- Email: [email protected]
Parkinsonism and Related Disorders: Looking back over twenty years
Parkinsonism and Related Disorders xxx (2015) 1e2
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Parkinsonism and Related Disorders journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/parkreldis
Editorial
Parkinsonism and Related Disorders: Looking back over twenty years
People usually celebrate their attainment of maturity at 21 years of age. What about journals? I think 20 years is enough. It is now twenty years ago since “Parkinsonism and Related Disorders” published its first issue. This event was the result of a meeting of the World Federation of Neurology Committee for Research on Extrapyramidal Disease, chaired by Dr. Melvin Yahr. At that time there was one other journal dedicated to the field of movement disorders, produced by the Movement Disorder Society. The WFN considered that there was sufficient interest in extrapyramidal disease for a new publication to enter the arena. It initially appeared under the auspices of the WFN, but is now entirely independent. The new journal was named “Parkinsonism and Related Disorders” Dr. Yahr asked me to be the first Editor in Chief and we established an international editorial board. The mission of the journal was to include research reports, reviews and classical historical items. We tried to reach neurologists all over the world. Volume 1 of “Parkinsonism and Related Disorders” appeared in the summer of 1995; it consisted of 2 issues and 15 papers. It subsequently published four issues a year until 2001 eventually increasing to 12 by 2013. Submissions reached almost 1000 annually by 2014. From 15 manuscripts in 2005 the journal published 368 in 2014. The acceptance rate is now 30%. The number of electronic downloads has doubled since the journal was available online in 2008, to 436.000 in 2014. The publishing editors provided much needed support in the early days, beginning with Paul Carton, followed by Tatjana FischereDriessen, Peter Bakker, Phil Bishop and Virginia Prada pez and Peter Bakker once more. The journal has also been Lo nurtured by a dedicated, good natured and efficient team of editing managers based in Exeter. Initially, although it is hard to believe now, the submissions, and review process were all handled using the mail. We proceeded to submissions with floppy discs over the first ten years, finally moving to online submission in 2005.
The next, and in my view the most important development, was in 2007 when Doctors Pfeiffer and Wszolek accepted my invitation to take over as joint Editor's in chief. They formed the ideal team to move the journal forward from its adolescence to a mature international scientific publication. They were helped in this by the four enthusiastic associate editors whom they recruited: Vincenzo Bonifati (Europe), Jonathan Carr (Africa and the middle east), Robert Rodnitzky (the Americas) and E.K Tan (Australasia). With eight internationally respected editors. submissions increased, and the increase has been sustained. With the new direction the impact factor has gone from 2.21 in 2007 to 4.126 in 2014. At the same time the acceptance rate has fallen to 30%. The editors have managed to recruit an extensive cohort of reviewers, many with sustained enthusiasm over the years. The average time from submission to first decision is 3.5 weeks and to final decision 7.3. This is, in part due to prompt adherence to the time allotted for each step in the manuscript's progress The “Thank the Reviewer” list has grown commensurate with the success of the journal. The publisher allows the journal to publish one ‘open access' paper a month free of charge. The Editors in Chief choose the paper and the handling editor provides the commentary. As the result of an innovative proposal from Dr. Erik Wolters the journal has been able to publish the proceedings of the World Congress on Parkinson's disease and Related Disorders with such speed that it has been possible have the issue inserted into each congress bag at the time of the meeting. The journal editors have been responsible for this quite exhausting late summer task of working to get the manuscripts reviewed, revised and printed within their self-imposed deadline. Increasing age brings few benefits, but in my retirement I can take pleasure in watching my younger colleagues, in particular Doctors Pfeiffer and Wszolek, who have not only achieved great success in their careers, but have at the same time, provided stewardship and dedication as Editors in Chief for “Parkinsonism and Related Disorders”.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.parkreldis.2015.05.026 1353-8020/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Please cite this article in press as: D. CalneParkinsonism and Related Disorders: Looking back over twenty years, Parkinsonism and Related Disorders (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.parkreldis.2015.05.026
2
Editorial / Parkinsonism and Related Disorders xxx (2015) 1e2
Finally, I thank Shamin Babul for her help in the early days of the journal, and Sue Calne for her continued enthusiastic support in dealing with the trials and tribulations of publication through all the developmental milestones from birth to maturity.
Donald Calne E-mail address: [email protected]. 18 May 2015
Please cite this article in press as: D. CalneParkinsonism and Related Disorders: Looking back over twenty years, Parkinsonism and Related Disorders (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.parkreldis.2015.05.026
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Parkinsonism and Related Disorders journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/parkreldis
Editorial
Parkinsonism and Related Disorders: Looking back over twenty years
People usually celebrate their attainment of maturity at 21 years of age. What about journals? I think 20 years is enough. It is now twenty years ago since “Parkinsonism and Related Disorders” published its first issue. This event was the result of a meeting of the World Federation of Neurology Committee for Research on Extrapyramidal Disease, chaired by Dr. Melvin Yahr. At that time there was one other journal dedicated to the field of movement disorders, produced by the Movement Disorder Society. The WFN considered that there was sufficient interest in extrapyramidal disease for a new publication to enter the arena. It initially appeared under the auspices of the WFN, but is now entirely independent. The new journal was named “Parkinsonism and Related Disorders” Dr. Yahr asked me to be the first Editor in Chief and we established an international editorial board. The mission of the journal was to include research reports, reviews and classical historical items. We tried to reach neurologists all over the world. Volume 1 of “Parkinsonism and Related Disorders” appeared in the summer of 1995; it consisted of 2 issues and 15 papers. It subsequently published four issues a year until 2001 eventually increasing to 12 by 2013. Submissions reached almost 1000 annually by 2014. From 15 manuscripts in 2005 the journal published 368 in 2014. The acceptance rate is now 30%. The number of electronic downloads has doubled since the journal was available online in 2008, to 436.000 in 2014. The publishing editors provided much needed support in the early days, beginning with Paul Carton, followed by Tatjana FischereDriessen, Peter Bakker, Phil Bishop and Virginia Prada pez and Peter Bakker once more. The journal has also been Lo nurtured by a dedicated, good natured and efficient team of editing managers based in Exeter. Initially, although it is hard to believe now, the submissions, and review process were all handled using the mail. We proceeded to submissions with floppy discs over the first ten years, finally moving to online submission in 2005.
The next, and in my view the most important development, was in 2007 when Doctors Pfeiffer and Wszolek accepted my invitation to take over as joint Editor's in chief. They formed the ideal team to move the journal forward from its adolescence to a mature international scientific publication. They were helped in this by the four enthusiastic associate editors whom they recruited: Vincenzo Bonifati (Europe), Jonathan Carr (Africa and the middle east), Robert Rodnitzky (the Americas) and E.K Tan (Australasia). With eight internationally respected editors. submissions increased, and the increase has been sustained. With the new direction the impact factor has gone from 2.21 in 2007 to 4.126 in 2014. At the same time the acceptance rate has fallen to 30%. The editors have managed to recruit an extensive cohort of reviewers, many with sustained enthusiasm over the years. The average time from submission to first decision is 3.5 weeks and to final decision 7.3. This is, in part due to prompt adherence to the time allotted for each step in the manuscript's progress The “Thank the Reviewer” list has grown commensurate with the success of the journal. The publisher allows the journal to publish one ‘open access' paper a month free of charge. The Editors in Chief choose the paper and the handling editor provides the commentary. As the result of an innovative proposal from Dr. Erik Wolters the journal has been able to publish the proceedings of the World Congress on Parkinson's disease and Related Disorders with such speed that it has been possible have the issue inserted into each congress bag at the time of the meeting. The journal editors have been responsible for this quite exhausting late summer task of working to get the manuscripts reviewed, revised and printed within their self-imposed deadline. Increasing age brings few benefits, but in my retirement I can take pleasure in watching my younger colleagues, in particular Doctors Pfeiffer and Wszolek, who have not only achieved great success in their careers, but have at the same time, provided stewardship and dedication as Editors in Chief for “Parkinsonism and Related Disorders”.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.parkreldis.2015.05.026 1353-8020/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Please cite this article in press as: D. CalneParkinsonism and Related Disorders: Looking back over twenty years, Parkinsonism and Related Disorders (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.parkreldis.2015.05.026
2
Editorial / Parkinsonism and Related Disorders xxx (2015) 1e2
Finally, I thank Shamin Babul for her help in the early days of the journal, and Sue Calne for her continued enthusiastic support in dealing with the trials and tribulations of publication through all the developmental milestones from birth to maturity.
Donald Calne E-mail address: [email protected]. 18 May 2015
Please cite this article in press as: D. CalneParkinsonism and Related Disorders: Looking back over twenty years, Parkinsonism and Related Disorders (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.parkreldis.2015.05.026