With this double issue of The Journal of Pain, and after a five-month hiatus in publishing due to a change in ownership of the journal, we have now returned. As you know, The Journal of Pain is one of the very top journals in the field, with an exceptionally strong impact factor (5.424). We are well-positioned to continue our steady growth and build on our success as an outlet for the most exciting and impactful pain research findings from all over the world.
The journey to this point over the past few months has been exciting, although at times the journey has felt perilous. Please stay tuned for an editorial to be published in the very next issue for some details about this journey. Suffice it to say for now that (1) we are now the flagship journal of the United States Association for the Study of Pain and (2) we could not have returned without the generous donations of time and funds by the many individuals committed to the support of pain research in general, and to The Journal of Pain as an important outlet of the findings from that research in particular. Thus, after a necessary hiatus in operations, we are now fully open to considering new articles for possible publication, and are looking forward to receiving your submissions.
In the immediate future, you will see that we will very quickly publish―in three double issues―–the majority of the articles that had been accepted for publication last year that could not be published in Volume 20. In the months after that, starting in July of this year, we will go back to publishing one issue every month. Perhaps the largest difference you will notice between past and future issues is that we now publish an electronic-only version of The Journal. This is the case for virtually all new scientific journals, and is also the future of most if not all journals that currently publish as print versions.
Although The Journal will resume publication in the “hybrid” publishing model and publishing both “subscription-based” content (i.e., without any costs to authors) and open access content as in the past, all articles in the 2020 volumes will be published both open access and free to authors. Furthermore, we see the open access model continuing to grow, especially given the requirements by some research sponsors that research findings be published as open access articles.
With the collaboration of our publisher, and in recognition of the increasing importance of social media in the field of pain medicine, all published articles will continue to include a link to Elsevier's PlumX Metrics, where Tweets, Facebook mentions, media mentions and other measures of an article's social media footprint will be on display and easily accessible. Moreover, The Journal will continue to reach a global audience via its availability on two platforms, ScienceDirect and JPain.org.
Perhaps the only significant change in the switch from a print to an electronic-only journal is that there will no longer be any charge for color illustrations. Therefore, authors should feel free to submit their illustrations in color.
Finally, despite the fact that we are now the flagship journal of a new scientific pain society, there is much about The Journal that will stay the same. First, we will continue to be committed to providing authors with rapid decisions regarding their submissions, and rapid publication of accepted materials. Second, the overwhelming majority of the Editorial Board Members who provide the necessary depth of scientific expertise supporting The Journal will continue overseeing the review process, ensuring continued high quality reviews and content. Finally―and you will hear much more about this in the months ahead―we will continue to work very closely with pain researchers in the United States and throughout the world to advance our scientific knowledge about the nature, impact, and treatment of pain.
Article info
Identification
Copyright
© 2020 by United States Association for the Study of Pain, Inc.
