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Ten Years Later
2365
EDITORIAL Ten Years Later
In 2004, 10 years ago, the first-ever issues of The Journal of Sexual Medicine ( JSM) (Volume 1, Numbers 1–3, pages 1–348, 2004) were published. The JSM was the first publication owned by our society, at that time called the International Society for the Sexual and Impotence Research (ISSIR). Of course, soon after it was renamed the International Society for Sexual Medicine. The first issue contained a mere 124 pages but it was a start. This was the July 2004 issue, actually not mailed until August but we were a brand new journal and if a little late, we still published consistently every other month. The table of contents of that historic inaugural issue included two editorials celebrating the event, a foreword and comments on the Second International Consultation on Erectile and Sexual Dysfunction, 14 manuscripts reflecting diverse male and female committee reports from the aforementioned meeting, News and Notes from the society, and a 1-page calendar listing meetings in sexual medicine. The September issue that followed, in addition to the editorial, included nine original research articles on phosphodiesterase inhibitor therapy for erectile dysfunction (ED), at the time the first safe and effective, and really magical, governmentapproved oral pharmaceuticals for any major sexual medicine health concern. Other original research topics in the September issue included one manuscript on central mechanisms for female sexual dysfunction, one on surgical therapy for ED, and one on ejaculation disorders. Finally, the third issue in 2004 was published in November. It had the ever-present editorial, our first two basic science papers, which have since become a hallmark of the JSM, and original research papers in clinical psychology, epidemiology, and of course pharmacotherapy for ED. As the JSM was becoming more well-rounded in scope, it was also expanding in form. A review paper and a case report were published in this issue, along with the calendar. As this was the end of the year, the index was also included— something we now do only electronically. Concomitantly with the November issue, the JSM © 2014 International Society for Sexual Medicine
published its first supplement, the proceedings from the ISSIR meeting in October. Of course at the time, as a brand new journal, we had no impact factor and were not listed on PubMed. We were hopeful that after the prescribed number of issues, we would apply to the National Library of Medicine for inclusion and to Thomson for an impact factor, but our membership contributed articles on faith—you wrote manuscripts and submitted them to the JSM—in support of your society and your journal. I will always be grateful to the support given me by all of you. The JSM was accepted for citation in PubMed and did earn an impact factor. While we cannot compete with journals that focus on global issues like cancer or heart disease, or journals that are on everyone’s wish list for publication like Nature and Science, I am proud of where our journal stands in the field, as the leading publication for sexual health. Soon, the JSM will be turning a corner with its new leader, John Mulhall. Already his team is reviewing new manuscripts submitted, while the current editorial team is responsible for manuscripts previously in the system or revisions. In a way I am a lame duck, but never one to stand idly by, and I want to ensure that your beloved journal continues strong and urge you to continue to submit your manuscripts to your JSM. But I digress. I want to parallel the growth of our field with the growth of our journal. In 2004, few clinicians were interested in even talking about women’s sexual function. A few years later, however, the International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health (ISSWSH) named the JSM as its official journal. Where else could the ISSWSH membership publish? The content of your journal expanded as approximately 50% of publications were in the area of women’s sexual health. There continues to be a dearth of basic science papers in this field because of limited funding, but what is published has predominantly been published in your journal. Further expansion over the years happened as we began to see manuscripts in more diverse areas, J Sex Med 2014;11:2365–2366
2366 such as oncology and transgender and gender nonconformance. The fact is in this latter area, the JSM has become the preferred publication. The evidence of the longevity of the publications in the JSM is the bibliometrics data. The Eigenfactor, Cited Half-Life, and the Article Influence factor have all steadily increased over the years. For many of you, you are now saying “what?” Many of you are familiar with the impact factor, which appears to have stabilized in the 3’s—not a bad place to be for a niche journal with a very specialized readership and a limited scope— but there are other metrics that are just as important to a publisher and perhaps more important to the long-term health of a journal, so let me spend a little time talking about them, as we are focusing on the changes over 10 years. The Eigenfactor is a measurement of the importance of the journal within the entire scientific community [1]. It is based on the size of the journal, and the total Eigenfactor scores of all the journals listed in Thomson’s Journal Citation Reports ( JCR) is 100. The lowest score of any individual journal in the top one thousand is 0.01, with the highest typically 1.992. It is a reflection of the influence and prestige of the journal. Over the last 3 years, the Eigenfactor score of your journal has gone from 0.01357 to 0.01727 to 0.02133. The Article Influence score measures the average influence of each published article over the previous 5 years [1]. Similar to the impact factor, the scores are normalized so that the mean article in the JCR database has an article influence of 1.00. It is calculated by dividing the Eigenfactor score by the number of articles published by that journal [2]. The JSM over the last 3 years has risen from 0.529 to 0.602 to 0.717. While the JSM may still be below the mean, it is in a list that includes the most prestigious journals and is rising each
J Sex Med 2014;11:2365–2366
Editorial year, an indication of the influence of your journal and hopefully the expansion of our field. The other measure of import in the publishing field is Cited Half-Life [3]. This is the median age of articles cited by the journal during the JCR year. This indicates the longevity of the articles, which is lengthening for the JSM. In 2011 it was 2.8, in 2012 it was 3.2, and in 2013 it was 3.8. More proof that JSM is becoming more valuable over time. So what has the last 10 years shown us? We are working in a field that is constantly expanding yet still limited in audience. We are publishing manuscripts that are valuable to our member societies and those working in the field of sexual medicine, but there are still too many others that are not yet aware of what we do and what we publish. The only thing I can conclude is that we all must continue to read and write for JSM; we must help by reviewing manuscripts and spread the word by citing papers in the JSM. Someday, your journal will have published far more than the 11 volumes we are working on now. It will be interesting to see where we, the JSM, and the field are in another 10 years! Irwin Goldstein, MD Editor-in-Chief References 1 West J, Bergstrom C. Eigenfactor.org: ranking and mapping scientific knowledge—“Frequently asked questions.” 2012. Available at: http://www.eigenfactor.org/faq.php (accessed August 4, 2014). 2 Cornell University Library. Measuring your research impact: Eigenfactor and Article Influence. 2014. Available at: http:// guides.library.cornell.edu/c.php?g=32272&p=203396 (accessed August 4, 2014). 3 Thomson Reuters. Journal Citation Reports: Journal Citing Half-Life. 2012. Available at: http://admin-apps .webofknowledge.com/JCR/help/h_ctghl.htm (accessed August 4, 2014).
EDITORIAL Ten Years Later
In 2004, 10 years ago, the first-ever issues of The Journal of Sexual Medicine ( JSM) (Volume 1, Numbers 1–3, pages 1–348, 2004) were published. The JSM was the first publication owned by our society, at that time called the International Society for the Sexual and Impotence Research (ISSIR). Of course, soon after it was renamed the International Society for Sexual Medicine. The first issue contained a mere 124 pages but it was a start. This was the July 2004 issue, actually not mailed until August but we were a brand new journal and if a little late, we still published consistently every other month. The table of contents of that historic inaugural issue included two editorials celebrating the event, a foreword and comments on the Second International Consultation on Erectile and Sexual Dysfunction, 14 manuscripts reflecting diverse male and female committee reports from the aforementioned meeting, News and Notes from the society, and a 1-page calendar listing meetings in sexual medicine. The September issue that followed, in addition to the editorial, included nine original research articles on phosphodiesterase inhibitor therapy for erectile dysfunction (ED), at the time the first safe and effective, and really magical, governmentapproved oral pharmaceuticals for any major sexual medicine health concern. Other original research topics in the September issue included one manuscript on central mechanisms for female sexual dysfunction, one on surgical therapy for ED, and one on ejaculation disorders. Finally, the third issue in 2004 was published in November. It had the ever-present editorial, our first two basic science papers, which have since become a hallmark of the JSM, and original research papers in clinical psychology, epidemiology, and of course pharmacotherapy for ED. As the JSM was becoming more well-rounded in scope, it was also expanding in form. A review paper and a case report were published in this issue, along with the calendar. As this was the end of the year, the index was also included— something we now do only electronically. Concomitantly with the November issue, the JSM © 2014 International Society for Sexual Medicine
published its first supplement, the proceedings from the ISSIR meeting in October. Of course at the time, as a brand new journal, we had no impact factor and were not listed on PubMed. We were hopeful that after the prescribed number of issues, we would apply to the National Library of Medicine for inclusion and to Thomson for an impact factor, but our membership contributed articles on faith—you wrote manuscripts and submitted them to the JSM—in support of your society and your journal. I will always be grateful to the support given me by all of you. The JSM was accepted for citation in PubMed and did earn an impact factor. While we cannot compete with journals that focus on global issues like cancer or heart disease, or journals that are on everyone’s wish list for publication like Nature and Science, I am proud of where our journal stands in the field, as the leading publication for sexual health. Soon, the JSM will be turning a corner with its new leader, John Mulhall. Already his team is reviewing new manuscripts submitted, while the current editorial team is responsible for manuscripts previously in the system or revisions. In a way I am a lame duck, but never one to stand idly by, and I want to ensure that your beloved journal continues strong and urge you to continue to submit your manuscripts to your JSM. But I digress. I want to parallel the growth of our field with the growth of our journal. In 2004, few clinicians were interested in even talking about women’s sexual function. A few years later, however, the International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health (ISSWSH) named the JSM as its official journal. Where else could the ISSWSH membership publish? The content of your journal expanded as approximately 50% of publications were in the area of women’s sexual health. There continues to be a dearth of basic science papers in this field because of limited funding, but what is published has predominantly been published in your journal. Further expansion over the years happened as we began to see manuscripts in more diverse areas, J Sex Med 2014;11:2365–2366
2366 such as oncology and transgender and gender nonconformance. The fact is in this latter area, the JSM has become the preferred publication. The evidence of the longevity of the publications in the JSM is the bibliometrics data. The Eigenfactor, Cited Half-Life, and the Article Influence factor have all steadily increased over the years. For many of you, you are now saying “what?” Many of you are familiar with the impact factor, which appears to have stabilized in the 3’s—not a bad place to be for a niche journal with a very specialized readership and a limited scope— but there are other metrics that are just as important to a publisher and perhaps more important to the long-term health of a journal, so let me spend a little time talking about them, as we are focusing on the changes over 10 years. The Eigenfactor is a measurement of the importance of the journal within the entire scientific community [1]. It is based on the size of the journal, and the total Eigenfactor scores of all the journals listed in Thomson’s Journal Citation Reports ( JCR) is 100. The lowest score of any individual journal in the top one thousand is 0.01, with the highest typically 1.992. It is a reflection of the influence and prestige of the journal. Over the last 3 years, the Eigenfactor score of your journal has gone from 0.01357 to 0.01727 to 0.02133. The Article Influence score measures the average influence of each published article over the previous 5 years [1]. Similar to the impact factor, the scores are normalized so that the mean article in the JCR database has an article influence of 1.00. It is calculated by dividing the Eigenfactor score by the number of articles published by that journal [2]. The JSM over the last 3 years has risen from 0.529 to 0.602 to 0.717. While the JSM may still be below the mean, it is in a list that includes the most prestigious journals and is rising each
J Sex Med 2014;11:2365–2366
Editorial year, an indication of the influence of your journal and hopefully the expansion of our field. The other measure of import in the publishing field is Cited Half-Life [3]. This is the median age of articles cited by the journal during the JCR year. This indicates the longevity of the articles, which is lengthening for the JSM. In 2011 it was 2.8, in 2012 it was 3.2, and in 2013 it was 3.8. More proof that JSM is becoming more valuable over time. So what has the last 10 years shown us? We are working in a field that is constantly expanding yet still limited in audience. We are publishing manuscripts that are valuable to our member societies and those working in the field of sexual medicine, but there are still too many others that are not yet aware of what we do and what we publish. The only thing I can conclude is that we all must continue to read and write for JSM; we must help by reviewing manuscripts and spread the word by citing papers in the JSM. Someday, your journal will have published far more than the 11 volumes we are working on now. It will be interesting to see where we, the JSM, and the field are in another 10 years! Irwin Goldstein, MD Editor-in-Chief References 1 West J, Bergstrom C. Eigenfactor.org: ranking and mapping scientific knowledge—“Frequently asked questions.” 2012. Available at: http://www.eigenfactor.org/faq.php (accessed August 4, 2014). 2 Cornell University Library. Measuring your research impact: Eigenfactor and Article Influence. 2014. Available at: http:// guides.library.cornell.edu/c.php?g=32272&p=203396 (accessed August 4, 2014). 3 Thomson Reuters. Journal Citation Reports: Journal Citing Half-Life. 2012. Available at: http://admin-apps .webofknowledge.com/JCR/help/h_ctghl.htm (accessed August 4, 2014).