In response to the task force's first recommendation, the
JAOA officially adopted and realigned itself to highlight the tenets of osteopathic medicine approved by the AOA House of Delegates. Application of several other recommendations are already under way. Most notably, the average time from submission to publication has shrunk to 6 months, matching the time to publication of many of our competitors in allopathic medicine. By the end of this spring, we expect to have a new online manuscript tracking system and RSS feeds in place. Over the past several years, we've introduced several new sections: “The Somatic Connection” in 2006,
1 “Evidence-Based Clinical Reviews” in 2010,
2 and “Clinical Images” in 2011.
3 This summer, we will launch a humanities section, “In Your Words.” Although we posted our first supplementary video in 2009,
4 we've had few additional online-only components since then; therefore, we plan to expand the number of video and audio recordings to supplement our written content.
At the same time, we are taking our message on the road. During the 2011 Osteopathic Medical Conference and Exposition, we reached out to research directors of osteopathic medical colleges and osteopathic postdoctoral training institutions, as well as to members of the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine's Educational Council on Osteopathic Principles. Between the 4 of us, we have visited 8 osteopathic medical colleges; a dozen more such trips are planned for the rest of 2012. In addition, we met with educators from at least 15 osteopathic medical colleges at the leadership conference on osteopathic medical education that the AOA and the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM) held in January 2012.
During our talks with researchers, administrators, and other educators, we learn how they are expanding the evidence base for our tenets on their campuses and what the JAOA needs to do to attract submissions from them. In addition, we stress that the JAOA is interested in much more than research related to osteopathic manipulative medicine. We want to attract all scholarly works that explore in some way osteopathic principles and practice (OPP). Even research at the cellular level can be relevant when researchers connect their findings to OPP. In the process, we hope that we are garnering researchers' interest to conduct more research that builds the evidence base for osteopathic medicine.
Throughout these travels, we have also been listening. Researchers have asked us to obtain an impact factor, to let their colleagues know that the JAOA accepts studies with negative results so researchers can build off each other's work, and to tout the fact that the JAOA does not impose fees for submitting or publishing articles. Faculty members have asked us to make JAOA-branded PowerPoint slides of tables, figures, and other graphics available on the JAOA's Web site as teaching aids. Basic scientists recommend that we spread the word that the JAOA is interested in derivative articles that explain the osteopathic significance of articles that our scientists publish in the leading journals in their respective fields. We are working as quickly as we can to act on every solid recommendation we receive.