JAMA Pediatrics—The Year in Review, 2023

Abstract

For a solid 3 years, COVID-19 commandeered academic publishing. Academic submissions, however, at least for now, seem to be a lagging indicator of the pandemic. While society has lurched back toward normalcy, we are still receiving papers trying to make sense of what we have been through retrospectively. In some ways, more recent papers include studies that are more salient. They have longer follow-up, have larger sample sizes, and have evaluated the effects of more recent strains of the virus. But other reports seem out of date or not clinically informative. For example, we still receive many papers about multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, even though that syndrome seems to have thankfully and inexplicably largely disappeared. And we still receive papers trying to assess and interpret the impact of school closures on viral spread.Notably, in the wake of the pandemic, we are seeing more reports about its aftereffects in children, such as the effects of screen time. A concern prepandemic has been exacerbated by the profound increase in screen use as reflected by our most cited and downloaded articles. [1][2][3] Another is the effect on adolescent mental health; we continue to welcome your papers on this important topic as part of our rolling theme. 4 We have begun to publish articles in our new section of translational research 5 that we think have the potential to significantly improve health outcomes in children. This section aims to help expedite our understanding of disease processes and mechanisms in ways that are accessible to a large audience. We continue to encourage such original research submissions. 6 We also launched the theme issue Artificial Intelligence and Pediatric Care soliciting articles on artificial intelligence as it transitions from a theoretical promise to a practical tool across various pediatric settings and domains. 7 Additionally, for this election year, JAMA and participating JAMA Network journals, including JAMA Pediatrics, are considering studies of health outcomes and policies that will be featured in news reports, candidate platforms, debates, and public discourse in the run-up to the US election, as well as important topics overlooked by the campaigns. 8 We hope the articles in this Health and the 2024 US Election theme will provide actionable evidence for candidates, voters, policymakers, and US and international influencers, and encourage you to submit relevant manuscripts today.By the numbers, JAMA Pediatrics has had another extraordinary year (Table ). [1][2][3][9][10][11][12] In 2023, our acceptance rate for original research was 5%. The denominator is a big part of that rate with 2683 manuscripts submitted and it presents a lot of hard work for a fantastic editorial team, Julie Vo and Jennifer Matte, who process manuscripts, field emails and phone calls, and shepherd the entire process of getting things through the system. Our editorial team includes deputy editor Ron Keren, MD,