Facilitating Existing Success and Continued Growth at AnnalsATS through Better Study Reporting

This past February marked the seventh-year anniversary of the launch of Annals of the American Thoracic Society (1). Under the editorial leadership of its first editor, John Hansen-Flaschen, AnnalsATS quickly established itself as a coveted destination for scholarly work targeting clinicians, clinical scholars, and medical educators. In 2017, David Lederer began his tenure as AnnalsATS’ second editor. As he outlined in an editorial later that year, David initiated changes within the journal to focus its content on “rigorous epidemiological, clinical, medical education, and health services research in pulmonary, critical care, sleep, and population health and disease” (2). Ultimately, by bringing greater editorial attention to methods and raising acceptance thresholds, David ensured that the content of AnnalsATS embodied “rigor, value, and impact.” The combined effects of both John’s and David’s leadership on the journal’s success are palpable. AnnalsATS has grown from a bimonthly online journal to a monthly in-print journal, with more than 2.8 million page views last year. In 2018 AnnalsATS achieved a major milestone, receiving its first impact factor of 4.0, placing it solidly among its peers of highly cited journals within pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine.

As the new editor-in-chief, I want to take a moment to discuss my vision for AnnalsATS and to explain how I hope to build on the successes of prior editors to ensure that AnnalsATS continues to be a premier outlet for scholarly work within our community. First and foremost, I want to reassure readers that under my leadership the core mission of AnnalsATS will not change. AnnalsATS will continue to strive to improve the health and healthcare of adults and children with respiratory disease, sleep disorders, and critical illness through education of clinicians and dissemination of research. Adult and pediatric clinicians who practice in pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine fields or scientists who conduct clinical, epidemiologic, or health services research in these areas are still our target audience. The scope of the journal will continue to encompass “content that is applicable to clinical practice, the formative and continuing education of clinical specialists, and the advancement of public health.”

Prior editors established a core content of interest to clinicians and clinical researchers that has been well received by our community. The majority of this content will remain unchanged (Table 1). This includes Original Research, where we publish clinical trials and observational clinical, epidemiological, and health services research studies, but also studies that derive important insights about patients’, families’, and health care providers’ experiences with illness or the health care system using qualitative and mixed methods. In addition to research, we will continue to publish expert commentary on clinical topics, public health, and health policy in our Perspectives and Viewpoints sections. The formative and continuing education of clinicians is of central importance to our community. As such, we will continue to publish in-depth reviews from clinical experts in our Focused Reviews and illustrative cases, procedures, and test interpretation in our Case Conferences. Essays describing innovative approaches to thinking about important problems will continue to be welcome submissions for our Innovations and Provocations section.

Table 1.

Major Annals of the American Thoracic Society manuscript categories

Original research (including research letters)

Perspectives

Focused Reviews

Viewpoints

Innovations and Provocations

Quality Improvement

Case Conferences

On the Receiving End

ATS Clinical Practice Guidelines Summary for Clinicians

ATS Workshop Reports

Clinical Study Design

Editorials

Letters: correspondence

Definition of abbreviation: ATS = American Thoracic Society.

Although the footprint of the journal will largely be the same, it is important for the journal to avoid stagnation without innovation and to be attentive to recent trends in publishing. Earlier this year, under the editorial leadership of Nitin Seam, ATS Scholar was launched. ATS Scholar is the Society’s fourth journal, and is a “peer-reviewed, online-only, open-access, education-themed journal focusing on medical education, clinical education, education research, and quality improvement.” Although to some extent content overlap between our two journals is inevitable, to facilitate the development and growth of ATS Scholar, AnnalsATS will limit its educational content primarily to articles of value to clinicians and clinical researchers. Original research articles, commentaries, and reviews focusing on medical education topics, or those targeted primarily toward medical educators, will generally fall outside of our scope. Nitin Seam and I have worked closely to ensure AnnalsATS and ATS Scholar each have unique identities and plan to continue to discuss and manage content overlap as our young journals evolve.

In addition to the aforementioned change, during my tenure at the journal I want to continue to push authors to improve quality and transparency in the reporting of their health research through adherence to study reporting standards. AnnalsATS has joined most other major medical journals in endorsing and strongly encouraging use of international guidelines for the transparent reporting of clinical research. These include the principles outlined in the Statistical Analyses and Methods in the Published Literature (SAMPL) guideline (3) but also the reporting standards specific to each study design (e.g., observational studies, qualitative research, meta-analysis, prediction modeling). Authors are likely familiar with the CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) guideline, which outlines standards for reporting clinical trials (4); however, similar guidelines exist for every other major study design. A catalog of such resources can be found at the EQUATOR (Enhancing the Quality and Transparency of Health Research) Network Resource Center (https://www.equator-network.org/).

Not only does adherence to such standards improve the quality and transparency of reporting of methods and results in scientific writing, it also provides a uniform set of criteria for statistical editors and referees to use when evaluating a manuscript. This improves the efficiency in the peer review and publication process within AnnalsATS but will undoubtedly benefit authors submitting manuscripts to other journals as well. Although AnnalsATS has long encouraged adherence to such standards, we have been somewhat lax about ensuring authors report the necessary components of these standards. Moving forward, manuscripts that receive a decision of major or minor revision will be expected to adhere to these standards on resubmission or provide strong justification for nonadherence.

Although the above changes are already underway, there are several additional areas of growth we are exploring at AnnalsATS moving forward. First, I am eager to develop a new article type at AnnalsATS, titled “Data Visualized.” Ideally, this section will accommodate stimulating, innovative, and potentially interactive (online) presentations of data. Data visualizations are increasingly used in the medical literature to understand and manipulate complex information, whether derived from the human microbiome, insurance claims, the electronic medical record, or other sources. Our peer journals (e.g., Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes) have had success with similar formats. Second, we are exploring opportunities for conducting research on the peer review process within AnnalsATS and collectively across the four American Thoracic Society journals and potentially sister professional societies. Finally, I anticipate some gradual turnover on our Editorial Board to ensure the AnnalsATS team maintains diverse perspectives and vitality in thinking. Stay tuned to future issues of AnnalsATS, where I will discuss the details of some of these changes when they are ready to be unveiled.

I am eager to facilitate the continued success of AnnalsATS and help it transition into the next phase of its growth. I feel especially fortunate to take on the responsibilities of editor after the strong foundation and vibrant community built by the prior two editors. Thanks also to the readers and authors for your continued support of the journal. There is no doubt that the journal’s strength is grounded in the excellent manuscripts that you submit. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me personally if I can be of help to you when considering AnnalsATS for your submissions or if you have suggestions or ideas for the continued innovation and growth of the journal.