A Brief History of JARO—An Origin Story!

Abstract

We review the history of the creation of the Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology (JARO). We begin with the pre-history events that cover the initial concept, committee work and discussions that led the ARO to decide to publish its own journal. Finally, we provide a brief look at the initial stages of forming JARO.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10162-022-00873-z.

Introduction

JARO, the Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, was 20 years old in 2020. The founding and early history of the journal involved many people. However, because the two of us were deeply involved in the early stages, we were asked to share our recollections so that there be a permanent record of the origin of JARO. Supplements mentioned in footnotes of this paper are to some of the documents that informed our collective memories.

One of the hallmarks of the very diverse scholarship of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology (ARO) since its founding in 1978 has been that members published in basic science, applied science, and clinical journals. Prior to the advent of JARO, the diversity of publications was because there was no one journal that would encompass all this material and provide a place where members could share their research across the range of the Society from basic to clinical sciences.

Pre-history of JARO and Ad Hoc Committee on Scholarly Publications

One of us (GRP), an original ARO member who became Editor of ARO (1988–2000), revamped the Society newsletter into a digital format in the 1980s and created an online submission mechanism for the MidWinter meetings. This included publishing print and electronic versions of the abstract book and the program book in the early 1990s.

Because of this experience, GRP developed interest and expertise in the future of scientific publishing. He presented a talk at the February 1996 MidWinter meeting of the Society that led the ARO Executive Council (EC) to appoint an Ad Hoc Committee on Scholarly Publications to consider potential publication ideas for the Society. The charge of this committee was to investigate the extent and type of scholarly information the ARO could provide to its members and the scientific community at large.

This committee met several times and reported back to the EC in September 1996.1 The report concluded that “...the ARO could evolve into a true scholarly society and produce its own peer reviewed journal.” It also recommended that the idea of the ARO publishing a journal should receive wide discussion among Society membership. GRP then presented posters at ARO MidWinter meetings in 1997 and 1998 to share the work of the committee and to generate interest in the membership of publishing a peer-reviewed Society journal.

The Birth of JARO and the Publications Committee

ANP, an early ARO member, visited the 1997 poster, and this led to extended discussions and friendship between him and GRP (heretofore referred to as “we”). We had shared interests in scientific publication, GRP from his work at his institution as well as for the ARO and ANP from his co-founding and editing of the 74 volume (to date!) Springer Handbook of Auditory Research (SHAR). An outcome of our discussions resulted in a proposal to, and acceptance by, the EC for creation of a formal Publications Committee (PC) to develop a specific journal proposal, although the EC also retained the option to not publish a journal.2

The PC met multiple times. It first developed guiding principles that would be fundamental to ARO publishing its own journal. These included:

• The publisher must provide funding for an editorial office.

• The copyright must be owned by the ARO.

• The Journal Editor must be selected by the ARO.

• The ARO must have complete control of journal and content.

These were shared with, and approved by, the EC. Then, early in their discussions, the PC considered and explored self-publication of a journal using one of several digital presses emerging at the time (e.g., Highwire Press), much as several other societies had done. However, the PC members quickly realized that the initial costs to self-publish would be very high, and that ARO would have to invest a considerable portion of its resources into starting and maintaining the operation of the journal.

Once this idea was rejected, the PC developed a “Request for Proposal” (RFP) that was sent in September 1998 to many publishers of scientific journals.3 The RFP stipulated the four major points and then asked for a substantial amount of detailed information about publication policies, finances, etc. The RFP was based on a journal of four issues a year with about 100 pages per issue. It also included a tentative name of Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, but the RFP stated that the actual name would be decided later. In addition, and in particular, the RFP asked the publishers to outline the costs that ARO would incur to both start the journal and to keep it functioning.

After receiving and evaluating responses from several publishers, the PC invited representatives of three of these to meet with it at the Hyatt Regency in Bethesda, MD, in October 1998. Each publisher gave a presentation about their organization and their vision for the journal. They also answered questions from committee members to help the PC better understand finances, and to find out the publishers’ willingness to be flexible in working with the ARO in developing a journal.

The PC was most impressed with the presentation given by William Curtis, a senior executive for Springer-Verlag (New York). First, the terms offered by Springer-Verlag were very much in favor of the interests of the ARO including that the ARO would not have to invest any of its money at any time. Second, Curtis was able to make decisions on the spot concerning specific requests from the PC about the journal. In contrast, each of the other publishers were much more rigid in their approach to working with ARO and none of the representatives had the authority to make changes, nor did they appear inclined to do so.

Following the presentations, the PC discussed the proposals and unanimously decided to recommend working with Springer-Verlag for the journal.4 They then discussed the name of the journal and after considering a wide range of possibilities, agreed that JARO would be the most inclusive choice—none of the other names discussed reflected the diversity of topics that the PC and the ARO wished to see being part of the journal.

Finally, the PC considered a potential first editor for JARO to recommend to the EC. They agreed that the person selected be well-known to the membership of ARO, be a highly esteemed scholar with interests that span those of the ARO membership and have a strong reputation for leadership and collaboration. The idea of recommending Eric Young rose quickly in the discussions, and he was the unanimous choice as the first JARO Editor-in-Chief.

The Start of JARO

On February 14, 1999, we formally reported the PC findings to the ARO EC. The recommendations included:

• Select JARO as the journal name.

• Select Springer-Verlag as the publisher.

• Appoint Eric Young as the first Editor-in-Chief.

• Seek input from ARO members to decide whether to create JARO.

The EC then tasked the PC to implement a vote of the entire ARO membership. The PC created a ballot5 that included the details of creating JARO including an increase in the cost of membership to cover an annual individual subscription to the journal (both print and electronic). The ballot was distributed in March 1999 to the entire ARO membership. After sufficient time to allow the members to consider such an important decision, the PC tallied the results of the vote. The results were over two to one in favor of creating JARO. Soon after, the EC approved creation of JARO and tasked GRP and ANP to implement the legal requirements.

The next few months were spent retaining a lawyer experienced with publisher contracts. We ultimately retained Belinda May who represented ARO in developing a contract with Springer-Verlag. The final publisher contract was signed in August of 1999 by Richard Chole, the ARO President at the time (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1.

Richard Chole, President of the ARO, signing the contract with Springer-Verlag creating JARO in August 1999

Besides the contract, there was a considerable number of other details to work out before launching this new endeavor. Very importantly, Eric Young, the new Editor-in-Chief, in concert with the Publication Committee, assembled a group of 20 highly respected and scientifically diverse Associate Editors.6

Other details included the creation of Instructions for Contributors and a Call for Papers that was distributed widely. Very quickly, sufficient submissions were received and reviewed to complete the first issue within months of the call for papers.

The Rise of JARO

JARO’s first issue was published in March of 2000 (https://bit.ly/JARO_Vol_1), a new journal in a new millennium. The cover artwork was a beautiful fluorescent histology image of hair cells (Fig. 2). In his editorial for the issue, Eric Young wrote: “JARO will accept manuscripts describing original experimental and theoretical studies of evolution, development, structure, function, etiology, and intervention related to the organs of hearing, balance, and the chemical senses. The aim is to provide a place where research results from the whole range of disciplines represented in the ARO can be found.”

Fig. 2.

Cover of the first issue of JARO in 2000

This breadth of coverage was seen in the first issue. The content included eight articles covering auditory midbrain function of the bullfrog, anatomy of the tympanic membrane in bats, neural asynchrony in auditory neuropathy in humans, regeneration of avian utricles, voltage-dependent stiffness of outer hair cells, receptor characterization in the lateral line organ of Xenopus laevis, and gender specific auditory evoked potentials.

Such a major new undertaking would involve considerable additional work from the PC. Further refinement and development of JARO policy was completed in 2003. After five years, Eric Young stepped down and the PC helped in the selection of the second Editor-in Chief, Ruth Anne Eatock in 2005. Ruth Anne shepherded the journal into a fully electronic submission and review system. In 2011, Paul Manis was selected as the Editor-in-Chief and remained in the position until 2022. Under Ruth Anne Eatock and Paul Manis, the Editorial Board expanded its representation of women and its international reach. The current Editor-in-Chief, Christopher Cederroth, took over in May of 2022.

JARO has been a great success with an Impact Factor consistently the highest or second highest for journals in its category. The original tenets developed in the mid-1990s have been maintained including that the publisher provides funding for an editorial office, the copyrights remain owned by the ARO, the ARO selects the Editor-in-Chief, and the ARO retains complete control of the journal and content. In addition, the initial intent that the ARO membership fees cover a subscription to the journal became unnecessary. Over the 22 years of JARO’s existence, the portion of ARO membership dues needed to cover subscriptions to JARO has not increased—and in fact the opposite has occurred. This is because JARO has become a substantial source of income to ARO from Springer.

Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Declarations

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no competing interests.