After two years of social disruption and economic devastation forced upon us by the COVID-19 pandemic, our lives are slowly beginning to normalize, albeit to “a new normal”. The COVID virus is still amongst us and its frequent mutations likely preclude its complete elimination. Although COVID infections continue, vaccines have substantially reduced the likelihood of serious disease that can result in hospitalizations and death. As the pandemic subsides, we are beginning to deal with its many consequences- economic privations, social dislocation, continuing uncertainty, and isolation. There are also the still poorly understood clinical manifestations of long COVID or post-COVID syndrome (brain fog, fatigue, cardio-respiratory symptoms, etc.) as also the possibility of additional waves of COVID-19 infection. Our Journal has sought to disseminate reliable and valid information about the impact of COVID on mental health and illness and on psychiatric practice and policy, with a particular emphasis on learnings from across Asia (Tandon, 2021a). Some of the most highly cited articles on COVID and mental illness have been published in this Journal; conversely, eight of the top 10 cited articles from our Journal so far this year relate to COVID. As we collectively strive to move beyond COVID, one might note that the Journal is moving on (only seven of over 175 articles published in the Journal this year address the topic of COVID and mental health). Let me report to our readership about the state of our Journal and a summary of plans for the year 2022.
1. The Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 2021
Our Journal experienced a year of relative stability after one of rapid growth in the previous year (principally attributable to COVID, Tandon, 2021b). After processing over 4000 submissions in the year 2020, we received about 2500 submissions in the year 2021 and this still represented a 150% increase from the pre-COVID numbers (1000 in the year 2019). Of these, we accepted approximately 400 for publication - an acceptance rate of 16%. We increased the frequency of our publication (going up from 8 to 12 issues per year, thereby substantially decreasing the time from manuscript acceptance to in-print publication (of course, the on-line publication appears immediately after acceptance). I am happy to report that our Clarivate impact factor again increased from 2.53 to 3.53 and is again expected to experience another significant increase this year.
2. Journal innovations and looking ahead to 2022
The mental health community can look forward to several changes in our Journal in 2022- while our central mission remains unchanged, several enhancements are planned for the second part of the year. The editorial team hopes these changes make the Asian Journal of Psychiatry an even better Journal that more effectively fulfils its purpose and provides higher quality services to its authors and readers.
In terms of authors, we are implementing changes that should facilitate a more expeditious review process and more meaningful editorial feedback. We are streamlining our review process by expanding our editorial board (and making it more representative), initiating a junior editorial board (more on this in the next editorial), and refining our Journal list of reviewers. As we thank our several hundred anonymous reviewers for their invaluable contribution to the Journal this past year, we plan to initiate formal awards and other recognition for the top five reviewers of the Journal from this year. We plan to make the editorial process much more transparent and different aspects will be described in the next several issues and this will provide clear insights into the editorial decision-making process. The first of these will be published in the next issue and is entitled “Why was my paper not accepted for publication”. A structured article review instrument is being developed and will be utilized for peer review and feedback to authors. New templates for editorial decision letters are also being developed.
With the substantial growth of our Journal (impact, number of submissions, number of published articles, etc.), we are expanding our editorial board with a particular focus on diversity and geographical representation. We are also launching a junior editorial board with a view to grooming the next generation of editors- details will be forthcoming next month.
In terms of our readers, several new sections that were planned for last year (but could be implemented principally because of the continuing impact of COVID) will be launched this year. These include:
-
(i)
Medical Education: We will reinstitute our medical education section with a revised format. We will provide a slide set with each topic on the Journal website and this will be accessible for use by our readership for the purpose of medical student or resident training. This initiative will begin with the next issue.
-
(ii)
Thematic Collections: Collections of articles on specific topics will be organized and be available on the Journal website. An article providing an introduction to such collections along with an overview will be published. These collections will be organized around a range of topics of relevance to our readership.
-
(iii)
Asian Psychiatry and World Psychiatry: While the Journal is not affiliated with any organization of Psychiatry, it does have an informal relationship with national psychiatry organizations across Asia and with the World Psychiatry Association. Periodically, we will publish reports of various mental health initiatives undertaken by these organizations. We launch this initiative will begin with the next issue.
-
(iv)
Regional Workshops: The editors and publisher plan to conduct a series of regional and national workshops across Asia on scientific publication, manuscript preparation, and life-long learning, career development and international engagement (principally directed at early career psychiatrists).
-
(v)
In this Issue: With article-based publishing (i.e., assignment of articles for publication in order of acceptance), we are unable to articles into thematic clusters in the print issue. We will initiate an “In this Issue” page to discuss such clusters, beginning with the next issue.
As we embark on this exciting new phase of Journal growth, we look forward to your feedback and suggestions.
References
- Tandon R. COVID-19 and suicide: just the facts and policy guidelines. Asian J. Psychiatry. 2021;60 doi: 10.1016/j.ajp.2021.102695. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Tandon R. The bitter lessons of COVID-19: acknowledging and working through many points of tension. Asian J. Psychiatry. 2021;55 doi: 10.1016/j.ajp.2021.102545. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]