This Spring 2019, the Journal of Manual and Manipulative Therapy was notified that it was indexed in MEDLINE and thus accepted by the National Library of Medicine. This is an important step for the Journal and the orthopaedic manipulative physical therapy community as MEDLINE indexing reflects on the objectivity, credibility, and content quality of the Journal. The MEDLINE review process is rigorous and scientific merit of a journal’s content is the primary consideration in selecting journals for indexing. Methods of articles selection, especially on the explicit external peer review process, statements indicating adherence to ethical guidelines, evidence of authors’ financial conflicts of interest disclosure, timely correction of errata, explicit responsible retractions as appropriate, and opportunity for comments and contradictory opinions are evaluated.
Being indexed in MEDLINE is important to a subset of our authors. Many authors are eager to gain an academic title, such as Professor at a particular university. Tenure and promotion committees follow specific procedures to select who meets criteria for specific academic titles. Some decide based on teaching qualitative reviews, reviews of curriculum vitae, grants, and letters of recommendations. Most review publication records, which are scored based on MEDLINE indexing and journal impact factor, which relates to the number of times articles in the journal have been cited in the previous two years. Although not as prevalent in tenure and promotion committees in the United States, promotion committee algorithms are more common in Europe, Asia, Australia and the Middle East. It has been challenging for the Journal to attract submissions from international authors. This should now change!
The first issue of the Journal of Manual and Manipulative Therapy was published in 1993 with co-editors John Medeiros and Stanley Paris, followed by Peter Huijbregts, Chad Cook, Dan Vaughn and myself. Each Journal volume initially contained 4 issues, and moved to 5 issues in 2015 approaching 100 manuscripts’ submissions per year and an acceptance rate of about 35%.
My thanks go to the authors who carry out the science and submit their manuscripts to the Journal, the Journal’s Editors and reviewers for supporting me in raising the scientific merit of the journal and helping selecting the most appropriate and impactful manuscripts for publication, the Deputy Editors Shannon Petersen, Cesar Fernandez-de-las-Penas, Steve Kamper, Duncan Reid and Ken Learman who played key roles in advancing the Journal to MEDLINE status, and finally to the readers, who take the time to offer their input and comments to the manuscripts, challenging them. My thanks extend to our close partners the American Academy of Orthopaedic Manual Physical Therapists, The McKenzie Institute International and OMT-France for their continued support. Articles published in the Journal from 2007 going forward are indexed and discoverable in MEDLINE/PubMed. Although the Journal was available on PubMed with an embargo, it was not indexed in MEDLINE. There will not be any embargo anymore on PubMed and articles will be cited on PubMed upon publication.
Now when I am asked, ‘Is the journal of Manual and Manipulative Therapy indexed in MEDLINE?’ I can answer ‘yes’, and the process to obtain an impact factor is underway as well!
Thank you again for your support of the Journal and our profession.