Dear AJPM Reader,

We are delighted to share with our readers that AJPM’s Impact Factor for 2021 has risen to 6.604. The 2021 Impact Factor represents an increase of more than 1.5 points from the previous year and is the highest in the journal’s 37-year history.

Impact Factor is a numerical representation of a journal’s scholarly impact, calculated based on the number of citations in a given year of content published in the previous 2 years. AJPM’s rapidly rising Impact Factor has occurred in tandem with a marked increase in submissions since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, with more than 2,000 articles submitted each in 2020 and 2021—a 23% increase over the average number of submissions the previous 5 years.

Achieving an Impact Factor over 5.00—generally considered the mark of a “high impact” journal in the editorial business and a figure that was first surpassed by AJPM with the 2020 Impact Factor—has been a goal of mine and my editorial team since I assumed leadership of the journal in January 2014. During our team’s tenure, the journal has also undertaken other major initiatives including creating a digital archive of previously print-only material from 1985–1997; implementing special initiatives such as the Article of the Year and From the Archive features; redesigning the cover, website, and branding; markedly increasing social media and other outreach activities; and playing a key role in launching an affiliated open access journal, AJPM Focus.

We thank all the authors, reviewers, and readers who have helped us reach this milestone and look forward to capitalizing on the journal’s momentum to achieve even greater scholarly impact and reach in the future. 

We hope you find our August 2022 articles to be timely, topical, and informative.

Yours in prevention and health,