Editorial: 2011 in Review

As has now been the case for several years, both the quality and quantity of research in autism has continued to increase dramatically. This past year, we instituted a policy of blinded reviews that has generally been found helpful by both authors and reviewers. We’ve also become more vigilant about the issue of duplicate publication and, sadly, have dealt with one instance of plagiarism (the first author was admonished, the paper rejected, and a letter went to the co-authors and the institution). During 2011, a record number of papers, reviews, and letters to the editor, 712 in total, were submitted. As in the past, the able staff both at Springer and my office and those of the associate editors have worked diligently to ensure that the papers conform to Journal guidelines before they are sent for review. As a practical matter, this means that most papers are returned quickly to the authors for revision even before going out for peer review. Whenever possible, we attempt to be expeditious with reviews—the turnaround time averaged about 8 weeks (with a few reviews being much faster and some being much slower). One of the problems that we, and other journals, face is ‘reviewer fatigue’. We have taken several steps to deal with the increase in submissions. The associate editors and I have now begun, occasionally to reject papers (about 5%) that we believe simply have little or no chance of making it through the peer review process. As noted previously, we have stopped accepting case reports except as letters to the editor (these take a disproportionate burden of time when submitted as regular papers and create special problems in terms of duplicate publication). We are enlarging our editorial board, and I’m pleased to welcome both the new members of the board, as we bid farewell to those rotating off. We are pleased to welcome two new associate editors to the Journal. Dr. Joshua Diehl from the University of Rochester will replace Dr. Rhea Paul as she steps down from her role of associate editor later this year. Dr. Diehl’s work has focused on improving and understanding social-communication problems in autism. His interests in such areas as adaptive technology bring another important strength to the board. We are also pleased to welcome Dr. Jeremy Veenstra-VanderWeele from Vanderbilt University as a new associate editor. Dr. Veenstra-VanderWeele’s work has focused on animal models and the neurobiology of autism and brings another important perspective to the Journal. Finally, Dr. Brian Reichow, a special educator and expert in evidence-based treatments and practice, is joining us as Book Review Editor. Although JADD is now published every month, the increasing number of submissions means that the rejection rate will continue to increase. Most papers (about 80%) are now revised to ensure that they conform to Journal style even before they enter the review process. Of the papers submitted in 2011 in which an editorial decision was made, the acceptance rate was approximately 38% compared to 45% in 2010; this does not include the small number of papers rejected without review. As always, the diligent efforts of the Editorial Board ensure that the leading scientific papers are selected for publication in JADD each year. As always I’m deeply grateful to the Associate Editors: Nancy Minshew, M.D., Sandra Harris, Ph.D., Christopher McDougle, M.D., Rhea Paul, Ph.D. and Tony Charman, Ph.D. who have so generously and diligently supported the work of the Journal even in the face of the growing number of submissions. I’m also grateful to Lori Klein and Emily F. R. Volkmar (&) Yale Child Study Center, New Haven, CT, USA e-mail: fred.vokmar@yale.edu