It has been a true honor and privilege to have served the JNSPG as editor-in-chief these past five years. At the time that I transitioned into the position in 2012, I was very fortunate to have had great mentorship provided by John A. Jane Sr., MD, PhD, FAANS(L). Using all that he taught me during the transition period, I strongly believe we have made significant strides in improving all facets of the Journals to maintain our coveted position in neurosurgical publications. From the redesign, to the stellar content within each issue, to the many new initiatives we have put into place, such as Levels of Evidence, Broca’s Area and additional video stand-alone issues, we continue to innovate in the world of scientific publications. And as you will see from the contents of this report, we are promulgating our message through the implementation of a deliberate social media campaign.

The Journal of Neurosurgery Publishing Group (JNSPG) continues to publish 52 issues per year (36 print, 12 electronic and four video supplements). In 2017, we received 5,254 submissions for all four journals and the video supplements, slightly over the 2016 total submissions.

A special thanks should be given to Willian T. Couldwell, MD, PhD, FAANS; Jason P. Sheehan, MD, PhD, FAANS; and Aaron A. Cohen-Gadol, MD, MSc, MBA, FAANS; for their involvement with Neurosurgical Focus and its video content issues. When compared to previous years, Neurosurgical Focus included a diverse array of topic editors with international reputations this past year.

I would like to recognize these outstanding chairmen who have performed so effectively during their terms on the editorial board:

Russell R. Lonser, MD, FAANS; Rajiv Midha, MD, MS, FAANS, FRCS; and Dr. Jason Sheehan for Journal of Neurosurgery

Michael Y. Wang, MD, FAANS; Charles L. Branch Jr., MD, FAANS; Michael G. Kaiser, MD, FAANS; for Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine

John C. Wellons III, MD, FAANS; and Corey Raffel, MD, PhD, FAANS; for Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics

As I am finishing a five-year term, which began in April 2013, I thought it might be interesting to provide a high-level review of some of our accomplishments:

1. We embarked on and published a new strategic plan for the JNSPG entitled “Tradition — Transition — Transformation 2015–2018”. We are in the midst of revamping our strategic plan for 2019–2022, so please stay tuned!
2. In 2015, we completely changed the face of the JNSPG, implementing a new cover design and altering the way in which content is viewed and tracked through the use of novel icons and hyperlinks to other collections. I wrote an editorial on the topic of the redesign (J Neurosurg 123: 297–298, 2015).
3. Sadly, we lost Dr. John Jane Sr. on September 18, 2015. In his name and honor, and for all of his many contributions to the Journal, we devoted two editorials to him (J Neurosurg 124: 5–6, 2016; and J Neurosurg 124: 1–4, 2016). The cover issue of JNS for January 2016 was a portrait of Dr. Jane in silhouette, created by letters representing the names of the various rose species in the world – a beautiful tribute by our own Kate Mason, manuscript editor, JNSPG.
4. Given the importance of neuroanatomy in our specialty and the special contributions Albert Rhoton Jr., MD, FAANS, made throughout his career, we realized and implemented a timely collaboration with the Rhoton Collection®. Many thanks are given to Jeffrey M. Sorenson, MD, FAANS, department of neurosurgery, University of Tennessee, for facilitating this initiative, and to James Dell, information technology coordinator, JNSPG. This linkage with the Rhoton Collection® was highlighted in an editorial (J Neurosurg 125: 4–6, 2016). Sadly, Dr. Rhoton passed February 21, 2016, (see obituary J Neurosurg 125: 1–3, 2016), but not before he knew about the collaboration between the Journal and his collection.
5. We celebrated the 20th Anniversary of Neurosurgical Focus, the first freely accessible, online journal in the world. Focus was the brainchild of Martin H. Weiss, MD, FAANS(L), whom we celebrated in an editorial (Neurosurg Focus 40: E1, 2016), just as we welcomed the new editor of Focus, Dr. William Couldwell.
6. We initiated a new submission category in the Journal entitled “Broca’s Area”. This new category enables us to publish timely opinion pieces and controversies that may arise in neurosurgery and are worthy of promulgation (J Neurosurg: Pediatrics 18: 125–126, 2016).
7. Given the importance of evidence-based medicine (EBM) in all aspects of neurosurgery, we started to publish classes of evidence for select articles in the Journal. We were assisted in this important project by Michael Glantz, MD, department of neurosurgery, Penn State University. Several articles have now undergone commentary with classes of evidence provided, and this became the subject of an editorial (J Neurosurg 126: 1747–1748, 2017).
8. Since becoming EIC of the JNSPG, I have truly admired the outstanding work of Dr. Aaron Cohen-Gadol in his creation of The Neurosurgical Atlas. I have worked with him on several chapters of his Atlas. However, an opportunity arose for us to collaborate and to provide hyperlinks from terms within various journal articles to the Atlas. We have now codified this relationship, and look forward to the creation of a more sustainable long-term relationship with the Atlas.
9. I have been delighted to see the rise in our impact factors for all journals these past five years. Our impact factors for 2016 are as follows: Journal of Neurosurgery: 4.059; Neurosurgical Focus: 3.139; Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine: 2.696; and Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics: 2.170. These are the highest impact factors we have ever reported. A big thanks to the editorial board members for selecting the best manuscripts for publication. Also, special thanks to Douglas S. Kondziolka, MD, FAANS, who helped with the writing of an editorial on our concerted effort to publish the best studies in neurosurgery (J Neurosurg 126: 1445–1447, 2017).
10. We have paid special attention to the adage “less is more” with our refinement of manuscript elements. We have now placed limits on the length of the abstract, the text of the manuscript, the number of references and the number of figures for all submissions. Economy of language is critical to the success of any journal (J Neurosurg 128: 1–2, 2018).
11. We have launched a highly effective social media campaign thanks to the efforts of Naif M. Alotaibi, MD, from the University of Toronto, and the entire social media team for the JNSPG. Currently, we have 33,555 Facebook followers, 10,300 Twitter followers and 11,700 Instagram followers.
12. We have started to translate JNSPG articles into other languages, with the most recent example being a conjoint publication with the Ukrainian Association of Neurosurgeons in Russian and soon in Ukrainian.
13. We are actively planning the 75th anniversary celebration of JNS, which will take place in 2019. Special monthly articles, invited editorials and historical vignettes will be published throughout the year as we celebrate this great milestone.

Tempus fugit. It is hard for me to believe that I have now finished my first term as editor-in-chief of the JNSPG. What an extraordinary privilege it has been to lead such talented groups of women and men at all levels of the organization. I am extremely excited to see where the next five years will take us, and I am so pleased to be a part of it all.

James T. Rutka, MD, PhD, FAANS
Editor-in-Chief