The year 2020 has been very challenging due to the global coronavirus pandemic, which has impacted people in many ways. For IJTAHC, the year has been busy with a higher number of submissions than previously—225 at the end of November, an increase of nearly 30 percent over the previous year. It has been challenging to process articles in a timely manner during this time of crisis, especially for our reviewers and editors, who give their time voluntarily. Despite this, our time frame from submission to first decision has not changed, being 42 days on average. Our impact factor continues to increase, currently being 1.494.
HTAi held a virtual annual meeting in the second half of this year, replacing the planned face-to-face meeting in Beijing. IJTAHC is publishing a supplement issue of the meeting's abstracts this month, with 110 abstracts from this meeting.
IJTAHC began functioning in the year 1985 with inaugural editors Egon Jonsson and Stanley J. Reiser. In the Introduction to the first issue of the journal, they speak of the new field of technology assessment, which has grown to now being recognized and utilized by decision makers globally. The journal has provided an international forum for communication by academics, clinicians, and policy makers. IJTAHC started publishing online as well as in print from 1999 and then moved to only online in 2013.
For Volume 37 in 2021, another major change will occur, and this will be the beginning of continuous publication. No longer will articles initially be published in First View and then compiled into an issue. Instead, when articles are accepted, they will be published online, appearing in sequential order of publication. This offers significant benefits to readers who will have rapid access to final versions of articles, and for authors, it means a reduced time for the final versions of their articles to be published. For readers, articles will continue to be easily accessible on the Latest Volume page for the journal. On the IJATHC Web site, articles will also continue to be grouped thematically—Policy Forum and Methods articles, and other categories will be added over time. Additionally, themed issues will be grouped; the first of these to be published and compiled early in 2021 is on Patient and Public Involvement in HTA.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank my dedicated team of Deputy and Associate Editors, our supportive Editorial Board, and the team at Cambridge University Press who supported me in my role—Ned Wilson Eames, Tracy Candelaria, and Brian Mazeski.
