TR: You’ve been involved in journal editing over many years. Why is that something of interest to you?
Dr. Bridges: It stems from curiosity. As I was contemplating applying for the editor-in-chief position, I read an article titled something like “Why on Earth Would I Ever Want to be the Editor of a Journal?” It talked about how editors get to see the great science that’s underway and push forward what they think is going to be the most important work to advance the field and to improve patient care. Those things all appealed to me. I’ve always enjoyed not only writing, but learning from other people’s work. I like to review grants, and have done that through my volunteering with the NIH and the Rheumatology Research Foundation.
Overall, editing manuscripts gives me the opportunity to learn what the most important questions are; to learn what researchers and clinicians are thinking in terms of different diseases and how they may apply new technologies; and to get a handle on the next steps and innovations to improve patient care. An editor oversees the publishing of good articles that are going to really advance the field. It’s a great responsibility, really, but I am looking forward to it.
TR: As you take the helm of A&R, what direction would you like to see the journal take?
Dr. Bridges: That’s a good question. Under the leadership of Dan Solomon, A&R now has the features “Expert Perspectives on Clinical Challenges” and “Notes from the Field,” and has also added new review articles and tried different article types, including some that don’t get cited frequently but are important to advancing the field of rheumatology. I’m looking at what he has done with the journal, while also acquainting myself with the team from ACR and from Wiley [the publisher]. As I get a feel for the people, the journal and the role, I may decide to make a few additional changes.
Dan and I have already talked about some directions the journal could take. One thing we have talked about relates to clinical trials. Clinical trials are the among the most cited journal articles, but manuscripts describing the really large and important clinical trials usually go to general medical journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine or JAMA or Annals of Internal Medicine. We’d like to see more impactful clinical trials in A&R, which has the benefit of a rapid review turnaround. So that is something I would like to move toward.
