A Look Back at JNM 2013

Dominique Delbeke

Dominique Delbeke

For over 2 years now, it has been my great honor to be editor-in-chief of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine. At this point, I would like to familiarize you not only with our recent publishing data but also with a number of dedicated individuals who make significant contributions to JNM on a regular basis. All of these efforts combine to promote the main mission of JNM, which is to disseminate scientific information to all members of the SNMMI and the medical community at large in a concerted effort to advance the field of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging. Last year was quite a successful one: JNM was ranked the top nuclear medicine journal worldwide (according to data released in the most recent Journal Citation Reports published by Thomson Reuters) and earned an impact factor of 5.774.

In 2013, JNM manuscript submissions from around the world continued at the previous year’s rate of approximately 1,200. The acceptance rate was stable at 28%, and the turnaround time from submission to acceptance continued to be approximately 12 weeks, as targeted. Last year, JNM published a total of 291 articles, including 254 original research articles (133 clinical and 121 basic science), 8 brief communications, 10 continuing education and self-assessment module (SAM) articles, 10 “Focus on Molecular Imaging” articles, and 9 special contributions, 4 of which were practice guidelines. One of these guidelines was on appropriate-use criteria for amyloid PET. Two, on imaging of inflammation and infection with ¹⁸F-FDG and imaging of small-bowel and colon transit, were written in collaboration with the European Association of Nuclear Medicine. The fourth, on hybrid cardiac imaging, was written in collaboration with the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology and the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography.

Forty-six percent of the original research articles published were from Europe, 39% from North America, 12% from Asia, 2% from Australia, and 1% from Africa. The clinical articles were dominated by oncologic topics (51%), followed by neurology (13.9%), new radiopharmaceuticals (10.6%), physics and instrumentation (7.4%), cardiology (6.5%), radionuclide therapy (5.7%), general nuclear medicine (2.5%), pediatrics (1.6%), and infection (0.8%). The topics of the basic science articles were more balanced: oncology (26.3%), new radiopharmaceuticals (24.2%), neurology (22.1%), physics and instrumentation (11.5%), cardiology (6.5%), general nuclear medicine (6.3%), infection (2.1%), and radionuclide therapy (1.0%).

Selection of the articles published in a scholarly journal such as JNM is a team effort between the editor-in-chief, the associate editors, the editorial board, the reviewers, and the SNMMI staff. I want to express my sincere gratitude to the members of the entire JNM team for their time and dedication to our journal. The associate editors were selected in 2012, and I have continued to delegate to them specific manuscripts in their fields of expertise. They also provide invaluable advice when comments from the reviewers are disparate, thus obviating a third, arbitrating, review. In 2013, Dave Mankoff became an associate editor and now also solicits and oversees all continuing education articles, which include the ability to obtain SAM credit. Jonathan McConathy also joined the team as the new editor of the “Focus on Molecular Imaging” series.

Each year, our editorial board members from around the world serve as expert reviewers and recommend myriad colleagues in an effort to continually increase the pool of JNM reviewers. The success of JNM certainly relies on the hundreds of reviewers who provide over 2,500 reviews annually. These integral members of the JNM team assist the editors in selecting high-quality articles for publication and provide all authors with significant insights and recommendations for improving their manuscripts. In addition, I want to thank Harvey Ziessman and Nan Knight of JNM’s Newsline for keeping the readership informed of current trends in nuclear medicine and its relationship to other areas of medicine.

A great deal of hands-on support is required to facilitate all of the contributions mentioned above and to maintain the day-to-day regimen of producing a monthly journal. Fortunately, we have a number of SNMMI staff members with considerable expertise in submissions management, copy editing, printing, advertising, and public relations. Thus, I want to specifically acknowledge the efforts of the members of the SNMMI Department of Communications: Susan Alexander, Steve Klein, Susan Martonik, Paulette McGee, Susan Nadolny, and Mark Sumimoto. These individuals, along with Tom Ebers in the JNM Editorial Office at Vanderbilt, work relentlessly to coordinate the efforts of the entire JNM team and to keep the review and production processes timely and efficient.