JINS turns 10, and the old order changeth…

The year 2004 marks the 10th anniversary of the decision of the INS governing board to establish the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society as its official publication. I was honored that the governing Board selected me to be the founding editor. With my term as Editor-in-Chief coming to a close at the end of this year, I wanted to take this opportunity to provide our readers with a few brief reflections, and in particular to offer my sincere appreciation to the many individuals who have contributed to JINS' success.

In the debate surrounding the establishment of JINS, a legitimate concern was whether a new academic neuropsychology journal could find a place for itself in an already crowded field. Ten years later, JINS is into its tenth volume with 59 issues to its credit, containing some 671 published works. While the majority of the published works were investigator initiated research articles, as befits a scholarly journal, there were additional forms of communication to broaden the interest of the journal to members of the INS and our other readers. Therefore, we published selected case studies [24], encouraged critical reviews [14], and established a dialogue series wherein experts could present contrasting viewpoints on neuropsychological topics of interest [4 dialogue features consisting of 10 published works]. INS members indicated an interest in critical reviews of emerging published books, and therefore we established a lively book review section that has now evaluated some 115 publications. The interest that authors have shown in JINS is supported by the fact that we now received close to 200 manuscripts for evaluation in the past year, and the quality of the articles we receive has never been higher. I have been pleased with the broad diversity of topic areas, as befits the official journal of a broadly representative society. Our articles have ranged from explorations in cognitive neuroscience to effects of neuropsychological disturbance on everyday functions, including driving skills. Child, adult, and geriatric neuropsychology have all been well represented, as well as the broadest range of neuromedical disorders. Truly, it is my belief that JINS has established itself in the top tier of academic neuropsychological journals.

The end of 2004 will mark the close of my 10-year tenure as Editor-in-Chief of JINS. Chief Editors are appointed for 5 year terms with a possibility of one 5 year renewal. The Society established this policy in the belief that there must be a balance between continuity and fresh leadership, and new ideas. I am most pleased that the Society has selected for appointment for new Editor-in-Chief, beginning in January 2005, one of our own Senior Editors, Kathleen Y. Haaland, who has served so ably both on our general Editorial Board and more recently as a Department Editor in charge of symposia. Thus, in addition to her undoubted intellectual abilities and breadth of interest in neuropsychology, Kathy will bring a strong background of experience with JINS to the Chief Editor assignment. Kathy has been an active member of INS for many years, serving on the Governing Board in 1986. She also brings a strong clinical and research background, serving as the Director of Neuropsychology at the New Mexico VA Healthcare System for over twenty years. She has recently received a VA Research Career Scientist award, which recognizes her long commitment to neuropsychological research. In the accompanying article, she will state some of her visions for the next 5 years.

Before closing, however, I want to acknowledge some of the individuals who made the success of JINS possible. Back in 1994, when JINS was just an idea, it was essential that senior and distinguished scholars lend their name to the fledgling effort as Senior Editors. I do not think that the rapid acceptance of JINS as a legitimate and high quality journal would have been possible without the efforts made at the get go by Erin Bigler, Eileen Fennell, Kenneth Heilman, Alex Martin, and Elizabeth Warrington who agreed to serve as Associate Editors for the first 5 year period. In addition, and equally important, were the decisions by Jason Brandt, the late Laird Cermak, Barbara Wilson, Marianne Regard, and Muriel Lezak to take on responsibilities as Department Editors to spearhead some novel features such as dialogues, symposia, critical reviews, and the book department. I am also grateful that Keith Yeates joined the Senior Editorial structure to handle abstracts of scientific meetings. In subsequent years, with planned rotation of some of the Senior Editorial structure, we have had Bruce Crosson, Martha Denckla, Jennie Ponsford, Stephen Rao, Yaakov Stern, Eileen Martin, and of course, Kathy Haaland take leadership responsibility. These hard working and distinguished colleagues have set the level of diversity and excellence that this journal stands for. I thank each and every one of them for their contributions, and I look forward to continuing warm collegial interactions with each of them in the future.

The quality of a journal such as JINS depends importantly on its larger Editorial Board, and also those reviewers who, while not being Editorial Board members, nevertheless contribute quality critiques of incoming manuscripts. I thank these Editorial Board members and reviewers for maintaining the high quality of JINS, and for the constructive manner in which they have helped the editors work with authors to improve submitted works.

A good deal of behind the scenes work goes into managing a journal such as JINS. I have been fortunate in having three extremely able JINS Editorial Assistants, first with Diana Snyder, then Mary Beth Hiller and more recently with Rebecca Teel. These Editorial Assistants have shown the highest degree of professionalism in dealing with our authors, and in assuring smooth communications among editors and the publisher. Finally, I do wish to acknowledge the highly supportive and professional manner in which our publisher, Cambridge University Press, has worked with the Editorial Office to produce a journal that is timely, and up to excellent technical standards. Chris Fell, who had faith in this journal at the outset, and his later successor colleagues, Andrew Berin, Ed Barnas, and Production Editor Morrell Gillette deserve particular kudos.

So, as Tennyson wrote, the old order changeth yielding place to new…. In this case, I cannot think of a more appropriate “new” than my successor Editor-in-Chief, Kathy Haaland.