Abstract
The Journal of Applied Gerontology (JAG) had an eventful 2017, with another leap in impact factor and a smooth transition in Editorial leadership. Joseph Gaugler stepped down as Editor-in-Chief in September, after serving 6 years at the helm. We owe JAG’s steady climb in stature and influence to Joe’s diligent work, with excellent assistance in recent years from Managing Editor KjerstieWiltzen. My heartfelt thank yous go to Joe and Kjerstie for their patience and support through the transition process. Our new Managing Editor, Kaleigh Ligus, has quickly mastered myriad JAG processes and we are off and running! We have received warm welcomes from members of the Editorial Board, who have diligently served as reviewers and advisors throughout 2017. We also have excellent support from the SAGE publications team, notably Jessica Lipowski, Judy Connors, Leann Zurmuhlen, and Lauren Hunt, to keep us moving forward. The Southern Gerontological Society Executive and Publications Committees continue to offer substantial guidance as well. And finally, thank you to Southern Gerontological Society members in general, as well as to all of JAG’s reviewers, for their commitment to the scholarly excellence of the journal.
Empirical Updates
Impact Factor
JAG’s impact factor and journal rankings have continued their upward climb! The impact factor grew from 1.258 in 2016 to 1.638 in 2017 and JAG now sits solidly in the top half of gerontology journals, at 15th out of 32, up from 17th in 2016. Congratulations to past Editor Joe Gaugler and the entire JAG team for this impressive accomplishment!
Acceptance Rate
As of October 2017, the acceptance rate for 2017 is 19%, down from 28% in 2016. This number tends to fluctuate by 10 or so percentage points from month to month and year to year. Typically, we aim for 20% to 25%, and we have remained basically within that range for the past 5 years. The breadth of topics and populations studied and the quality of submitted manuscripts are impressive. I am grateful to the Editorial Board and reviewers for encouraging authors to submit their outstanding work and for offering detailed reviews leading to publication of the best applied gerontology research.
Number of Submissions and Time to First Decision
As of October 31, 2017, JAG has received 355 submissions, which is 90 more than that received through October of last year. This growth demonstrates JAG’s increasing status as the go-to site for applied gerontology scholarship. The time to first decision from point of submission has remained steady for a third year at 32 days. Meanwhile, SAGE has reduced time in each of the past several years for getting accepted articles published online, currently averaging 19 days.
Online Usage
Through September 2017, JAG readers have downloaded 80,407 full text articles, surpassing the 2016 number of 73,815 for the same time period. The bulk of this 2017 increase occurred in January and February; the numbers of full text downloads in the intervening months are comparable with the same months in 2016. The SAGE Publications team employs multiple strategies to bring readers to JAG’s website, including social media, press releases and blog posts, hosting recorded podcasts with authors, and health conference exhibits. SAGE provides recommendations to authors for how to promote their work and partners with Kudos, a service for authors to maximize the visibility of their research. SAGE now tracks and reports Altmetric (alternative metrics) scores, tracking all online references to each article.
Ongoing Initiatives and Developments
Continuing Initiatives
Several of the 2017 issues included thematically grouped articles, highlighted with an Editor Introduction by Joseph Gaugler. These issues and introductions draw strong interest from readers and we will see several more thematically organized issues in 2018. Drs. Jennifer Craft Morgan and Turner Goins have integrated podcast interviews with JAG authors into their aging classes. A library of these podcasts is available on the JAG home page (https://journals-sagepub-com.web.bisu.edu.cn/home/jag) and is a great tool for authors to use to disseminate their work. Jennifer has written a step-by-step guide for this fun and useful initiative; contact her for information (jmorgan39@gsu.edu). Many issues of JAG include book reviews and we continue to solicit studies that use mixed methodologies, demonstrate translations of evidence-based research into practice, or describe process evaluations.
Addressing the Backlog
As of October 6, JAG had 136 articles in its OnlineFirst queue. These articles are considered fully published, but have not yet appeared in print. The time to print publication is at about 23 months. We will continue to work to bring that number down, while not turning away strong and innovative articles. Balancing our commitment to publishing important studies, in the context of increasing numbers of submissions, with an effort to reduce the print backlog, is our greatest editorial challenge!
Recognizing Reviewers
The Journal of Applied Gerontology depends on volunteer peer reviewers to evaluate manuscripts and recommend revisions in order to publish innovative and practical applied gerontology research. The editors want to express our gratitude to the many peer reviewers in 2017, who are listed for the first time on the journal’s website at: https://journals-sagepub-com.web.bisu.edu.cn/page/jag/reviewers.
Special recognition to the Journal of Applied Gerontology’s Outstanding Reviewers for 2017!
Thomas Arcury, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center
Jennifer Kinney, Miami University
Karen Lyons, Oregon Health and Science University
Katherine Ornstein, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Sandra Simmons, Vanderbilt University
We Need Your Help!
JAG readers have an enormous impact on the journal’s success. Please try to cite JAG articles published in print from the previous 2 years in your ongoing work. Direct students and colleagues to the JAG website to download specific articles rather than sending them a pdf, to help with the online usage statistics. Use social media and other online modes to share JAG articles that interest you—on Twitter, Facebook, personal blogs, or Wikipedia. If you use Mendeley to organize your reference library, import relevant articles from JAG. And share any ideas you have with Kaleigh and me at JAG’s new email address: JAG@uchc.edu.
I am honored and excited to serve as JAG’s new Editor-in-Chief, taking over at such a high point in the journal’s history, thanks to Joe Gaugler and his excellent predecessors. Thank you to everyone who contributes to JAG to bring applied gerontology research to bear on improving the lives of older adults.