The Journal of Thoracic Oncology (JTO), the official journal of the IASLC, recently reported its 2022 impact factor of 20.4, a rise from the 2021 impact factor of 20.1. The journal ranks fourth among 65 respiratory medicine journals and 13th among 241 oncology journals.
Impact factors are measured by calculating the number of times journal articles in the two preceding years are cited in a current year. Thus, the impact factor for 2022 reflects the number of times articles published in 2020 and 2021 were cited in 2022. The higher the impact factor, the more highly ranked the journal. Journal citation reports are issued by Clarivate Analytics.
“JTO’s impact factor has more than quadrupled from 5.040 in 2015 to 20.4 in 2022. This is a notable achievement, since we are a sub-specialty journal dealing with only thoracic oncology. There are no other sub-specialty journals among the top 20 oncology journals,” said JTO Editor-in-Chief Alex A. Adjei, MD, PhD. “More importantly, the impact factor of other journals in thoracic oncology or surgery fell in 2022. This achievement is a testament to the exemplary work of our editorial board and our managing editor as well as the support of IASLC—its executives, office staff, membership, and above all our reviewers, readers, and authors. JTO will continue its emphasis on multidisciplinary research to serve the broad community working in thoracic oncology.”
The continued rise of JTO’s impact factor is one of several updates from IASLC’s journals. In alignment with the goal to ensure membership of the Editorial Board continue to represent the diverse and multidisciplinary nature of thoracic oncology as well as the large international membership of IASLC, the JTO Editorial Board has expanded to 80 Editors and Editorial Board Members from 25 countries, with 29% female members.
Each year, JTO offers an option of simultaneous online publication in the journal at the time of presentation at the conference for highly selected manuscripts. At WCLC this year, we are excited to have three original research articles on high-profile and practice-changing studies, as well as an invited accompanying opinion piece slated for simultaneous online publication. We also welcome the opportunity to consider research for simultaneous publication at other major conferences. Interested authors should send a pre-submission inquiry to [email protected] to determine suitability at least 5 months before to the conference.
In other updates, the Tobacco Control column in JTO is entering its 10th year of reporting on tobacco control and smoking cessation around the world. A special edition of JTO in March highlighted important topics in tobacco control covered throughout the past decade. We are grateful for the contributions from the column’s editor, Emily Stone, MBBS, PhD, and the IASLC Tobacco Control Committee.
Additionally, a new enhancement is now available at JTO which allows authors to choose to submit a graphical abstract with their manuscript to JTO for selected article types. A graphical abstract can accompany an article when it is published online, providing visual summary of key contents and findings to enhance readers’ experience. The Guide for Authors has more details and instructions.
Readers may also be interested in special collections curated for the JTO. For example, the JTO Editor’s Choice highlights certain topics of interest or importance each month. These articles are made freely available for a period of three months following their online publication. The Lung Cancer Worldwide series, with more than 40 articles published to date, offers insights into the epidemiology, screening and diagnosis, surgical management, radiation management, and systemic management of lung cancer in different countries around the globe. The Controversies in Thoracic Oncology series, with more than 26 articles published, are “Pro and Con” opinion pieces from experts dealing with topics that are open to debate. Suggestions on topics for future debates are always welcome. IASLC Staging Articles is a collection of more than 35 important publications from the IASLC Staging Committee.
Meet the Editor
Learn more about JTO CRR during a Meet-the-Editor session with Editor in Chief Emily Stone, MBBS, PhD. The session, which is open to all WCLC, will take place from 14:00-15:00 SGT on Monday, September 11, in room 327
JTO Clinical and Research Reports
The IASLC’s open access journal, JTO Clinical and Research Reports (JTO CRR), ensures immediate and permanent free access to high quality lung cancer studies. As the companion journal of the JTO, JTO CRR provides a publication home within the IASLC for research with a more clinical focus and for article types such as case reports, phase 1 and 2 trials, high-impact retrospective studies, and database analyses. Since its launch in January 2020, JTO CRR has been governed by a robust team with extensive expertise. Dr. Adjei served as the journal’s first editor-in-chief, with the support of 21 JTO associate editors who also functioned as associate editors of JTO CRR. Because of the hard work of this team, together with our new JTO CRR associate editors, JTO CRR has seen tremendous growth in a short time.
JTO CRR moved from publishing quarterly to monthly in 2021. In the same year, the journal also transitioned to article-based publishing, in which an individual article is citable in its final format upon receipt of the author’s finalized corrections, making final citations shareable more quickly by authors and colleagues. Because of the meritorious articles published in the first year, JTO CRR was indexed in PubMed and Scopus in 2021. It is now under evaluation to be indexed in the Web of Science core collection, the Emerging Sources Citation Index™ (ESCI). The journal is expected to receive an impact factor in the year following ESCI indexing.
In January 2023, Dr. Stone took the reins as the editor-in-chief of JTO CRR. Dr. Stone is a consultant respiratory physician and head of Thoracic Medicine within the Department of Thoracic Medicine and Lung Transplantation at St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney. She is the founding and immediate past chair of the St Vincent’s Hospital Lung Cancer Multidisciplinary Team, and the deputy board chair of the Thoracic Oncology Group of Australasia. Before becoming editor-in-chief, she served as an associate editor for both JTO and JTO CRR. She also served as the chair of the IASLC Tobacco Control Committee from 2018 to 2019. Her chief clinical and research interests are in the fields of lung cancer screening, multidisciplinary team care, and tobacco control.
“I have no doubt that JTO CRR is going to soar to new heights under Dr. Stone’s leadership,” Dr. Adjei said. “On my own behalf and on behalf of the 21 JTO associate editors who will now devote their full attention to JTO, I would like to thank our capable editorial office, our continuing JTO CRR associate editors, the IASLC office and leadership, IASLC members, and above all our authors, reviewers, and content consumers who made the growing pains of JTO CRR bearable and indeed even enjoyable.
Dr. Stone echoed Dr. Adjei’s sentiments. “JTO CRR has had a sure start with its founding editor Prof. Adjei,” she said. “I am privileged to take the baton for the next leg of the journey.”
Earlier this year, Dr. Stone shared her visions and insights on building a legacy as the JTO CRR editor-in-chief in this Q&A with ILCN and on the Lung Cancer Considered podcast.
“JTO CRR has the scope to explore new approaches that may include high-quality debates, public health interventions, graphical abstracts, and online interactive formats,” she said. “We aim to elevate the profile of research globally, and not just research from the big European and Western institutions, but top-notch research from around the world.”
In the efforts leading to building a multidisciplinary editorial board, Dr. Stone would like to invite individuals from different specialties in thoracic oncology who are interested in becoming a member of the editorial board to contact the journal with their CV at [email protected].
To meet with Dr. Stone and get to know more about JTO CRR, join us at the Meet-the-Editor session during WCLC 2023. This session, which is open to all WCLC attendees, will take place on Monday, September 11, at 14:00 SGT in room 327.
Visit the IASLC Journals Booth in the Exhibit Hall during WCLC 2023 to learn more about the journals, including how to become a reviewer. The full contents of JTO are a benefit for IASLC members. IASLC members receive discounted article publishing charges for JTO CRR.
