The American Journal of Hematology, 2011 and beyond
Authors: Carlo Brugnara, Ayalew Tefferi
Journal: American Journal of Hematology (2010)

2011 is the fifth year for the new editorial team of AJH, an appropriate point in time to highlight new features and initiatives and assess our progress over the last 4 years. A major focus of our activities continues to be the publication of educational material and clinically relevant contributions, which benefit both trainees and practicing hematologist/oncologists. We have published several cases for our feature Solving Clinical Problems in Blood Diseases, as well as several discussions of specific hematology tests in our Test of the Month feature, this last one coordinated by our Associate Editor Dr. Elizabeth van Cott. In 2010, we launched two new features, which are intended to provide additional educational material for our readership. As a companion to the Morphology Update articles of Prof. Barbara Bain, we have introduced Bone Marrow Update, which the intent of providing both bone marrow aspirate and biopsy images/correlations on relevant cases. Prof. Kikkeri Naresh (Hammersmith Hospital and Imperial College, London, UK) is heading this initiative. We have also begun publishing in 2010 Diagnostic Imaging in Hematology: this feature highlights images of techniques (X-rays, CT scans, MRI, Nuclear Medicine scans and ultrasound), which provide relevant diagnostic and clinical information for patients affected by hematological disorders. All the articles mentioned above can now be easily located in the redesigned AJH web page in our special features area (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/%28ISSN%291096-8652). In 2010, we initiated the publication of Training Programs in Blood Diseases, a two-page description of a specific training program in Hematology/Oncology. The objective of this feature is to highlight specific features and accomplishments of a training program in Hematology/Oncology from a trainee's perspective. We hope that this feature will help both programs and trainees in their selection of the perfect match. We published in the 2010 March/April issues of AJH a set of ten ASH reports. These brief reports provide a commentary on the most significant contributions presented at the ASH meeting in a specific area. They are intended to provide a rapid summary on the latest development in a specific field, based on the material presented at the ASH meeting. We have also published abstracts from the 2009 BioIron meeting, the 2009 and 2010 Sickle Cell Disease Research and Educational Symposium, the 2009 8th International Luebeck Conference and the 2010 European Iron Club meeting. Starting January 2011, Vincent Rajkumar and Ayalew Tefferi are launching a new feature in AJH called: “Annual Clinical Updates in Hematological Malignancies: A Continuing Medical Education Series”. We plan to publish at least one article per month, which will provide a yearly update on a specific topic of Malignant Hematology. Each article is intended to be the most authoritative document in the diagnosis, risk stratification and management of a specific disease, with an updated version of each article to be published yearly. Each article is accompanied by a set of questions, which will allow readers to obtain Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits via Wiley-Blackwell. We continue to handle an increasing number of submissions, and have maintained our rapid review times and an acceptance rate below 25% for regular research articles. We continue to use our rapid rejection modality within 3-4 days from submission, based on internal pre-review. We are happy to see a continuing upward trend in our impact factor: The impact factor for AJH climbed from 1.882 in 2006 to 1,949 in 2007, 2.126 in 2008 and 2.61 in 2009, with a corresponding improvement in rankings among hematology journals. In 2009 AJH ranked 28/61 hematology journals. Our preliminary estimates of the AJH 2010 impact factor suggest that it will improve on the 2009 values and approach the 3.0 level. We have also seen a continuous increase in the number of full-text downloads, with the August 2010 number of full-text up 52% over 2009, and September 2010 up 114% over the prior year. Starting in 2008, Wiley-Blackwell has been sponsoring the AJH Young Investigator's Award (AJH-YIA). The competition is open to clinical and basic scientists at the undergraduate, graduate, postgraduate, resident, and fellow levels working in academia, industry, or research institutions. Applicants may not have more than the equivalent of five years full-time postdoctoral or post-residency research experience, as documented by a curriculum vitae and letter of confirmation from a supervisor, mentor, or department head. Prior winners were Dr. Alan Bryce in 2008, and Dr. Liang Zhang in 2009 . We are happy to congratulate Dr. Vijay Ramakrishnan as the winner of the 2010 AJH-YIA We wish to thank you our reviewers for 2009-2010, who have made the success of AJH possible with their careful, critical reviews of submitted manuscripts. The attached on line document provides a listing of their names. We continue to have an experienced and dedicated team of professionals taking care of AJH at Wiley-Blackwell: we appreciate the hard work of our Editorial Manager and Associate Publisher Anna Wesley, of our Senior Managing Editor, Karen Accavallo, our Production Manager Sharon Matheus, and our Journal Manager and Production editor at Cadmus Communications, Carol Hagan. We are looking forward to continuing our team work and further improving the standing of AJH among hematology journals. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.