Why Is the Academy Starting a New PM&R Journal?
New AAPM&R Journal
In Brief: As announced
earlier in the year, the Academy will be launching a new clinical journal in
January 2009. The Academy board established a Publications Task Force to develop
a new journal that meets the needs of Academy members. Task Force Chair David
Cifu, MD, outlines why this new journal is being established and the
progress made to date.
Just as the field of computing turns itself over every 18
months, more innovations and discoveries in medicine have occurred in the past
10 years than have occurred in the entire 500 years of medical sciences before
that. This explosive growth has necessitated rapid and ongoing changes in the
way information (not just data!) is disseminated to increasingly busy and
productive clinicians. Concomitantly, the field of PM&R has evolved
significantly in the past decade into a diverse group of care providers who
deliver a wide array of musculoskeletal and rehabilitation services in multiple
treatment environments.
The membership of AAPM&R is constantly seeking out better
and more efficient ways of staying current in the clinical and research advances
relevant to the field. Academy members have repeatedly indicated that receiving
a journal is an important benefit of membership. Academy leaders concur,
suggesting that the specialty needs a peer-reviewed scientific journal that
addresses topics and emerging issues specifically relevant to PM&R physicians
and their clinical priorities. While Archives of Physical Medicine and
Rehabilitation has been, and will continue to be, a valued resource with years
of excellent service to the field, it has not been the sole or even main source
of information to the majority of the membership.
In 2005, the AAPM&R board established a Publications Task
Force to consider ways to enhance, complement, or even replace existing
publications with other vehicles designed to meet the existing and emerging
needs of Academy members and the field of physiatry.
The Task Force members include a wide variety of Academy
members who have substantial experience with scientific journals either on
editorial boards or as authors, and who had diverse clinical and academic
backgrounds. These members are Gary Clark, Greg Mulford, Betsy Sandel, Pat Foye,
Randy Braddom, Bob Rondinelli, Steve Geiringer, Steve Gnatz, and Stu Weinstein.
The group reviewed a number of resources that recorded
Academy members’ opinions and needs including: AAPM&R Membership Readership
Survey (2006), AAPM&R Membership Survey/Learner Needs Assessment (2004), PASSOR
Membership Survey (2003), Archives of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
Readership Survey (2002), The Physiatrist Readership Survey (2002), and data
from other medical societies related to the business aspects of their journals
and magazines.
The Academy board agreed with the group’s determination
that the current AAPM&R publications (Archives of PM&R, The Physiatrist) were
not fully meeting the basic needs of members or the Academy itself. The board
concluded that the ideal position for the Academy was to be the sole owner of a
new, peer-reviewed scientific journal that is editorially focused on the primary
areas of clinical interest of the Academy membership. The journal will have
editorial independence, yet remain closely aligned with objectives and
initiatives supported by the Academy. In addition, a new publication will
generate revenues that can provide resources for other critical areas of the
Academy to support member needs such as education and advocacy. This added
income will allow for more member services and value without any increase in
membership dues.
The Academy’s contract to co-publish Archives of Physical
Medicine and Rehabilitation with the American Congress of Rehabilitation
Medicine (ACRM) expires in December 2008. (Academy members will continue to
receive this publication through that date.) A series of discussions with the
leadership of ACRM revealed that it would not be possible for the Academy to
evolve the journal in the direction needed to best serve our members, nor could
the Academy fully own and operate Archives. As a result, it was decided the best
course of action was to return full ownership of Archives back to ACRM and make
way for the Academy to launch its own journal.
The Academy will publish the first issue of its new
journal in January 2009. This scientific journal will have a clinical focus with
a balance of topics designed to match the practice patterns of the Academy
membership. For example, nearly 60% of current members identify themselves as
practicing primarily musculoskeletal medicine. Therefore, content will cover
important advances pertinent to both inpatient and outpatient care. In addition
to clinical research (trials, outcomes studies), some of the practical areas
included in the new publication will be topical reviews, management pearls,
summaries of relevant research from other journals, legislative and advocacy
information, reimbursement and technology issues, practice management advice,
and Maintenance of Certification updates. Other key features will be a rapid
turnaround time for publication, a Web-based submission process, online CME, and
both Internet and print access. The journal will be referenced on Medline and
will have its “impact factor” available approximately four to six months after
it begins publishing.
A request for proposal (RFP) was recently issued to
several publishers. It is anticipated that a publisher will be identified by
early 2007. A separate task force has been charged with selecting the
editor-in-chief, who will be in place before the summer of 2007, along with the
managing editor. The AAPM&R Marketing Committee is working with the Publications
Task Force, our publications consultant, and ultimately our publisher to
identify an appropriate title, cover design, and layout for the journal. We will
be soliciting submissions by the fall of 2007 and are excited about the impact
the membership can have with this new publication. As more information becomes
available, we will efficiently convey it to the membership via print and
electronic media. Please feel free to ask any member of the task force or board
questions regarding our new journal.
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