June 2020, JSS
On behalf of the Journal of Spine Surgery(JSS) Editorial Board, I would like to thank all readers, authors, contributors, reviewers for your continued support of the publication. The last year was another year of incredible growth for the journal. Whilst there has been tremendous progress, we are always looking to improve the content that we deliver for the spine audience and researchers worldwide. Our new specialised “focused” issues (1,2) in spinal surgery have proven very popular amongst readers of JSS. We have made a number of innovative changes to the format and way JSS operates.
- Reporting guideline checklist. Readers may be familiar with CONSORT guideline for original articles on clinical trials and the PRISMA guideline for systematic reviews (3). We have sought now to include reporting guideline checklists for all key major article types. This will ensure high quality content be published in a systematic and comprehensive manner.
- Transparent peer review process. Authors will now have the option to include a “peer review file” as part of the publication process. This will promote research integrity and reproducibility and recognition of the hard work of our peer reviewers.
- Publons inclusion. For easier recognition of the contributions of our expert peer reviewers, JSS’s peer review system is now integrated seamlessly into the Publons platform. This is of particular importance in a time where reviewer burnout is becoming an issue, particularly with the ongoing stresses of worldwide events such as the COVID-19.
Through these changes, we will strive to follow the best practice in publishing. We hope that with a commitment to openness and accountability, the level of transparency throughout our peer review process will be increased. The above changes will provide a background on the merits of a study, and document the discussion between authors and our reviewers. The JSS team will continue to work hard to ensure we continue to deliver high quality work to our friends around the world.
Acknowledgments
Funding: None.
Footnote
Provenance and Peer Review: This article was commissioned by the editorial office, Journal of Spine Surgery. The article did not undergo external peer review.
Conflicts of Interest: Both authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at http://dx.doi.org/10.21037/jss-20-616). RJM serves as an unpaid Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Spine Surgery from Sep 2015 to Sep 2025. KP serves as an unpaid Co-Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Spine Surgery from Sep 2015 to Sep 2025.
Ethical Statement: The authors are accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Open Access Statement: This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits the non-commercial replication and distribution of the article with the strict proviso that no changes or edits are made and the original work is properly cited (including links to both the formal publication through the relevant DOI and the license). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
References
- Qureshi S. Minimally invasive spinal surgery. J Spine Surg 2019;5:S1. [Crossref] [PubMed]
- Yoo JS, Parrish JM, Jenkins NW, et al. Preface for focused issue: ambulatory spine surgery. J Spine Surg 2019;5:S122-S123. [Crossref] [PubMed]
- Phan K, Mobbs RJ. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses in spine surgery, neurosurgery and orthopedics: guidelines for the surgeon scientist. J Spine Surg 2015;1:19-27. [PubMed]
