The year 2009 is a major milestone in the growth and evolution of the journal Sleep Medicine. It is hard to believe Sleep Medicine is starting its 10th year anniversary. The journal was founded in 2000 with four issues per year. The manuscripts started flowing faster than we anticipated, and hence in 2001 we increased the number of issues per year to six. The number and quality of publication continued to enhance and in 2006 we progressed to eight issues. I am happy to say that due to increasing demand we are increasing the number of issues to 10 on this 10th anniversary of the journal.
The success of a scientific journal depends on many people. I thank all of you, the readers and contributors of Sleep Medicine, the dedicated reviewers, the editorial board members including the field editors and associate editors, the publishing staff in Amsterdam and Ireland and the editorial assistant in the Edison, New Jersey office. Thank you all, and greetings for a happy and prosperous New Year. We begin our 10th year anniversary celebration with hope, optimism and excitement for continued improvement of the journal. We have seen progressive growth in excellence, reputation and circulation, but we have a long way to go, a long way to go.
2. Editorial board
We are adding the following new editorial board members to the journal who will bring valuable and varied expertise and strength to the journal: Drs. H. Montgomery-Downs, A. Kaditis and R. Horne will compliment the existing board members (e.g., Drs. O. Bruni, D. Gozal, R. Ferber and S.H. Sheldon) with expertise in pediatric sleep medicine; Drs. N. Punjabi and R. Basner with their special expertise in respiratory sleep disorders, Dr. R. Smith with his superb credentials in insomnia and last but not least Dr. R. Kohnen with his special talents in statistical analysis and restless legs syndrome. After many years of dedicated service to the editorial board, on the 10th year we are retiring the following superb sleep scientists and clinicians: Drs. H. Moldofsky, R. Reimao, C.N. Chen and A. Bové-Ribé. We are most grateful for their excellent service which has made Sleep Medicine a premier source of information in clinical sleep science. The seven field editors (Drs. R. Allen, O. Bruni, C. Guilleminault, L. Ferini-Strambi, P. Levy, M. Sanders and D. Pevernagie) have been of great and invaluable help to the editor-in-chief in handling the ever increasing manuscript flow to the journal. We are not only receiving an increasing number of submissions but increasingly high quality scientific articles. To clear our print backlog we are forced to raise the bar and alter our priority score, causing an increasing number of rejections of articles. I send my sincere apologies to all those contributors, knowing fully well how much work has gone to produce those articles. We will eliminate special section editors for review articles, controversies, scientific highlights and web watch. All these special section editors will remain on the editorial board and these topics will be handled by associate and field editors and the rest of the editorial board members.
3. Special issues and supplements
We are periodically publishing special issues (a particular topic devoted to the entire regular issue of the journal) and supplements generated from a variety of meetings, symposia and proceedings. We are planning two special issues on epidemiology and pediatric sleep medicine. Last year we had one supplement supported by Sanofi-Aventis.
4. New section
On this 10th anniversary year we will introduce a new section, video corners, combining with clinical corners, supervised by three immensely qualified co-section editors, Drs. A. Avidan, L. Nobili and L. Parrino. I am confident and absolutely certain you will find these online video segments interesting. We would very much like to have your input and opinions about these contributions. We encourage you to submit interesting, challenging and unique sleep-related cases with video segments based on real clinical situations to the Edison, NJ editorial office for consideration for publication. Instructions for this section will be included in the journal’s guide for authors. Video illustrations in sleep medicine can be an extremely effective way to learn to appreciate and teach about the spectrum of sleep disorders in a proactive manner. Every video submission must consist of high-resolution images and have a consent form for publication for educational purposes signed by the patient.
Briefly the general format is as follows, not to exceed 750 words, 10 references and 2 figures:
1)Introduction of the case stating the purpose and unusual and interesting aspects of the video.
2)Case description including chief complaint, past and present medications and history and physical findings.
3)Video analysis of data including representative examples from the patient’s polysomnogram. The Editors reserve the right to ask for additional video/s or video modifications.
4)Brief discussion of the differential diagnosis and therapeutic challenge.
5. New service for the journal
5.1. What’s new on sleep medicine online?
Beginning with a future issue we will inform the readers in advance with a brief abstract what has been published online most recently. We hope this will satisfy those contributors whose print publication has been delayed and will give the readers a glimpse of any new research findings soon after acceptance of a manuscript. We would very much like input from our readers and contributors to tell us at the editorial office if you find this service useful. Please visit http://www.sciencedirect.com which can be accessed through institutional or individual subscription.
6. Duplicate publication
We have had our share of dealing with the unfortunate situation of apparent duplicate publication in the journal. We became aware of an unfortunate incident last year and we will publish a statement of retraction in this issue similar to the statement made by the other journal where similar publication appeared. We depend on the integrity and ethical honesty of our scientists and clinicians to avoid duplicate publication in the journal. The driving force for such a submission (I must say this is rare) is the scientific pressure to “publish or perish.” The editorial board members and reviewers remain vigilant, but I hope this will not be repeated.
Disclosure and conflict of interest statement
The purpose of disclosure and conflict of interest statement is to protect the scientific integrity of the journal and its contributors. It is becoming more and more important to provide a disclosure and conflict of interest (DCI) statement as more and more publications derived from clinical trial events are being funded by the pharmaceutical industry. Such a statement also applies to industries sponsoring various devices used to diagnose and treat sleep-related disorders and also to geneticists who are playing such a vital role in unraveling the mysteries of diseases. There is always an inherent bias if an investigator is funded by a company to study a drug or a device manufactured by the industry. However, there are ways to conduct such studies in an impartial and unbiased manner, and the DCI is a vehicle to express impartiality and at the same time participate in a clinical trial which is very important for patient care and treatment. Building a trust between the writer and the reader is important to the credibility of a journal. Based on the DCI, the reviewers, editors and readers of the journal must decide whether a potential bias exists in a particular publication. We would like to adopt most of the policies in a recent update of the Journal of the American Medical Association’s (JAMA) conflict of interest policy (Annette Flanagin, RN, MA; Phil. B. Fontanarosa, MD, MBA; Catherine D. DeAngelis, MD, MPH. Update on JAMA’s Conflict of Interest Policy. JAMA. 2006;296:220–21.) This includes full disclosure of conflicts of interest from all authors (those submitting editorials, reviews, original articles, brief communications, case reports, letters to the editor, images in sleep medicine, video–clinical corners, special sections, historical aspects), and also includes declaration of no conflicts of interest in the Acknowledgements section of manuscripts. This will be in addition to “Author(s) Concurrence Forms” signed by all authors declaring their individual role and attesting to the fact that the work is not a duplicate publication. The DCI should include complete disclosure of all relevant financial interests and relationships or financial conflict or potential conflict (e.g., grants, funding, employment, affiliation, consultancies, honoraria, speaker’s bureau, stock options or ownerships, equity interests, royalties, patents filed, received or pending). We do not require disclosure of the dollar amount but the existing policy of Sleep Medicine requires a declaration of whether the dollar amount is less than or in excess of USD $10,000 per year. It is particularly important for the authors employed by an industry supporting the research and publication of the paper to fully disclose as stated above and state that the results of the study had been independently verified with free access to the data. A statement should also be made that the manuscript is prepared by the stated authors and not by the “ghost” writers.
WASM-ELSEVIER award
I would like to remind you about two scientific awards (the WASM-ELSEVIER Christian Guilleminault Sleep Research and Elio Lugaresi Sleep Education awards) for best original research papers published or accepted for publication in Sleep Medicine by young investigators within five years of post-training at the time of submission. These two awards will be given at the third WASM Congress in Sao Paulo, Brazil, November 7–11, 2009. The investigators (first authors) whose papers have been accepted for publication between October 1, 2006 and July 1, 2009 are eligible and encouraged to submit a request to this office for consideration for these awards.
We encourage all of our readers and potential contributors to submit your best research work to the journal for consideration for publication. We also invite you to send comments on any aspects of an article as a Letter to the Editor which will be considered by the editor-in-chief for possible publication with an accompanying response from the original authors. The final publication will be at the discretion of the editor-in-chief depending on the timeliness of the response and the importance of the topic.
I conclude this 10th anniversary editorial by wishing all of you once again a joyous and happy New Year; we all look forward to another exciting and vibrant year of rich scientific publications to whet the appetite of prospective contributors and readers.
JFK New Jersy Neuroscience Institute, 65 James Street, Edison, NJ 08818, United States
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