Saying goodbye and remembering
==============================

* Richard W McCallum

Well, colleagues, this will be my last Editorial for the *Journal of Investigative Medicine* (JIM) under the BMJ flag. Beginning in January 2023, JIM will publish under the aegis of a new publisher, SAGE.

For me, the last 3 years as Editor-in-Chief of JIM have been both very exciting and rewarding, and I will briefly summarize some of the highlights and achievements from my tenure.

*   2019: I was appointed EIC mid-year, and per my first editorial,1 one of my key strategies was to introduce new article types that addressed faculty development, education, mentoring, and careers.

*   2020: In addition to celebrating JIM’s 25th anniversary, we introduced a monthly podcast. The first episode featured my personal perspectives on the microbiome field. Since that time, we’ve published 33 podcasts, with an average of 444 listens per podcast.

*   2021: Submission growth surpassed previous years, showing an increase of 50% from 2016 to 2021. On the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic, JIM published two articles that have generated a great deal of attention, as evidenced by their Altmetrics scores: ‘Long COVID-19 following mild SARS-CoV-2 infection: characteristic T cell alterations and response to antihistamines’,2 a research article published in October by Glynne *et al*, and ‘COVID-19 reinfection: a rapid systematic review of case reports and case series’,3 a brief report published in May by Wang *et al*. The first of these articles is the highest downloaded article published since JIM began at BMJ.

*   2022: At this writing, the editorial team continues to improve the quality of JIM submissions, as evidenced by an immediate rejection rate of nearly 50% and a decreased acceptance rate for all papers of 28%. Web traffic has grown steadily in the past 5 years and is expected to increase by 20% over 2021, and JIM’s 2021 impact factor of 3.301 (announced in June 2022) was a 14% increase over 2020, evidence of the improved quality of the content published in JIM.

I want to take this opportunity to sincerely thank the BMJ team for their ‘stewardship’ of JIM. Specifically, I am deeply grateful to Kathleen Lyons, head of Portfolio, based in Hoboken, New Jersey (yes, the birthplace of Frank Sinatra); Hannah Martin, based in London, JIM’s production editor, who helped us produce and finalize each issue from BMJ; and our great editorial assistant team of Rachel Wright, Chloe Tuck, and Caty Waterfield.

Overall, I say to you, my American Federation for Medical Research (AFMR) colleagues and all our readers and contributors to JIM, in the words of an Australian with a love for cricket, we have had a good ‘inning’ with BMJ and will always be grateful and appreciative of the ties and relationship between AFMR and BMJ.

## Ethics statements

### Patient consent for publication

Not applicable.

## Footnotes

*   Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

*   Competing interests None declared.

*   Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.

## References

1.   McCallum RW . Richard W. McCallum, MD: New Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Investigative Medicine. J Investig Med 2020;68:1–2.[doi:10.1136/jim-2019-001234](http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jim-2019-001234) pmid:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31857438 
    
    [FREE Full Text](/lookup/ijlink/YTozOntzOjQ6InBhdGgiO3M6MTQ6Ii9sb29rdXAvaWpsaW5rIjtzOjU6InF1ZXJ5IjthOjQ6e3M6ODoibGlua1R5cGUiO3M6NDoiRlVMTCI7czoxMToiam91cm5hbENvZGUiO3M6MzoiamltIjtzOjU6InJlc2lkIjtzOjY6IjY4LzEvMSI7czo0OiJhdG9tIjtzOjE5OiIvamltLzcwLzgvMTY2MS5hdG9tIjt9czo4OiJmcmFnbWVudCI7czowOiIiO30=) 

2.   Glynne P , Tahmasebi N , Gant V , et al . Long COVID following mild SARS-CoV-2 infection: characteristic T cell alterations and response to antihistamines. J Investig Med 2022;70:61–7.[doi:10.1136/jim-2021-002051](http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jim-2021-002051) pmid:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34611034 
    
    [Abstract/FREE Full Text](/lookup/ijlink/YTozOntzOjQ6InBhdGgiO3M6MTQ6Ii9sb29rdXAvaWpsaW5rIjtzOjU6InF1ZXJ5IjthOjQ6e3M6ODoibGlua1R5cGUiO3M6NDoiQUJTVCI7czoxMToiam91cm5hbENvZGUiO3M6MzoiamltIjtzOjU6InJlc2lkIjtzOjc6IjcwLzEvNjEiO3M6NDoiYXRvbSI7czoxOToiL2ppbS83MC84LzE2NjEuYXRvbSI7fXM6ODoiZnJhZ21lbnQiO3M6MDoiIjt9) 

3.   Wang J , Kaperak C , Sato T , et al . COVID-19 reinfection: a rapid systematic review of case reports and case series. J Investig Med 2021;69:1253–5.[doi:10.1136/jim-2021-001853](http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jim-2021-001853) pmid:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34006572 
    
    [Abstract/FREE Full Text](/lookup/ijlink/YTozOntzOjQ6InBhdGgiO3M6MTQ6Ii9sb29rdXAvaWpsaW5rIjtzOjU6InF1ZXJ5IjthOjQ6e3M6ODoibGlua1R5cGUiO3M6NDoiQUJTVCI7czoxMToiam91cm5hbENvZGUiO3M6MzoiamltIjtzOjU6InJlc2lkIjtzOjk6IjY5LzYvMTI1MyI7czo0OiJhdG9tIjtzOjE5OiIvamltLzcwLzgvMTY2MS5hdG9tIjt9czo4OiJmcmFnbWVudCI7czowOiIiO30=)