“Dear Editor: Can You Please Expedite My Manuscript's Publication in the AJM?”

Article Outline

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Each week, I receive the message cited in the title from one or more of our authors whose manuscripts have been accepted and are scheduled for publication in The American Journal of Medicine. Reasoning behind these requests varies but often has to do with desires on the author's part for priority in the medical literature, grant application timing, and a variety of other reasonable and pressing issues. Of course, if we move this manuscript ahead in the publication queue, another author's publication date has to be delayed because we decide which material will be published in a specific issue a number of months in advance of the actual publication date. In an ideal world, we would publish manuscripts as soon as they had been accepted and copy edited by the team here in Tucson and in New York at Elsevier headquarters. However, the process leading to publication requires time spent in manuscript revision, copy editing, typesetting, proofreading, approval of the galley proofs by authors, and other more minor administrative issues related to the publication process. I actually have been very impressed with how quickly Elsevier and the printer who actually prints the Journal respond to our digitally transmitted publication materials.

In an effort to speed publication and to help our authors communicate with the medical scientific world as quickly as possible, we have instituted a process whereby manuscripts are posted on our journal website as soon as copy editing is finished, and the authors approve the galley proof. Pubmed cites this electronic publication date which usually occurs 1 to several months before the article appears in the print edition of The American Journal of Medicine. This digital process has been welcomed by many of our authors who have written to me requesting expedited publication of their work. On very rare occasions, I do move material forward in the publication queue because the work is of such importance that the editorial board feels that urgent communication of this work is in the interest of physicians and the general public. This occurred recently with a work that was widely cited in the current healthcare reform debate underway in the USA. We expedited the publication of this article because we felt that the information contained in it was relevant to many of the points being discussed in Congress at the time.

So, how can authors expedite the publication of their articles in the The American Journal of Medicine? First, the process of publication can be expedited if manuscripts sent to us comply with our instructions to authors which can be found on the Journal's website (http://www.amjmed.com/authorinfo). The publication process is markedly expedited if we receive a manuscript that complies with our requirements. We are frequently forced to send manuscripts back to authors for required revisions that could have been avoided if the instructions had been followed initially.

Secondly, authors can help us get their manuscripts published expeditiously on our website if they attend promptly to requests for revisions requested by our peer reviewers. At times, we have to remind authors several times that we are awaiting a revised manuscript from them. Such delays in the return of the revised article definitely slow the publication process.

Finally, authors can help us to speed publication of manuscripts by promptly reading, returning, and approving galley proofs. Once we have a completed, revised, and proofed manuscript in hand, we will rapidly place this article on our website, and Pubmed and other citation instruments will use the date of electronic publication in the citation reference.

The editorial board of The American Journal of Medicine greatly appreciates the interest shown by authors who wish to publish with us. Please help us expedite this process as outlined above. Adherence to the suggestions made in this editorial will benefit both authors and The American Journal of Medicine.

As always, feel free to comment on this editorial and other Journal content on our blog http://amjmed.blogspot.com.