The development of the International Spinal Cord Injury Data Sets has been a very large project which commenced following a combined conference of the International Spinal Cord Society (ISCoS) and the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) in 2002. To date, this project has probably involved more than 100 senior clinicians and researchers from around the world. The first paper introducing the Data Sets was published in Spinal Cord in 2006.1 Since this time, nearly 50 papers related to the Data Sets have been published in Spinal Cord. Most of these papers have been open access, increasing their visibility and uptake. In addition, the Data Sets are publicly available on the ISCoS website. Admirably, work continues on developing new, expanded, and revised Data Sets. These Data Sets bring consistency in the way data are collected and will be increasingly important for future research.

Spinal Cord has been, and continues to be, a strong supporter of the Data Sets. They are now routinely developed using a rigorous, objective format and process. However, this edition of Spinal Cord will be the last edition containing a manuscript about the Data Sets.2 In future, these types of papers will be published in our sister journal: Spinal Cord Series and Cases. The only papers related to the Data Sets that will continue to be considered for publication in Spinal Cord are those containing original retrospective or prospective data.

The decision to move manuscripts describing new Data Sets across to Spinal Cord Series and Cases was made after careful consideration by both journals of the pros and cons, and after reflecting on the implications for both journals. One important consideration that fed into this decision was the marked increase in the number of submissions to Spinal Cord over the last year and the resultant increase in its rejection rate of worthwhile original research studies. By moving manuscripts describing new Data Sets across to our sister journal, Spinal Cord can free up pages for other manuscripts. This will better enable Spinal Cord to focus on research. This decision was made easier in the knowledge that papers about the Data Sets would have a good home in Spinal Cord Series and Cases. Therefore, this decision will not impact the visibility or uptake of the Data Sets, and they will continue to be freely available on the ISCoS website (http://www.iscos.org.uk/international-sci-data-sets).