JNM Update for 2014

Dominique Delbeke

Dominique Delbeke

For over 3 years, it has been my great honor to be editor-in-chief of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine. I would like to thank all the dedicated individuals who make significant contributions to JNM, including the associate editors, editorial board members, and more than 2,000 reviewers worldwide who volunteer their time. The associate editors were selected in 2012, and I have continued to delegate to them manuscripts in their fields of expertise. I would also like to thank our two newest international associate editors: Prof. Dong Soo Lee from the Seoul National University College of Medicine and Prof. Giuliano Mariani from the University of Pisa. All these efforts combined promote the main mission of JNM: to disseminate scientific information to all SNMMI members and the medical community at large to advance the field of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging. Their contributions helped make last year quite successful. JNM was again ranked the top nuclear medicine journal worldwide (according to data in the most recent Journal Citation Reports by Thomson Reuters) and earned an impact factor of 5.563.

In 2013, David Mankoff became the associate editor for continuing education articles, which include self-assessment module (SAM) credit. At their fall meeting, the SNMMI board of directors moved that all JNM SAM articles be available free of charge to the membership, starting in October 2014. This motion allows SNMMI members to comply with part II of Maintenance of Certification at no charge for the educational materials. To keep the readership informed of promising investigational molecular imaging procedures, Jonathan McConathy, as editor of the “Focus on Molecular Imaging” series, continues to select state-of-the-art topics and authors.

In 2014, JNM manuscript submissions from around the world continued at the previous year’s rate of over 1,100. The acceptance rate was stable at 29%, and the turnaround time from submission to acceptance slightly improved to less than 12 weeks—the target. Last year, JNM accepted 315 articles, including 221 original research articles (123 clinical and 98 basic science), 10 brief communications, 10 CE/SAM articles, 10 “Focus on Molecular Imaging” articles, 13 invited perspectives, 17 letters to the editor, 15 book reviews, 4 editorials, and 2 special contributions. Of these 315 articles, 226 were published last year and 89 are scheduled to appear in early 2015. In addition, in June 2014 we published a 10-article supplement on PET/MR imaging guest-edited by Johannes Czernin.

Forty-three percent of the articles accepted for publication were from Europe, 42% from North America, 12% from Asia, 2% from Australia, and 1% from South America. The clinical articles were dominated by oncologic topics (42%), followed by neurology (15%), new radiopharmaceuticals (9%), general nuclear medicine (8%), physics and instrumentation (7%), radionuclide therapy (7%), cardiology (6%), pediatrics (5%), and infection (2%). The basic science articles were dominated by new radiopharmaceuticals (29%), followed by oncology (26%), physics and instrumentation (17%), neurology (10%), radionuclide therapy (8%), cardiology (8%), general nuclear medicine (2%), and infectious diseases (1%).

In May 2014, we surveyed authors about the JNM submission and peer review processes, online-only content, open access, and how they choose where to submit their articles. We also asked them to rate us in a variety of areas. Forty-one percent of authors who submitted a manuscript between 2011 and 2013 responded to the 28-question survey, including 366 physicians and 288 scientists, as well as technologists, residents, medical students, and radiopharmacists. Most were from Europe (52%), whereas 25% were from North America, 20% from Asia, and less than 4% from South America, Africa, and Australia. Most respondents were pleased with JNM’s submission and peer review process. Of those whose articles were accepted, 57% were very satisfied with the time from acceptance to online availability, 77% were very satisfied with the copyediting, 80% were very satisfied with the reproduction of their figures, and 81% were very satisfied with the responsiveness of the production staff. Of those whose articles were rejected, 45% found the reviewers’ comments helpful, 45% found the Editor’s comments helpful, and 50% were able to publish their papers in another journal. With regard to online-only content, 43% would be pleased if we offered this platform and only 13% would not; however, JNM currently does not have a backlog, so it was recommended that we not move forward with this option. Although most respondents believed it is important that scientific papers be openly available to the public free of charge, only 50% have published in an open access journal and even fewer (16%) are willing to pay a fee to allow immediate open access to the public.

I thank everyone who took the time to fill out the survey. Your feedback is valuable in helping us adapt our services and policies. If you would like a complete copy of the results, please contact Susan Alexander at salexand{at}snmmi.org. I also thank Harvey Ziessman and Nan Knight of Newsline for keeping the readership informed of trends in nuclear medicine, regulatory issues, and molecular imaging publications in other journals. Finally, I want to acknowledge the considerable efforts of the SNMMI Department of Communications: Susan Alexander, Steve Klein, 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.