JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery-The Year in Review, 2016.

As I completemy first year asEditor of JAMAOtolaryngology– Head & Neck Surgery, I would like to take this opportunity to thankourauthors, editors, staff, reviewers, and readers for the manysubstantial contributions theymadeto the journal.Withoutourauthorsproducingthe research and sharing their thoughts, experiences, and observations, we would not have the content to create our fine journal. I thankmyDeputy Editors, Neal Futran and Sukgi Choi, and Associate Editors, Timothy Smith and Timothy Hullar. I also owe much thanks to Karen Dodson, Editorial Manager, for her wonderful organizational skills and professional support during this past year.Andfinally, I acknowledgethesupportof thesuperbJAMA Network publication staff in Chicago. In2016,we received848manuscript submissions (Table). We received a large number of Letters to the Editor andViewpoints, andmany authors accepted our invitation towrite InvitedCommentaries. It is throughtheseopinionpieces thatour journal can serveas a forumfor activedialoguewithinour specialty,whichhelpsput theoriginal researchfindings intoproper clinical perspective.Wewelcomesuggestions fromreaders for topics of systematic reviews, Viewpoints, and othermaterial. Some of the topics we covered in 2016 included increases in the rate of age-related hearing loss in the older old,2 a clinical trial ofbilateral andunilateral cochlear implantation inadults,4 changing trends in the incidence of thyroid cancer,5 evaluation of quality metrics for surgically treated laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma,6 the roleof sleep studies in childrenwho snore,7 and a systematic review of the effect of earplugs in preventing hearing loss from recreational noise exposure.8 A highlight of the year was our successful association with the American Head and Neck Society (AHNS) and simultaneous publication of 21 articles from their July 2016 meeting in Seattle.We received 35AHNS-associatedmanuscripts, andwith DrFutran’s leadandoutstandingsupport fromtheeditorial and production staff in St Louis and Chicago, we were able to quicklymove fromreviewtopublication.With thesupportand dedication of Dr AlbertMerati, Endoscopy and Laryngoscopy Editor, we anticipate increasing our publication of cuttingedgeresearch in laryngologyandprofessionalvoice in thecoming years. The quality of our published articles is reflected in the almost 900000 users from around the world who have come to our website to access content and more than 1900 media mentions of JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery articles in print, online, and by news services this past year. In 2016, the acceptance rate forOriginal Investigationswas 22%. Our 2015 Impact Factor was 2.7. Toensure important findingsareavailablequickly,ourgoal is rapid review and publication of worthy papers. To complete the peer review process, we rely onmore than 600 peer reviewers from around the world, acknowledged in our 2016 listofpeer reviewerspublishedonlinesimultaneouslywith this editorial.9These reviewersgraciouslygiveof their timetocomplete their assigned manuscript reviews in a median time of 13 days. Their efforts have allowed JAMA Otolaryngology– Head & Neck Surgery to maintain a median time from receipt of anoriginal research report toacceptanceof69days.Ourmedian time from acceptance to first publication is 71 days. All Original Investigations are freely available on the day of publicationon the JAMANetworkReaderand12monthsafterpublication on the journal’s website. Related article Table. JAMAOtolaryngology–Head &Neck Surgery Statistics for 2016