Reflecting on the last 12 months here at JAMA Neurology, I am struck by just how much the journal continues to thrive, thanks in large part to all of you. While we continued to receive a number of high-quality submissions related to COVID-19, it felt more like prepandemic business as usual, as we published a wide-range of articles across a diverse set of neurologic disorders. I want to deeply thank all of the journal’s editors, editorial board members, authors, and peer reviewers (who are listed elsewhere)1 for their tremendous contributions in 2022.
Most importantly, I want to express my gratitude for all of you, our readers, who enable the journal to help inform the field when our online issue is released every Monday. We know that you have many choices for sources of information, and we are humbled that you continue to make JAMA Neurology a priority. Without our readers and the tremendous feedback you provide, the journal would not have been able to be so successful over the 6 years our team and I have been fortunate to steward it.
This year, the journal’s impact factor reached a record high of 29.9. With that increase came a rise in the overall quality of the manuscripts that were submitted, including many important clinical trials and observational studies.2-6 The 2380 manuscripts submitted this year (Table) required the editors to remain highly selective, yielding a 9% acceptance rate for all manuscripts and 7% for research manuscripts. This selectivity was met with a continued commitment to rapid turnaround times to best serve the journal’s authors. In 2022, decisions were sent to authors in a median of 4 days without peer review and 33 days with peer review.
Authors choose to publish in JAMA Neurology for a variety of reasons, but many have shared that the tremendous dissemination and visibility of articles published in the journal are what drive their decision to submit their manuscripts to us. More than 6.2 million article views and downloads and nearly 13 000 news media mentions highlighted the articles published this past year to a broad audience, leading many articles to receive high Altmetric scores (measures of news and social media attention).3,7,8 More than 110 000 people receive our weekly electronic Table of Contents free of charge, and many of these highlights are also disseminated to more than 113 000 social media followers, including on our website, jamaneurology.com.
A number of important changes have taken place during the last year. The addition of our new Associate Editor for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Ashley Rawls, MD, MS, has facilitated an improved focus and increased rigor in these important areas. Her work with editors in similar positions across the JAMA Network continues to improve the quality of JAMA Network journal publications. In January 2023, a new public access policy was launched across the JAMA Network,9 allowing authors of original investigations to deposit their accepted manuscript in a public repository of their choosing on the day of publication; this policy will allow authors to comply with open access mandates from funders and supports the principle of sharing key research results broadly.
Those of us on the editorial team feel fortunate to be able to play a role in producing this incredible journal. Our Editorial Manager, Kate Denevan, along with a wonderful support team at JAMA Network headquarters in Chicago, helps us maintain the high quality of responsiveness and attention to detail that authors and readers value. I also want to thank Maulik P. Shah, MD, MHS, as he leaves our leadership team after serving as the editor of Continuing Medical Education from 2017 to 2022 and of Clinical Challenges from 2022 to 2023. As has been our tradition, a group of Deputy Editors and Associate Editors and I meet weekly to discuss and debate all manuscripts that are being considered for publication. In these meetings, which so many of us view as the highlight of our week, we continue to focus on asking what readers would find highly relevant and valuable across the broad spectrum of the article types we feature in research, review and education, and opinion. We believe that using reader interest as our true north allows us to best serve the journal and all of its contributors.
As I have stated many times, at the end of the day, this is your journal. If you have any suggestions or comments as to how we can make it better or allow it to more fully suit your needs, please do not hesitate to reach out and give us your feedback. In the meantime, please once again accept my humble gratitude and thanks for your support of the journal during a successful 2022. We look forward to another spectacular year.
Published Online: March 20, 2023. doi:10.1001/jamaneurol.2023.0262
Conflict of Interest Disclosures: None reported.
