In the traditional symbology of wedding anniversaries, the 10th one is conventionally referred to as the “tin anniversary.” This issue of the journal is the first in Volume 10, launching the 10th anniversary of JAMMI, the journal of the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease (AMMI) Canada. Given the vagaries of medical and scientific publication over the last decade, this is something of which we should be proud. The first issue was published on April 1, 2016. Although no paper in that issue reviewed the background of how JAMMI came to be, it is interesting to summarize the events that transpired in 2014 and 2015.
JAMMI came about following the sale of our previous journal, CJIDMM, from a Canadian to a non-Canadian publisher. Consequently, we lost the copyright to our previous publications, including our published guidelines. Following this change, it was determined that we should seek out a new publisher for a new journal, at that point yet to be named, where we would have full ownership and the ability to steer the journal's course and to ensure ownership of published material in the journal. Through the determined efforts of then Editor-in-Chief, Dr John Conly, and the AMMI Canada Council of that time, we were able to negotiate and sign an agreement with our current publisher, University of Toronto Press, and embark on the launch of what is now an open access journal affectionately called JAMMI.
JAMMI's growth over the last 10 years has been impressive. We now receive on average over 40 submissions annually and continue to publish four issues per year. As submissions have increased, the quality of submissions has followed suit, leading to a rise in rejection rate through the excellent detailed reviews by our reviewers and the work of our editorial board.
One of the chief missions of the journal is to give Canadian infectious disease specialists and microbiologists the opportunity to publish their work and their experiences generated by original research and observations relevant to the Canadian environment. At the same time, we are increasingly receiving submissions from international groups interested in publishing their findings. With the journal being published online, there has been a rise in annual online visits to and article downloads from the journal website, now approaching 200,000 per year. Approximately one-third of visits come from within Canada, with one-fourth coming from the United States and the remainder primarily from European and Asian countries. The journal is now indexed on PubMed and Scopus, among other indexes, which is drawing increased attention to the high quality of articles published in the journal.
As the current Editor-in-Chief of JAMMI, having been at the helm of the journal for the last 8 years, I am proud of the quality of our journal, which in no small part can be attributed to the authors of the published articles and the hard work of the editorial board and our partners at the University of Toronto Press. I will continue to work diligently to foster the growth and prestige of the journal and remain indebted to my colleagues for their trust in submitting their scholarly work to JAMMI. I strongly encourage previous authors to continue to submit and new authors to consider the journal as an outlet for their work going forward.