As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve, it leaves its mark on the publishing world. The Journal of Spinal Cord Medicine (JSCM) is among the journals that saw an increase in submissions during the lockdown years of 2020 and 2021.
Pauses in research studies gave sidelined scientists time to write, and busy clinicians were motivated to share their knowledge of the impact of COVID-19 on their patients with spinal cord injury. In 2022, the flow of submissions began to slow, but remained above pre-pandemic levels.
In 2020 and 2021, JSCM also saw substantial increases in other journal activity and metrics. Subscriptions rose globally and full-text downloads went up by 70 percent, reaching more than 105,000 annually. The 2-year and 5-year Impact Factors, which measure how often a journal’s articles are cited in peer-reviewed journals, also increased, to 2.040 and 2.511, respectively, according to 2021 data released by the Journal Citation Reports. The CiteScore reached a new high of 3.2.
Five articles published in JSCM have been downloaded more than 1,000 times,1–5 and five have been cited more than ten times.5,6–9 These data show which articles are of interest to our readers as well as researchers studying injuries and dysfunction of the spinal cord. Pandemic-related topics are among the current top-downloaded2,5 and top-cited articles.5,7 Altmetric scores provide real-time article-level feedback about recent publications that are topics of discussion in news items, blogs, and social media platforms. The top articles by Altmetric scores span a range of topics, including outcomes of firearm-related injuries,10 a trial combining traditional Chinese medicine with neurorehabilitation (SATURN study),11 and regenerative rehabilitation research for shoulder pain in wheelchair users.12,13
We remind our readers that JSCM is the official journal of the Academy of Spinal Cord Injury Professionals (ASCIP). Membership in the Academy includes a subscription to JSCM, as well as other valuable benefits. Members access Journal content on Taylor & Francis online through their member portal on the ASCIP website (academyscipro.org).
From JSCM’s homepage (https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/yscm20), users can activate alerts for New Content (when a new issue posts online) and Latest Articles (when individual articles are first published online). Of special interest to authors are Citation Alerts, which can be activated for a particular article from the article’s page by clicking on Subscribe to citation updates.
Providing editorial content that meets the needs of our readership and features new avenues of research is a team effort. JSCM’s success can be attributed to the dedication and commitment of our Editorial Board, ASCIP’s Board of Governance, and the association management services of The Firm, Inc.
We encourage our readers to share their expertise with the greater community of spinal cord injury professionals through the Journal. To learn more about ways to contribute to JSCM, contact the Assistant Editor at JSCM@kesslerfoundation.org.
References
- 1.Hitzig SL, Jeyathevan G, Farahani F, Noonan VK, Linassi G, Routhier F, Jetha A, McCauley D, Mohammad Alavinia S, Omidvar M, et al. Development of community participation indicators to advance the quality of spinal cord injury rehabilitation: SCI-High Project. J Spinal Cord Med 2021;44(sup1):S79–S93. doi: 10.1080/10790268.2021.1955204. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
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