JOR Spine is a fully open access title from the ORS. The journal publishes high-quality research, including, but not limited to: Aging, Degeneration, Biologic Therapies, Biomaterials, Tissue Engineering, Biomechanics, Bioreactors, Culture Systems, Development, and Deformity. Dr. Daisuke Sakai, Dr. Mauro Alini, and Dr. Robert Mauck serve jointly as JOR Spine Editors-in-Chief. Dr. Mauck shares his thoughts on the journal and offers a glimpse into the future.
What is your specific area of research?
My work focuses in general on the soft tissues of the musculoskeletal system, with the goal of developing new strategies for their replacement or repair. For this, we first try to understand the basic principles by which they operate, and then design new cell-material platforms to direct new tissue formation. Our work spans investigations of the cell and microenvironment up to translation of new tissues in large animal models.
What has been the biggest challenge/issue for you as an editor?
With any new journal, one of the toughest things is getting the word out and having the community commit to the journal in its early years. We are lucky to have the Spine Section of the ORS, who have thrown their support behind this new venture, and we are off to a great start. This year, we will be indexed in PubMedCentral, and that will continue to accelerate the rate of submissions and help us to grow the new Journal.
What is most rewarding about being an editor?
It is really great to play a role in helping excellent work make its way to publication. Witnessing first hand the dialogue that goes on between authors and reviewers, to improve manuscripts, is really rewarding.
What surprised you the most during the first year of JOR Spine?
There were not real surprises — the ORS and the Wiley team did an excellent job of laying the foundation for us to work from.
What project(s) are you looking forward to in the near future?
We are really excited by a number of new initiatives that we’ve launched. The ‘controversies in spine research’ section has been fun to read, and our new JOR Spine Award for Young Investigators is a great new resource for our community.
If you could give a specific message directly to ORS community, what would it be? What would you tell them about the JOR Spine?
Submit your best work to us! We are excited to work hard for the community to make sure that the JOR Spine is the ‘go to’ place to publish your best spine related research.
How do you think JOR Spine will change in the next five – ten years?
I think the JOR Spine will grow tremendously. We are currently publishing four issues per year, and expect to increase to six and then eventually more. We also will gain indexing this year and the an impact factor in the next year after that or so, and we expect the journal to take off and become the preeminent journal for the publication of spine related research.
May 2019
