Achieving Our Mission: Breadth in the Best Basic and Clinical Sleep Research

THE MISSION OF SLEEP IS TO REPORT HIGH-QUALITY SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES THAT ADVANCE BASIC UNDERSTANDING OF SLEEP MECHANISMS, IDENTIFY THE vital roles sleep has in maintenance of health and functioning, and provide evidence for specific causes of sleep disorders and their effective treatments. There are a number of ways to measure the extent to which we are succeeding in this mission, and it is gratifying to report that these metrics bring continued good news. Foremost among them is the impact factor of the journal. The impact factor for SLEEP increased to 5.126 in 2006.1 By this criterion, the journal continues its leadership position among sleep publications globally, and more importantly among those that publish original scientific discoveries in the areas of basic and clinical sleep research.2 While many in our field are aware of this leadership and the fact that SLEEP is the oldest continuously published scientific journal dedicated to the field,3 perhaps many fewer are aware that the current impact factor of the journal places it within the top 10 percentile of all journals in the categories of “Clinical Neurology” (8th percentile of 146 journals) and “Psychiatry” (9th percentile of 95 journals), and at the 11th percentile of journals listed in the “Medicine, General and Internal“ category, 14th percentile of journals listed in the “Neurosciences“ category, and 9th percentile of journals in the “Respiratory System” category.1 This means that SLEEP has a higher impact factor than nearly 90% of journals that also (occasionally) publish original sleep research.1 These numbers should encourage both basic and clinical sleep researchers to select SLEEP over other specialty journals with lower impact factors, and reinforce those that continue to contribute excellent scientific papers to SLEEP.4 Submissions of original scientific manuscripts to SLEEP have also increased by 23%, to 429 original manuscripts in 2006 relative to 2005. These submissions came from all over the world. The subset selected for publication in SLEEP included reports from molecular genetics and neurobiology of sleep/circadian mechanisms; experiments on sleep in relation to vital physiological and neurobehavioral functions; translational and clinical research on sleep disorders and clinical trials; population-based research on sleep and morbidity/mortality; mathematical models of sleep-wake dynamics; evidenced-based theoretical perspectives on sleep functions; and neuroimaging and other novel methodologies to investigate sleep. In short, they reflected the remarkable range of sleep science performed globally. Thus SLEEP continues to be a multidisciplinary international journal. With more submissions and higher acceptance standards, the rejection rate for SLEEP has increased over the past year. We will strive to maintain it at this higher level of selectivity, which is essential if the journal is to achieve its mission of publishing the best original science.5 One of the inevitable consequences of holding a journal to higher standards for publication is that many interesting scientific papers are not selected, but ultimately are published in other journals. This is expected and reflects the need for more journals to accommodate the sheer volume of sleep papers being written. It also reflects the proliferation of journals by publishing companies seeking market share in the scientific/biomedical area. There are other good reasons for submitting excellent original scientific papers to SLEEP. PubMed now provides access to SLEEP articles. Articles are now available on line as soon as they are accepted, and exciting new findings that warrant it can be fast-tracked for “rapid publication” within a month or two of acceptance. The journal also increased its ability to handle all aspects of sleep science in the past year. The Editorial Board was expanded a year ago to reflect the breadth of knowledge and scientific expertise needed for an international multidisciplinary journal. Deputy and Associate Editors were given a greater role managing peer review and advising on what science should be published. Rapid Review was implemented to electronically manage manuscripts, and both track and improve the performance of the Editorial Board and all reviewers. Our excellent Editorial Office staff quickly mastered the new system, and implemented various production quality control procedures to eliminate errors in published manuscripts. Ethical guidelines for scientific journals were instituted for all contributing authors, Editorial Board members and reviewers. Improvements such as these will continue to ensure the journal fulfills its mission. SLEEP can only be as good as the community of professionals that support it as authors, reviewers, and readers. Ultimately, publication of outstanding original sleep science requires submission of excellent papers, high standards for disciplined evaluation, and an acceptance that scientific advance depends on rigorous attention to detail and a relentless pursuit of evidence for how nature really is rather than how we would like to fine it. The continued success of SLEEP rests with everyone vested in advances in sleep research, everyone who believes in the uniqueness of our science-based interdisciplinary field, and everyone who relies on sleep research to advance basic understanding of sleep and to provide evidence for the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders. Sincerely, David F. Dinges, Ph.D. Editor-in-Chief, SLEEP http://www.journalsleep.org/