Hot Topics and Cool Collaborations: Special Issues and Collaborative Publishing Council of Science Editors Annual Meeting May 17, 2010 Annette Flanagin JAMA and Archives Journals

Hot topics and cool collaborations JAMA theme issues and how topics are selected Concerns and risks Measurements/indicators of success/impact of theme issues Global theme issues, including the CSE theme issue on poverty and human development

JAMA theme issues 4-6 theme issues/year of 48 annual issues Objectives: raise awareness, build relationships with researchers in specific fields, stimulate research and funding Hot topics: eg, genetics, translational research, obesity, cancer, mental health Important topics: eg, violence/human rights, medical education, global health Cool collaboration: Annual consortium theme issue - JAMA + 9 Archives Specialty Journals

How topics for theme issues are selected and promoted for JAMA Annual modified delphi ballot among decision making editors and editorial board members (about people) –Round 1: Begins with each person nominating up to 5 topics –Round 2: Topics (approximately 50) are listed alphabetically, and each participant selects 5 of the topics –Round 3: Topics are tallied and rank ordered by numbers of votes received and discussed at an editorial board meeting Lead topic is selected as the consortium theme issue for JAMA and 9 Archives Specialty Journals Other topics are selected for JAMA Call for papers is published 9-12 months before issue date Researchers and leaders in the field contacted Recommended manuscript submission deadline is about 5 months before issue date

Concerns about publishing theme issues Turnaround times –5 months (180 days): typical submission deadline to publication date –Longer than JAMA’s median time from submission to publication Quality of content of articles for the theme issue –Will there be enough submissions? –Will the quality of the manuscripts match that of others? –Will there be a sufficient qualified and available reviewer pool to review the submissions? –Will Impact Factor be affected? –Will readers and other stakeholders be turned off?

JAMA’s theme issue on Global Health, June 2, 2004 Important topic, hot topic, state of science? 162 papers submitted from 774 authors and 61 countries (in 2004, 5184 major manuscripts submitted) 14 papers accepted for publication; 9% acceptance rate (standard acceptance rate = 6%) Issue included high-quality research articles –4 randomized trials conducted in resource-poor communities to evaluate interventions aimed at preventing diseases and disorders prevalent in the developing world –4 observational studies measuring the frequency of specific health problems and associated risk factors for a number of important worldwide public health concerns

JAMA’s theme issue on global health: measuring influence Topics covered include 8 of leading causes of global burden of disease: ischemic heart disease, depression, road traffic collisions, pulmonary disease, tuberculosis, diarrheal diseases, HIV/AIDS, malaria Widespread news coverage, including 140 TV news reports reaching an estimated US audience of 8.5 million (international audience not assessed)

Measuring the influence Articles published on “global health” in JAMA before and after 2004 theme issue 226 articles in PubMed,

Measuring the impact of theme issues Compare citations to articles in theme issue (1-2 years after publication) to citations to articles published in other issues Compare usage stats, eg, article and pdf downloads of articles in theme issue compared to other issues Consider “rolling theme issues,” in which articles on the theme are published online as accepted and perhaps published in print as a collection later

Global theme issue Journals throughout the world simultaneously publishing on a single topic of worldwide interest – to raise awareness, stimulate interest, stimulate research 1996 Global Theme Issue on Emerging and Reemerging Global Microbial Threats –More than 200 articles published by 36 journals from 21 countries 1997 Global Theme Issue on Aging –97 journals in 31 countries International collaboration – journals from developed and developing countries

CSE global theme issue on poverty and human development Open invitation to journals from all sciences –Medicine, Environmental Science, Biology, Chemistry, Agriculture, Physics, Social Science, Nursing, Allied sciences Announced at 2006 CSE Annual Meeting

CSE global theme issue on poverty and human development - initial participating journals JAMA Lancet Science Nature/NPG Journals PNAS PLoS Medicine PLos Clinical Trials PLos Biology Clinics Annals of African Medicine Environmental Health Perspectives Circulation Circulation Research Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology Hypertension Stroke Mountain Research and Development Canadian Pharmacists Journal

Call for collaboration Editors from initial participating journals helped pick the common publication date and committed to publish at least one article on the topic on that date Formal commitment and plan announced to CSE members Announcements on listerves, via , and Web sites of other societies for editors: EASE, AESE, WAME, INANE Announcements to publishers

CSE Global Theme Issue on Poverty and Human Development 237 participating journals from 37 countries Published more than 750 articles on poverty and human development Released on the same day – October 22, 2007 CSE collaborated with NIH to sponsor a half-day event for presentation of research articles nominated by participating journals and selected by CSE and NIH reviewers Widespread news media coverage of the global theme issue and research published in individual journals The journals and the articles published represented all regions of the world and included 112 countries - details available on the CSE Web site at

CSE Web Site, October 2007 Most active day ever: October 22,2007 with 93,958 hits (average current number of hits/day: 46,268) CSE Home Page Global Theme Issue Login Page Positions Available

Future global themes? Challenges –Selecting a common topic In advance by a few vs voting by many? –Selecting a common publication/embargo date Need to ensure fair participation of journals of various publication/article release frequency First day of a month vs association with important date? –Coordination Requires an editor with support from an assistant Call for next CSE theme issue –Proposed topic: Climate change –Volunteers from participants in sessions

Thank you. Annette Flanagin