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Impact Is Everything
EDITOR’S MESSAGE
Impact Is Everything Ziv J Haskal, MD Editor-in-Chief disease. Interventional radiology (IR) will always require a “big-tent” journal that can house diversity, regardless of its dilutional effect on bibliometrics. Here are some of the other things that I, as Editor, focus on:
Defining and housing the current and future IR
June marked the month that Thomson Reuters released the impact factors for scientific journals. The Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology (JVIR) had a notable and very significant jump this year to 2.409 (from 2.149). As an editor, I’m interested in this and other quantitative measures, such as article half-lives, immediacy indices, and Eigenfactors (1). The impact factor is calculated from the mean of citations per manuscript in a calendar year divided by the total papers published in the two preceding years. Despite its dominant position in the world of journal metrics, the impact factor is a single partial metric that captures but one aspect of an academic journal’s universe, the scope of its scientific inquiry, and its vision or goals. We treat, and publish on, nearly every aspect of medicine and From the Department of Radiology and Medical Imaging, University of Virginia School of Medicine, 1215 Lee Street, Charlottesville, VA 22908. Received and accepted July 14, 2015. Address correspondence to Z.JH.; E-mail: ziv2@ mac.com Z.JH. has a royalty agreement with Cook (Bloomington, Indiana); is a paid consultant for W. L. Gore & Associates (Flagstaff, Arizona), Penumbra (Alameda, California), Covidien (Dublin, Ireland), and DePuy (West Chester, Pennsylvania); and has research funded wholly or in part by CeloNova (San Antonio, Texas). & SIR, 2015 J Vasc Interv Radiol 2015; 26:1255–1256 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvir.2015.07.010
science by publishing the highest-quality clinical and basic science and analyses in our field—rapidly and in the best form. With the explosive growth in JVIR submissions, the Journal’s mission is to steer its science toward mirroring the maturity of the specialty. That means an increasingly dedicated focus on prospective protocoled studies, controlled when feasible. My goal is to answer the need to shift away from retrospective reviews and shoulder the effort of hypothesis-driven research—the exemplifier of durable and impactful science. As Einstein once said, “You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.” Shaping the vision for future IR interventions by publishing early or range-finding work that may carry the seeds of tomorrow’s established therapies. The merits of these editorial decisions are only proven over time. Getting it (editorially) right. I depend on our expert reviewers and their rigor, insight, and unflagging efforts in guiding our decisions. We read outside of our journal, solicit feedback from readers and authors, and even analyze the fates of JVIR’s rejected manuscripts to reflect on decisions made. Experimenting with business-related topics and focus pieces, eg, on cost analyses, quality, and economics. These “drier” subjects will need to be mastered in order to demonstrate our meaningful impact on local and societal health care. With such topics, we also increase the numbers of review articles, as well as systematic and meta-analyses. Striving to continually improve the Journal through reader-friendly formats, novel features, and many different avenues of electronic discussion and dissemination, to include 10,000 @JVIRMedia Twitter followers, the JVIRAcess blog (jviraccess.org), JVIR Resource Centers, podcasts, Facebook and Instagram features, upcoming author audio narrations, technical videos, interactive “Ask the Author” and “Ask the Editor” chatrooms on SIRConnect, and many more.
1256
’
Editor’s Message: Impact Is Everything
Keeping the pioneering vision of IR, the “spark” and
“coolness” that drew us all into IR, represented in JVIR every month through reports of unique cases, observations, images, extreme cases, and so forth. As Henry Miller wrote, “Whatever there be of progress in life comes not through adaptation but through daring.”
None of these aspects are captured in an impact factor number. That said, it is still a wonderful affirmation to see this meaningful climb for JVIR. The impact factor further echoes the Journal’s destination status for important research. Our 2015 manuscript submission numbers have, again, hit record highs and are on track for
Haskal
’
JVIR
another record-breaking year—more than 1,200, which is nearly double the number submitted in 2011. Very many of these submissions are from outside the United States, echoing the international status of JVIR. At the same time, we have further shaved our average time to first editorial decision to 22 days. The Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology, by all objective metrics, continues its status as the preeminent journal in interventional radiology. JVIR ¼ impact for science.
REFERENCE 1. Haskal ZJ. JVIR Mille Bornes: a record number of submissions. J Vasc Interv Radiol 2014; 25:163.
Impact Is Everything Ziv J Haskal, MD Editor-in-Chief disease. Interventional radiology (IR) will always require a “big-tent” journal that can house diversity, regardless of its dilutional effect on bibliometrics. Here are some of the other things that I, as Editor, focus on:
Defining and housing the current and future IR
June marked the month that Thomson Reuters released the impact factors for scientific journals. The Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology (JVIR) had a notable and very significant jump this year to 2.409 (from 2.149). As an editor, I’m interested in this and other quantitative measures, such as article half-lives, immediacy indices, and Eigenfactors (1). The impact factor is calculated from the mean of citations per manuscript in a calendar year divided by the total papers published in the two preceding years. Despite its dominant position in the world of journal metrics, the impact factor is a single partial metric that captures but one aspect of an academic journal’s universe, the scope of its scientific inquiry, and its vision or goals. We treat, and publish on, nearly every aspect of medicine and From the Department of Radiology and Medical Imaging, University of Virginia School of Medicine, 1215 Lee Street, Charlottesville, VA 22908. Received and accepted July 14, 2015. Address correspondence to Z.JH.; E-mail: ziv2@ mac.com Z.JH. has a royalty agreement with Cook (Bloomington, Indiana); is a paid consultant for W. L. Gore & Associates (Flagstaff, Arizona), Penumbra (Alameda, California), Covidien (Dublin, Ireland), and DePuy (West Chester, Pennsylvania); and has research funded wholly or in part by CeloNova (San Antonio, Texas). & SIR, 2015 J Vasc Interv Radiol 2015; 26:1255–1256 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvir.2015.07.010
science by publishing the highest-quality clinical and basic science and analyses in our field—rapidly and in the best form. With the explosive growth in JVIR submissions, the Journal’s mission is to steer its science toward mirroring the maturity of the specialty. That means an increasingly dedicated focus on prospective protocoled studies, controlled when feasible. My goal is to answer the need to shift away from retrospective reviews and shoulder the effort of hypothesis-driven research—the exemplifier of durable and impactful science. As Einstein once said, “You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.” Shaping the vision for future IR interventions by publishing early or range-finding work that may carry the seeds of tomorrow’s established therapies. The merits of these editorial decisions are only proven over time. Getting it (editorially) right. I depend on our expert reviewers and their rigor, insight, and unflagging efforts in guiding our decisions. We read outside of our journal, solicit feedback from readers and authors, and even analyze the fates of JVIR’s rejected manuscripts to reflect on decisions made. Experimenting with business-related topics and focus pieces, eg, on cost analyses, quality, and economics. These “drier” subjects will need to be mastered in order to demonstrate our meaningful impact on local and societal health care. With such topics, we also increase the numbers of review articles, as well as systematic and meta-analyses. Striving to continually improve the Journal through reader-friendly formats, novel features, and many different avenues of electronic discussion and dissemination, to include 10,000 @JVIRMedia Twitter followers, the JVIRAcess blog (jviraccess.org), JVIR Resource Centers, podcasts, Facebook and Instagram features, upcoming author audio narrations, technical videos, interactive “Ask the Author” and “Ask the Editor” chatrooms on SIRConnect, and many more.
1256
’
Editor’s Message: Impact Is Everything
Keeping the pioneering vision of IR, the “spark” and
“coolness” that drew us all into IR, represented in JVIR every month through reports of unique cases, observations, images, extreme cases, and so forth. As Henry Miller wrote, “Whatever there be of progress in life comes not through adaptation but through daring.”
None of these aspects are captured in an impact factor number. That said, it is still a wonderful affirmation to see this meaningful climb for JVIR. The impact factor further echoes the Journal’s destination status for important research. Our 2015 manuscript submission numbers have, again, hit record highs and are on track for
Haskal
’
JVIR
another record-breaking year—more than 1,200, which is nearly double the number submitted in 2011. Very many of these submissions are from outside the United States, echoing the international status of JVIR. At the same time, we have further shaved our average time to first editorial decision to 22 days. The Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology, by all objective metrics, continues its status as the preeminent journal in interventional radiology. JVIR ¼ impact for science.
REFERENCE 1. Haskal ZJ. JVIR Mille Bornes: a record number of submissions. J Vasc Interv Radiol 2014; 25:163.