A Letter from PAIN Reports Editor-in-Chief David Yarnitsky, MD

A Letter from PAIN Reports Editor-in-Chief David Yarnitsky, MD

Dear Friends, Colleagues, and Contributors:

As we begin 2024, I am happy and honored to write this letter about the state of PAIN Reports. We have made a lot of progress in 2023 that we are pleased to share with you:

At the end of June 2023, Clarivate published the 2022 statistics regarding scholarly publications, including updated Impact Factors (IF). We were very happy to learn that our IF is 4.8 (!). This indicates the high quality of the work done by our authors, and the educated editing by our Editorial Team and ad hoc referees. I wish to express my thanks to all of them. Consequently, we have seen an immediate doubling of our article submission rate and an upscale in the quality of submissions.

It is noted that the Journal is indexed in the Neuroscience listing, and not in the Anesthesiology or Clinical Neurology lists, where most of the pain dedicated journals are listed. The Neuroscience list is very competitive – with many basic science and clinical articles of high standing – and this decision was made by Clarivate (which is non-negotiable). It is also noted that for this year, the Journal is still on the Emerging Journals list, so its quartile belonging among the Science Citation list is still not official. Taking our current IF into the Science Citation list would put us in the 2nd quartile of the Neuroscience list, the 1st quartile of Clinical Neurology, and 2nd quartile of Anesthesiology.

As of the writing of this letter in 2023, we published 62 papers, covering most aspects of pain research and clinical practice. Here are the statistics:

It is noted that PAIN Reports is interested in all aspects of pain research and pain practice, and manuscripts in these fields are welcome. Our rejection rate in 2023 was 71%. This is up from 55% in 2022.

 Where did the papers come from?

 The Journal is remarkably international. Approximately one-third of the accepted papers came from the United States, with the top 10 countries of origin listed below:

1. United States
2. United Kingdom
3. Canada
4. Japan
5. Germany
6. Australia
7. Switzerland
8. Netherlands
9. France
10. Denmark

Waivers available to developing countries

 The Journal looks forward to receiving submissions from developing countries. There are discounts on APCs (article processing charges) for papers coming from these countries, and a limited number of waivers are available to us to allow free-of-charge publication for specific articles. Please contact the Journal’s office for more details (painreports@iasp-pain.org).

What were the top-downloaded articles in 2023?

 The top ten are listed below. A special congratulation to all of the authors of these papers.

1. Ketamine for pain management (2018)
2. Use of methadone as an alternative to morphine for chronic pain management: a noninferiority retrospective observational study (2021)
3. Acute pain management in patients with drug dependence syndrome (2017)
4. Low-dose naltrexone for treatment of pain in patients with fibromyalgia: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study (2023)
5. Pediatric pain treatment and prevention for hospitalized children (2020)
6. Postoperative pain – from mechanisms to treatment (2017)
7. Pain in dementia (2020)
8. Effectiveness of psychological interventions delivered by physiotherapists in the management of neck pain: a systematic review with meta-analysis (2023)
9. Post-thoracotomy pain syndrome: seldom severe, often neuropathic, treated unspecific, and insufficient (2020)
10. Autoimmune regulation of chronic pain (2021)

 How were things in 2023?

• New Section Editors: Xavier Moisset; Chung Jun Mun (“Moon”), Simon Beggs
• Departing Section Editors: Gregory Dussor, Steven Cohen, Nadine Attal
• A new special issue on “Big Data and Pain” – guest edited by Giorgos Baskozos from the University of Oxford, UK – will be published in the first quarter of 2024.
• Two new special issues are being written – “Epigenetics of Pain” and “Pain in Rheumatology Disorders” – and expected to be published in 2024. Researchers interested in contributing to these special issues are invited to approach the Journal’s office.
• The Editorial Team has decided to continue publishing case reports, but insist upon novelty and the wider implications of the case.
• Protocols of future meetings will be accepted only for large and significant projects, i.e., multicenter, with a large number of expected participants, and a general/interesting enough subject.
• Commentaries on newly published papers will be augmented – in order to give the readers an additional perspective beyond that of the authors – on important and paradigm changing articles.

I am happy to send this report to the members of the pain research and treatment community, our authors, and our readers. I feel that the Journal has made major steps forward since inception, in good standing on the front line of journals in our field. I am thankful to all that have contributed their time, energy, and effort to collectively advance science and clinical care through our publication, and I am looking forward to improving our service to the community in the coming year.

Best regards and best wishes for the coming civil year,

David Yarnitsky, MD