https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4747-8066
ABSTRACT
We have completed volume 9 of the Journal of Community Hospital Internal Medicine Perspectives – JCHIMP. In this perspective piece we discuss the many achievements of our journal, including our impact factor, the diversity of institutions publishing, our editorial board, and the importance of our reviewers.
Volume 9 of JCHIMP was completed in December 2019. The journal continued to grow and expand as this report will detail. In the 6 issues of volume 9, there was 122 peer-reviewed manuscripts published, an increase of 11% above our previous high in 2016 (). This brings our total in 9 volumes and 46 issues to 672 manuscripts. Similar expansion was seen in article downloads in 2019 ().
Table 1. JCHIMP # of manuscripts and issues per year.
Figure 1. Article downloads.
Our authors in volume 9 came from 69 different institutions, from university and community resources () including 7 from outside the USA. Early submissions for volume 10 indicate continued growth.
Table 2. Institutions published in 2019.
Directions for the journal are provided by the CEB (Chimp Editorial Board) which conferences quarterly and includes a widely diverse membership (). We are extremely pleased that the board now includes Melvin Blanchard, M.D. Dr. Blanchard relocated to Baltimore as chair of medicine at the journal’s home base, Greater Baltimore Medical Center. Dr. Blanchard is past president of the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine while based at Washington University in St. Louis where he was the internal medicine residency program director. Dr. Blanchard will be writing on patient safety in volume 10.
Table 3. Editorial board.
Included in the board-approved recent changes was the decision to publish research from non-internal medicine programs if there would be substantial interest by the readership. The first such paper was published in volume 9 from a pediatric emergency department in Rochester, New York [Citation1].
As those whom have been following this annual column know, JCHIMP has been indexed in the Clarivate Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) for about 24 months at the time of this writing. This has been long enough that we have likely had our first review of citation activity, and we hope to earn our first official impact factor and inclusion in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) when the 2020 report is released later this year. Our publisher, Taylor & Francis, has been able to provide us with an estimated impact factor dating back to the last 4 years:
As can be seen, there has been a steady increase in the estimated impact factor, and the high quality of our work is increasingly viewed, downloaded, and cited. This past year, the most cited article (and third most downloaded), examined a new contributor to the opioid crisis, kratom [Citation2]. The most downloaded article (and second most cited) examined an intervention to combat provider burnout and its linkage to changes in telomere length [Citation3]. As the dual epidemics of the opioid crisis and provider burnout are dominant themes in the medical literature, this shows that the work of our journal is contributing to the national discussion in a meaningful way.
It was hoped that JCHIMP would be a major factor in the development of a wider core of peer reviewers. This has been greatly successful. 170 individual reviewers participated in 2019, many of whom had not been a peer reviewer previously. We provide guidance to potential reviewers, if needed, to assist in learning this skill [Citation4,Citation5].
Of course, the work of the journal would not be possible without the guidance of the editorial board (), the phenomenal work of our peer reviewers (), and the organizational and administrative wizardry of Jen Huff. We thank you all for your dedication to the journal and its mission.
Table 4. 2019 reviewers.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
References
- Jadhav N, Grams K, Alweis R. Cost of a learner in pediatric ED. J Community Hosp Intern Med Perspect. 2019;9(2):80–85.
- Tayabali K, Bolzon C, Foster P, et al. Kratom: a dangerous player in the opioid crisis. Journal of Community Hospital Internal Medicine Perspectives. 2018;8(3):107–110.
- Thimmapuram J, Pargament R, Sibliss K, et al. Effect of heartfulness meditation on burnout, emotional wellness, and telomere length in health care professionals. Journal of Community Hospital Internal Medicine Perspectives. 2017;7(1):21–27.
- Ferguson R, Griffin S. Peer review. J Community Hosp Intern Med Perspect. 2012;2:3.
- Ferguson R. The value of reporting cases. J Community Hosp Intern Med Perspect. 2012;1:4.