December 2024
EAPM News is part of the EAPM membership and is as such exclusively sent to EAPM members about three times per year.
Oxford in the snow
1. From the President
Michael Sharpe, MD, EAPM President
Dear friends and colleagues,
as 2024 comes to an end we fondly remember our terrific meeting in Lausanne that was organized by Fritz Stiefel and colleagues. We also thank Jess for his years of sterling service, as he steps down from his role as editor in chief of the Journal of Psychosomatic Research.
Looking forward to 2025 I can tell you that we already have advanced plans for our meeting, which this year is in September in Munich and led by Peter Henningsen and colleagues (see meeting website). I do hope to see you there.
Finally on a personal level I do hope you had a good 2024 and send you my very best wishes for the New Year.
Michael Sharpe
EAPM President and Board Chairman
Oxford, December 2024
2. Farewell from the Editor-in-Chief
written by Jess G. Fiedorowicz, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Psychosomatic Research, Professor and Senior Research Chair in Adult Psychiatry, University of Ottawa, Head and Chief of Mental Health, The Ottawa Hospital Scientist, Ottawa Hospital Research
Jess Fiedorowicz, JPR’s Editor-in-Chief
In lieu of a traditional Editor’s Choice editorial for this December issue of the EAPM Newsletter, we will instead mark the coming leadership transition for the Journal of Psychosomatic Research. As this is my final month as Editor-in-Chief, we will highlight some key accomplishments from the past seven years. We will also introduce the new Editor-in-Chief, who will likely be familiar to most EAPM members.
Over the last 7 years (2018-2024), the journal has seen a tremendous growth in submitted content. In 2018, we received more than 700 submissions for the first time in journal history. This year, we have already received 2270 submissions by mid-December. Published articles have also increased, although not at the same rate, from 176 articles in 2018 to more than 230 in each of the past three years. The journal has subsequently become more selective with a higher rejection rate. We have published eight special issues, many led by EAPM members and some spawned from discussions at annual EAPM meetings.
The journal has maintained its connection to EAPM with the editors running the journal always consisting of at least half EAPM members by design. The Editorial Board, however, has become more international and representative over the past years. In 2017, the Editorial Board consisted of 30 members representing nine countries in Europe and North America. Women constituted 18% of the positions on the board. We have steadily improved representation by geography, discipline/expertise, gender, and race/ethnicity. Accomplishing this and managing a higher volume of submissions required some expansion of the Editorial Board. The current board includes 43 members from 16 countries across all inhabited continents. The core editor group is majority female and the entire editorial board is nearly balanced by gender.
We have not sought to focus on metrics such as the problematic but enshrined “Impact Factor” beyond that which naturally occurs through attracting good content and improving the quality of that content through the review process. Practices such as over-promoting non-abstracted articles or pressing authors to publish what should be abstracted articles as research letters can artificially inflate impact factor. Similarly, some areas of research are destined to be more or less cited based on their focus and independent of quality. For example, several low quality COVID papers from early in the pandemic were very highly cited. We chose not to lower our publication quality threshold for these papers. Similarly, the journal has historically published papers in niche areas that are unlikely to be highly cited. We feel a clear ethical obligation to continue to disseminate quality papers in these areas. Despite not setting these metrics as a surrogate goal, our CiteScore, the metric we prefer for its breath, transparency, citation window and inclusion of all citable document, increased from 5.0 to 7.4. The more popular Impact Factor similarly rose from 2.9 to 3.7.
There is one important area where we did not make meaningful gains. Our time to publication stayed relatively consistent across the years. As our team grew, we became more efficient in our handling of articles, but with the steady and substantial growth of submissions, we did not improve our times to decision or publication. A lot of data is missed in reported average times and the standard deviation in times to publication is substantial. We were quite proud to get some papers quickly from submission to print, but had other papers that encountered substantial delays, often related to finding reviewers, and the times to publication for these papers were disappointing. For those of you who found themselves in this later group, please accept our apologies. We also recognize that the process is not perfect and our low acceptance rate undoubtedly disappointed many more authors than we have satisfied over the years.
Ultimately, we are pleased with the position of the journal as the torch is passed in the New Year to its new leader, known to many EAPM members. Fiammetta Cosci is serving as conference president for the 2026 EAPM conference in Florence, Italy. She is also a past president of the ICPM and current Editor-in-Chief of its official journal Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. Next year, she will step down from that role to serve the EAPM and its Journal of Psychosomatic Research. It is great to have the journal transition to her experienced hands and we’ll hope to see continued growth and success. Experienced Deputy Editor Antonina Mikocka-Walus, who has handled 1/3 of submissions this past year, will remain in her role. Her experience and expertise will provide important continuity for the journal.
The Deputy Editor role allowed me to sustain my service for longer than I might otherwise have been able to with higher volumes of submissions. I am grateful that Antonina so steadfastly held this role and highly valued our collaboration. I would also like to express my gratitude to the past Editors of the journal who positioned the journal so strongly. In particular, I would like to thank Albert Leentjens and Jim Levenson, who supported me throughout as members of the Editorial Board and who provided guidance where needed, especially in the first and early years. Special thanks go to all who have served in roles such as Associate Editor, Deputy Editor, EAPM Pages Editor, or Statistical Editor during my tenure: Dimitry Davydow (Associate Editor), Ulrike Ehlert (Associate Editor), Peter Henningsen (Associate Editor), Cédric Lemogne (Associate Editor), Bernd Löwe (EAPM Pages Editor, Associate Editor), Antonina Mikocka-Walus (Associate Editor, Deputy Editor), Bola Ola (Associate Editor), Angelina Sutin (Associate Editor), Maria Kleinstäuber (Associate Editor), Miranda van Tilburg (Associate Editor), Carsten Leue (EAPM Pages Editor), Else Guthrie (EAPM Pages Editor), and Paul Lodder (Statistical Editor). This core leadership group of the journal served as a sounding board for some of the more difficult decisions and managed the lion’s share of the work. It was an honour to work with you. Daniel Langstraat, who I’d worked with for years prior, served reliably as Editorial Manager through my tenure, managing submissions and communications, reviewing plagiarism checks, and spearheading social media and other initiatives. Elsevier staff ultimately ensured accepted articles magically appeared online and in print. Thank you to all others who have contributed to the journal whether on the editorial board, as a reviewer, or as a contributing author. I would also like to thank the EAPM community for welcoming me as an outsider to the organization. I have fond memories of meeting many of you at EAPM meetings over the years. I’m grateful for having the opportunity to meet or collaborate with you.
3. NEW: EAPM Student Membership at annual rate of €10!
We would like to inform you that there will be a Student Membership in 2025 for the low fee of 10€. This is also particularly interesting in combination with a registration at the EAPM 2025 conference in Munich, which will then only cost 90€. This will make participation even more attractive for our early career researchers. Please spread the word and encourage your early career colleagues to take advantage of this opportunity.
More information about the Student Membership can be found HERE.
