Pediatrics announces enhancements for 2018

The new year will bring new features to the Academy’s flagship Pediatricsjournal, including video abstracts and additional input from the public.

“All of these changes are really a result of listening to our readers and listening to our patients who have told us what they would hope to see in our journal,” said Pediatrics Editor Lewis R. First, M.D., M.S., FAAP.

Dr. First said he is most excited about strengthening the journal’s partnerships with families. In 2017, families of patients began co-authoring special articles with their health care providers. The journal will expand on those collaborations, giving the public more opportunities to weigh in on patient-centered articles and whether they are relevant, what can be added and the importance of the outcomes. The editorial board also plans to add a member of the public in 2018.

“If the model of care delivery nowadays is truly to be child- and family-centered, then our journal needs to exemplify that as well,” Dr. First said.

The Pediatrics team hopes to generate even more buzz for journal articles using video abstracts. The editorial board will begin asking authors of some studies to record three- to five-minute videos that will appear with their online article and on social media. Some videos may feature authors summarizing their work, while others will be in an interview format.

“We really wanted to use social media and to help spread the word of the relevancy and the practicality and the excitement of the studies we’re publishing in our journal,” Dr. First said.

Authors and readers alike will be able to see whether those efforts are successful using the new Altmetrics tab that shows how much attention studies are receiving from news outlets and social media.

Readers can expect to see new Pediatric Collections on immunization, obesity, food allergies and breastfeeding in 2018. The collections bring studies and related blogs and AAP News articles on hot topics into one place for researchers, clinicians and public health officials. Last year’s collections included e-cigarettes, firearms, medical marijuana and opioids (http://collections.aap.org).

The team also hopes to improve the reading experience with the recent introduction of LENS, which allows readers to view charts and figures side-by-side with articles. Other changes to the journal include offering continuing medical education credit to reviewers who meet certain criteria and including disclosures from authors as to whether and how they plan to share their study data.

Dr. First and his colleagues have written a commentary in Pediatrics discussing these changes. It is available at https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2017-3453.