JASN Moves On

Abstract

, JASN will come under the direction of a new editor-in-chief, Dr. Eric Neilson, and a new editorial team selected by him. Reflecting that changeover, next month JASN will appear in a new style and format with new categories, new features, and new directions. It is time for that change. As the current team finishes our 6-year term and relinquishes a responsibility that has been a central part of our professional lives since July 1, 2001, it seems appropriate to record some comments on where we have been and to offer some perspectives on where we are going.First, the data. This editorial team began our term with lots of ideas, plans, and energy (1), and we finish with a great sense of satisfaction with what we have accomplished. Since we published our first issue in January 2002, we have received and reviewed more than 6500 submitted manuscripts, using the online services of Manuscript Central. During our term, annual submissions increased 30% through 2006 and are currently on track to increase another 20% or more this year. Of these more than 6500 manuscripts, more than 1400 were guided through the process of revision and eventually published in JASN, an overall acceptance rate of approximately 22%. Because submissions have risen every year and the size of the journal has been intentionally maintained constant at approximately 300 pages of peer-reviewed material per issue, the acceptance rate has fallen from approximately 30% to the current 20% (14% in the clinical sciences and 24% in the basic science categories). Despite the increase in submissions and workload, our time from acceptance to print publication has fallen dramatically from more than 7 mo in 2001 to less than 3 mo now, and JASN Express, inaugurated in 2004, provides on-line publication of copyedited papers within 6 wk of acceptance.Because the quality of papers that are submitted to JASN has improved, we have been in the fortunate position of being able to set very high standards for the material that we review and publish, particularly in "hot" categories that include clinical trials, DNA array studies, and genetic studies that involve single-nucleotide polymorphisms (2). Studies of basic cell biology and signaling are now rarely reviewed by JASN unless they include in vivo correlates for studies that are done primarily in cell culture. Concomitantly, we have initiated and increased the practice of "triaging," without full review, papers that are deemed by the editor and responsible associate editor not to meet our criteria or to rank in the lower 50% of submissions and therefore unlikely ever to earn a publishable priority score. This practice, although alleviating reviewer "burnout" and helping authors to submit their rejected papers elsewhere quickly, has sometimes discouraged authors, but the increased selectivity has been good for the journal. As competition for space has increased, so has the quality of papers that we are publishing and their impact on the world of renal science.The origin of the published contents of JASN was global in 2001...

Round 3 at JASN (2001 to 2007)

“…1,2 It is again humbling to acknowledge the monumental accomplishments of the first JASN team under Jared Grantham, who founded the journal in July 1990 and established its reputation for excellence from day 1 and to follow the second team led by Craig Tisher, which maintained and enhanced JASN's preeminence as renal science entered the era of cellular and molecular biology that swept through the scientific world in the late 1990s. From 2001 through 2007, it was our mission, as its third editorial team, to maintain JASN's already well-earned stature as the top-ranked kidney journal in the continuously evolving world of sophisticated science in molecular biology and genetics while also better serving the needs of our majority clinical readers.…”

“…A postdevelopmental role for podocyte-derived VEGF was subsequently demonstrated using a strategy of inducible gene deletion. 2 Essentially, the less podocyte-derived VEGF mice have, the more severe the pathology.…”