Abstract
The January of every year presents an opportunity to review Breastfeeding Medicine's past year's activities and to present from the perspective of the editor-in chief what can be anticipated will be the future editorial direction of the Journal.
The bottom line (or better headline) from the statistics of the journal, which is detailed hereunder, is that its increased activity warrants an increase in the number editorial pages that are to be published. As such, beginning in January 2020, Breastfeeding Medicine will be published on a monthly basis, that is, 12 issues a year. In addition, there will be special issues such as the abstracts of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine's annual meeting, this year from its 2020 meeting in Chicago, and the abstracts from the biannual meeting of the International Society for Research in Human Milk and Lactation that will be held this year in Stockholm.
In 2015, the journal averaged 15 submissions a month. This rose in 2018 to nearly 20 submissions per month and in 2019 it was running well >25 submissions a month. This calculates to >300 submissions for the calendar year. With a rejection rate that is well >50%, the number of available articles that passed muster with the peer review process justifies this decision to publish monthly. This decision also reflects the attention and visibility that the journal enjoys, best exemplified by the number of downloads of full texts in just the first 9 months of 2019 (220,00) equaling the total number of downloads for all of 2018!
Approximately two-thirds of the submissions are from North America and the five next leading countries for submissions are Turkey, China, India, Brazil, and Iran. These articles from non-North American clinicians and academicians clearly document the widening global reach of the journal and its much respected international status and impact.
Two-thirds of the submissions are original reports and include both data from individual research projects and up-to-date systematic reviews and meta-analyses of the literature. Journal policy has been to de-emphasize individual case reports unless they truly suggest novel therapy. No less importantly there has been a similar reduction in publishing descriptive reports from varied geographic locations regarding programs that support breastfeeding and/or increase the breastfeeding rates. In our opinion, such studies are more appropriately published in local health journals. In contrast, studies that have compared in a systematic way different types of programs are welcome, as the results of such studies, irrespective of where the study was performed, can then be extrapolated to other geographic areas. Similarly, reports of institutional or even country-wide successes in breastfeeding programs as compared with their historical control populations have a lower priority for publication.
The Clinical Protocols of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine will continue to be initially published, in Breastfeeding Medicine at a rate of 4–5 per year. These protocols, which are increasingly being related to as the world-wide standard of clinical management and care, are among the most popular of our articles that are cited and downloaded. This month's issue of Breastfeeding Medicine will feature the long awaited updating of the ABM Protocol (#) entitled Breastfeeding and Bedsharing, authored by the leading authorities, including both research academicians and hands-on clinicians, in this controversial area of maternal–infant dyad management.
The editorial staff and publishers would also like to take this opportunity to publicly thank Dr. Edward R. Newton who will be retiring in 2020 from his position as Associate Editor of Breastfeeding Medicine. We will be eternally grateful for his many years of providing erudite wit and wisdom and down-to-earth guidance. This unique contribution began 20 years ago in Edward's capacity as one of the initial members of the group of physicians who had the vision and commitment to be founders of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine. Edward's perspective as an obstetrician from his position as Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at East Carolina University Medical School was without a doubt critical to the success of the journal. It guaranteed that the viewpoint and knowledge of a physician who is responsible for the care of the mother would not be ignored.
Edward will be retiring from this role as of January 2020 and his position as associate editor will be filled by Dr Pamela D. Berens from the Obstetric Department of the McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Pamela has served with distinction for years on our editorial board. In the words of Dr. Newton, “her lifetime passion for breastfeeding is balanced by superb clinical analysis.” This truly can serve as a motto for all of us who have editorial responsibility for the Journal and as inspiration to continue to go in the Biblical sense from strength to strength (michayil el chayil).