Greetings from the New Editor


EDITORIAL

Greetings from the New Editor

Michael Diringer1

Published online: 22 January 2018
� Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018

I am excited and grateful to have been selected to be the

second Editor-in-Chief of Neurocritical Care. It is a bit

daunting to accept the reins from someone who had the

vision to create this journal, the drive to bring it to fruition,

and the dedication and hard work needed to manage it. My

personal measure of success will be, to borrow from Ralph

Waldo Emerson, for the journal to win the respect of

intelligent people.

Moving forward, I would like to share my thoughts on

the role the journal plays and how it will evolve. I envision

that, as the official journal of the Neurocritical Care

Society, Neurocritical Care will be the primary source for

presenting scientific investigations, critical analysis, and

informed discussion of issues addressing the care of the

patients we serve. It will serve as an international forum for

the exchange of ideas, information, and strategies that

address the major challenges facing our field. Readers will

turn to the journal to inform immediate care decisions,

deepen knowledge, and advance further scientific discov-

ery. Finally, it will take an active role in educating its

readers about how to interpret the literature.

The journal serves several constituencies. First and

foremost its readers, especially the members of the Neur-

ocritical Care Society, followed closely by its authors.

Others include our patients, the scientific community and

the publisher. Each has different interests, goals and

motivations for interacting with the journal that are not

always in concert. Readers seek fresh and exciting infor-

mation that advances the care of their patients and to better

understand how to interpret the material they are being

presented. Authors seek an easy submission and review

process, strive to get their work reported in a prestigious

journal, and demonstrate their academic productivity. Our

patients and the scientific community demand rigor and

integrity to ensure that high quality work is presented.

My goal is to achieve some balance between these

competing goals. In this age of rating scales, the Impact

Factor has been the go-to metric for assessing journals. Yet

it hardly captures the range of factors that make a journal

successful and is subject to manipulation. It discourages

publishing papers from early career investigators, along

with educational and other material that is of interest to the

readers but not necessarily citable. Other scales are being

developed that may broaden the scope of evaluation; time

will tell. However, as the journal evolves, my focus will be

serving its constituencies rather than a rating scale.

Over the next several issues, a number of changes will

be implemented. In this issue the editorial board has been

refreshed, article types and requirements revised, and the

page layout modified. Soon the cover will have a new look.

An article will be selected in each issue as a feature article.

The education focus will include more commentaries on

articles, discussions on how to interpret the literature,

debate of current controversies, and news and updates from

the Neurocritical Care Society.

Reviewers are the backbone of the peer review process.

They volunteer their time and energy with no compensa-

tion. Without them, we could not function, yet no means of

rewarding their efforts currently exists. As a first step in

that direction, we will be awarding prizes to top reviewers

and sending letters to each reviewer’s employer acknowl-

edging their hard work and urging that it be considered

when evaluating their performance.

I look forward to being able to build upon the strong

foundation laid by Dr. Wijdicks. Medicine and the medical

literature are going through a period of enormous change,

and I am grateful for and challenged by the opportunity to

lead our journal during these interesting times.

& Michael Diringer
diringerm@wustl.edu

1
Department of Neurology, Washington University in Saint

Louis, St Louis, MO, USA

Neurocritical Care (2018) 28:1
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12028-018-0504-1(0123456789().,-volV)(0123456789().,-volV)

http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s12028-018-0504-1&domain=pdf
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s12028-018-0504-1&domain=pdf
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12028-018-0504-1

	Greetings from the New Editor