 50 countries have been submitted from January 2007 to April 2008. North America (United States and Canada) makes up 46% of submissions. There is a trend toward more quality submissions from the Far East, with Japan and South Korea at the forefront. China has increased its rate of submissions as well. It is believed that the use of a Web-based submission process has greatly facilitated this global expansion. A deliberate effort on the part of the editorial team to be inclusive has resulted in native-language versions of the AJR appearing in China and Japan, and translated articles from the AJR appearing in the radiology journal of the Spanish Society of Radiology. The Spanish journal is used in many South American countries as well as in Spain.

Nine Figley Fellows and two Rogers International Fellows were hosted for a month at a time in the AJR Birmingham office over the past 4 years, the first arriving in Birmingham in June 2004. All of them were remarkable academicians who made major contributions to the operation of the journal. Some completed projects resulting in one or more publications, and others developed computer programs to make easier such activities as reviewing the medical literature for radiology-related articles published in nonradiology journals. Each individual fellow made unique contributions in her or his own way to make the AJR a better journal. At the same time, they learned much about the submission, review, revise and accept or reject process by daily involvement with manuscripts assigned to them. Several of these fellows gained experience in managing various forms of misconduct, such as duplicate publication and plagiarism, as well as the handling of excessive authorship issues. There is a good chance that many of them will become actively involved with the world of scientific publication in their future careers.

In the Birmingham office, I have been exceptionally well assisted by my editorial assistant, Ann Earwood. She has impressed the Leesburg staff as well and will be kept on as an assistant to the new Editor in Chief and his Section Editors during and after the transition. I am confident that they will all be similarly impressed with her diligence and efficiency.

Finally, let me mention a few of the senior members of the Leesburg, VA, AJR staff who worked closely with me on a daily basis. Susan Cappitelli, the Executive Director of the ARRS, recruited a team of excellent staff persons during my first year on the job and greatly assisted me in the move to electronic publishing. Becky Haines, Director of Publications, joined the team during my second year and became my right-hand person. Her energy and productivity, combined with her knowledge of the world of scientific publications, continuously assisted and enhanced my efforts as editor. I am most sure that she will be a major asset for the incoming editorial team.

Fran Kuecker, Managing Editor of the AJR, contributed equally to smoothing my operation as editor. Her diligence served to assure accuracy and correctness of the journal content. Many other members of the staff with whom I interacted almost daily made the past 5 years a joy. Our copyediting staff is as good as they come. Our liaison person with authors and reviewers has kept the manuscripts flowing seamlessly in the production process. I will miss working with all of the excellent staff. And I extend my best wishes to the incoming Editor in Chief, Dr. Tom Berquist, that he will derive as much personal and professional pleasure and satisfaction as I have. Thank you, all!

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This Article Figures Only Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Stanley, R. J. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Stanley, R. J. Social Bookmarking                      What's this? Hotlight (NEW!) What's Hotlight?