Editor's comments

It has now been just over a year since I took over editorship of Prostate Cancer and Prostate Diseases from my dear friends, Roger Kirby and Judd Moul. I wanted to provide an update on the initiatives we undertook in the past year, provide some updated metrics and outline our strategy for moving forward.

In my first editorial, I outlined five areas in which we sought to make important changes.

• 1 Peer review time: In 2011, the average time from manuscript submission to first decision is under 14 days, with 93% of reviews completed in 30 days or less and 97% in 40 days or less. This is compared with a mean of 21 days in 2010 with only 68% of manuscript having a decision in 30 days or less. This all was accomplished despite a large increase in the number of submissions (see below). Thus, although turnaround times have improved dramatically, we will continue to work to our goal of 100% of reviews in 30 days or less.

• 2 Time to publication: Time to publication for 2010 was a very respectable 25 days. It is important that we continue to keep this turnaround as quick as possible because in today's 24/7 world, authors expect and deserve to have their research published as rapidly as possible.

• 3 High-quality papers: Our approach to increasing the number of high-quality papers has been to target high profile abstracts at meetings and high profile authors. This approach, along with overall increased awareness of the journal have resulted in two significant improvements:

  • 3.1. Number of manuscripts received. If the trends for the first half of 2011 continue, we will see a 35% increase in the number of new manuscripts submitted after being stable for 4 years. May 2011 was highest month in the history of the journal.

  • 3.2. Impact factor. Our 2010 impact factor is 2.326—an 8% increase from 2.096 in 2009. In the Urology/Nephrology category, we moved from no. 30 to no. 28. Thus, although we certainly have work to do, I am proud that our impact factor continues to improve.

• 4 Visibility: A year ago, almost 77,000 people subscribed to our eTable of Contents. Today it is over 92,000 and growing fast. Thus, the word is out there—Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases in an important part of people's literature search.

• 5 User friendly: I have continued my tradition of open contact between authors and myself. For nearly all manuscripts rejected without review, I include my comments on why the manuscript was not appropriate for our journal. Although this provides no ‘benefit’ to our journal per se, I believe authors have a right to understand what I perceived were the key limitations. Likewise, I have at times included ‘editor's comments’ on manuscript reviews and worked with authors to rephrase key sentences of their manuscript to make sure the appropriate message of the manuscript is conveyed when published. I welcome open communication with authors and look forward to more on-going discussions.

Another area we have made major changes is our editorial board. I sought out the brightest up-and-comers from across the globe and across specialties to join me on this adventure. In the past year, we added 14 new editorial board members from six different countries (USA, UK, Italy, Israel, Australia and Canada) and 4 specialties (urology, medical oncology, radiation oncology and epidemiology). I look to this wave of new members as ambassadors of the journal for both recruiting the best papers, but also as key reviewers, and advisors. I look forward to working with each of them over the coming years.

Moving forward, we will continue to solicit the best possible papers. We will continue to strive to return reviews within 30 days. We will continue to publish high-quality primary research and review articles. We will continue our policy of open communication between authors and the editors. This hands-on approach has already seen submissions up 35% this year alone. I fully anticipate that with our turn-around time and visibility being on par or ahead of many other journals that submissions and, especially, high-quality submissions will only increase in the future.

In closing, I am proud of what we have been able to accomplish in just 1 year. Although much work lies ahead, I am pleased with our progress to date and appreciate the support of all the readers, authors, reviewers, editors and publishers. I truly believe the brightest days for Prostate Cancer and Prostate Diseases lie ahead and I am excited to continue leading the ship for another great year to come.