Abstract
Looking back on another year of unprecedented public health turmoil, Journal of Applied Gerontology’s (JAG) community of authors, reviewers, editors and readers have continued to produce exceptional research and scholarship. The need for applied gerontological research keeps expanding and the JAG team is honored to play a role by curating our growing collection of manuscripts for applied researchers, policy-makers, program managers and clinicians. As 2021 winds down, I am delighted to share some highlights of JAG’s 2021 activities and accomplishments, and extend appreciation to all who have contributed to keep the journal thriving through another challenging year.
New Initiatives and Editors
COVID-19 Special Collection
In the spring of 2020, JAG issued a call for manuscripts to address the health and well-being of older adults and those who care for and serve them, who were affected by the pandemic in myriad ways. The JAG COVID-19 Special Collection holds top billing on the JAG home page (https://journals-sagepub-com-s.web.bisu.edu.cn/home/jag) with 25 Online First articles currently published and numerous others in production. COVID-19 manuscripts represent the international scope of the pandemic, with articles from Brazil, Spain, Israel and various regions of the United States. Accepted articles in the COVID-19 collection appear immediately online and in the next available print issue. Expanding beyond COVID-19 focused-research, many JAG authors have thoughtfully discussed how their research findings relate to the pandemic now and looking into the future.
Special Issues and Mini-Topics
JAG published three Special Issues with guest editorial introductions in 2021, on equity and social determinants of health (February), recent findings in aging and technology: uptake, impact, measurement and policy (May), and advancing family caregiving research across the globe (July). An additional seven issues included focused “mini-topics” sections on falls, end of life, medical care, transitions between settings, dementia, ageism, policy evaluation and more!
Associate Editors
The strong and steady growth in articles submitted to JAG lead us to expand our editorial team, adding six Associate Editors in 2021. Associate Editors were invited from the Editorial Board (EB) based on their diverse areas of research and their excellent records of service to JAG as EB members, reviewers and authors. We have done extensive virtual group and one on one training with each new editor. Now, I screen each new article for quality and fit, and then assign a subset of them to the Associate Editors who invite reviewers, monitor progress through the ScholarOne article processing system, and recommend decisions to me once reviews are returned. In addition to sharing the workload, I highly value and appreciate having a cadre of other editors, each with unique areas of expertise, for discussing articles and other editorial matters.
Our esteemed group of Associate Editors includes:
Dr. Ganesh Babulal, Washington University in St. Louis
Dr. Chanee Fabius, Johns Hopkins University
Dr. Carrie Henning-Smith, University of Minnesota
Dr. Christopher Kelly, University of Nebraska at Omaha
Dr. Katherine Ornstein, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Dr. Molly Perkins, Emory University School of Medicine
Dr. Keith Anderson remains JAG’s Book Editor; please reach out to Keith through our
Empirical Updates
Impact Factor
Despite yearly increases in the number of articles published, JAG’s impact factor grew again in 2020 to 3.200, with a five-year impact factor of 3.346. This relatively large increase (from 2.144 in 2019) is partly due to a shift in Clarivate’s calculation to using online publication dates. Nevertheless, it aligns with JAG’s steady upward march from 1.638 in 2016. JAG ranks 12th out of 36 ranked gerontology journals, this year breaking into the top third! These advances primarily derive from steady increases in article citations: from 987 total cites in 2017 to 2,676 total cites in 2020.
Journal Metrics
The acceptance rate has held steady at 22% for 2020 and throughout 2021, as of August. Meanwhile, 2021 shows a small increase to date in the number of submissions over the same time point in 2020 and a 38% increase since 2019, with 457 original articles submitted through August 23, 2021. As of August 26, JAG had 184 articles in the OnlineFirst queue, up a bit from 155 articles one year earlier. Fortunately, these articles are considered fully published and citable.
Goodbye to the backlog!
With immense gratitude to SAGE Publishing, we are thrilled to report that JAG now has a flexible, unlimited page budget and started publishing expanded issues in September 2021. This policy change will eliminate our backlog of articles that are published online, but are waiting for their final issue placement and print edition. By February 2022, our backlog will be at nine months, reduced from a 25-month backlog in January 2021. By spring of 2022, we expect to reach about a four-month time frame between accepting an article and publication in its print issue. With our steady increase in submissions, this new flexibility will allow us to publish the highest quality manuscripts without accumulating any backlog.
Online Usage and Disseminating Articles
Through July 31, 2021, JAG readers downloaded 149,565 full text articles, a 47% increase over 101,839 from the same time period in 2020 and twice the 74,925 articles in 2019. The SAGE Publications team employs multiple strategies to bring readers to JAG’s website and tracks and reports Altmetric (alternative metrics) scores, tracking all online references to each article. An Altmetrics widget, a “Trending on Altmetric” tab on the JAG homepage, displays the top five articles with the highest Altmetric scores from the last 3 months, indicating influence and impact. All authors receive information about how to publicize their articles through social media and how to connect with health reporters from various news outlets. SAGE also promotes JAG articles through social media, press releases and blog posts. Remember to check out our podcast series (accessible from JAG’s homepage) where gerontology students interview authors of recently published articles. The students ask excellent questions drawing out fascinating backstories from each author.
Gratitude for Reviewers
We celebrate the many people who returned detailed and insightful article reviews in 2021! JAG’s high quality manuscripts and continuous growth demonstrated by the metrics above flow directly from peer reviewers’ volunteered time and guidance. We especially appreciate Editorial Board member reviewers who provide multiple quick and rigorous reviews every year, enabling us to maintain a short article turnaround time. Using JAG’s “reviewer-in-training” option is a great way to mentor graduate students and junior colleagues! All 2021 peer reviewers and JAG’s select group of Outstanding Reviewers will be listed in January 2022 at: https://journals-sagepub-com.web.bisu.edu.cn/page/jag/reviewers.
Search and Share the Excellent Scholarship in JAG
With this December issue, we have published 213 new articles in 2021 on topics with clinical, public health, policy and research applications in gerontology. Wherever you submit your work, remember to search JAG for new articles to cite and to learn from! Use social media and other online modes to engage in conversations about JAG articles that interest you. If you have authored a JAG article, try out the SAGE Infographic or Video Abstract features and share your feedback with us! And share any other ideas you have with us via JAG’s email address:
JAG’s success depends wholly on the tremendous support from the Editorial Board, the Southern Gerontological Society, SAGE’s highly responsive editorial team, six new Associate Editors, managing editors Christine Bailey & Kaleigh Ligus, authors and reviewers. We will continue to forge ahead through the uncertainties of 2022 and beyond to publish critical applied gerontology research that will benefit older adults and their care providers of all descriptions.
Footnotes
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by Southern Gerontological Society and University of Connecticut (UConn) Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center (P30-AG067988).
Julie Robison Editor, Journal of Applied Gerontology University of Connecticut