Launched by ASCO in 2005 to provide oncologists with original research on the delivery of high-quality cancer care, the Journal of Oncology Practice (JOP) enters its 11th year with a new look and feel. Beginning in January 2016, JOP will be copublished by ASCO and Harborside Press, the publisher of The ASCO Post. In addition to a redesign, readers will find a novel presentation of original research as well as new and expanded clinical content. It will also be published monthly instead of bimonthly.
JOP will continue to publish original research and editorials focusing on the multiple aspects of care delivery, including information on practice operations; health outcomes and health services research; quality of care and access to health care; public health policy and the socioeconomics of cancer care; the cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness of oncology care; and the use of technology in the care of patients.
Providing Clinical Solutions
The expanded JOP features a Clinical Reviews section, which will include multiple concise clinical reviews written by thought leaders in oncology and accompanied by expert commentaries addressing key questions and opinions about a unique clinical problem. The decision to add Clinical Reviews came from the desire by readers to see more clinical content, according to John V. Cox, DO, MBA, FACP, FASCO, Editor-in-Chief of JOP.
“Historically, we have not been a clinical journal, but we were told by many readers that they wanted to see clinical content along with the care delivery research. Yet they emphasized their desire for focused, concise, authoritative clinical information,” said Dr. Cox. “We want to provide reviews on thorny clinical topics that people deal with every day. Associated with each review will be commentary, so readers will not only benefit from the information in the reviews, they will be able to see how thought leaders in oncology approached and critiqued the problem.”
Along with the clinical reviews, JOP will present illustrated case reports written by clinicians, detailing challenging clinical experiences. Each case report will include strategies readers may apply to their own clinical practice. JOP will continue to provide digested summaries of ASCO’s Clinical Guidelines, which offer clinicians a user-friendly version of ASCO’s full clinical guidelines.
Making Care Delivery Research More Accessible
“Readers told us they were not only interested in focused and to-the-point clinical reviews, but that they also wished the care delivery research presented by JOP to be easier to access, to determine if it applied to them,” said Dr. Cox. As a result, central to the design of the revamped JOP is a novel presentation of published care delivery research. All original reports will be presented in a standardized format called ReCAP (Research Contributions Abbreviated for Print).
This one-page summary of the study will highlight the central question being asked by the work and outline the main findings of the authors. ReCAP will provide more information than a classic abstract. The relevance of the work for practicing oncologists will be emphasized, as well as any factors that might affect interpretation of the study results.
The full manuscript will be available online at http://jop.ascopubs.org. The online manuscript is the official version of record—and indexed by multiple services, including PubMed—and is the version that appears via literature searches.
“We hope that ReCAP will allow our readers to recognize the blizzard of work that is transforming and informing care delivery presented in a concise, accessible way. Then if they see a given paper they wish to pursue, the complete manuscript is online,” said Dr. Cox.
All original research published in JOP is peer-reviewed, and contributors to the publication include physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, pharmacists, and practice managers working in institutional, academic, and private practice health-care settings. Experts in business, organizational management, public policy, and payers also contribute to JOP.
An Editorial Team of Oncology Experts
Several experts in oncology will guide the expanded editorial content of JOP:
- James O. Armitage, MD, FASCO, is serving as Deputy Editor of the publication. Dr. Armitage is Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine and holds the Joe Shapiro Professor Distinguished Chair of Oncology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. Dr. Armitage is also the Editor-in-Chief of The ASCO Post.
- Apar Kishor Ganti, MD, MS, Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, will serve as Associate Editor of JOP.
- Sagar Lonial, MD, Professor and Executive Vice Chair in the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, will serve as Associate Editor of JOP.
- Arif Kamal, MD, MHS, FACP, FAAHPM, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine, will serve as Associate Editor of JOP.
Drs. Armitage, Ganti, and Lonial will oversee the development of Clinical Reviews and provide expertise in the care delivery mission of the publication. Dr. Kamal will take over the responsibilities held by longtime Associate Editor Patricia Legant, MD, PhD, who is retiring.
A New Look
To enhance the editorial content and make it more easily accessible to readers, JOP will be packaged in a completely new look, including a redesigned logo, illustrated covers, and new fonts for easier reading.
“Visible to our readers will be the enthusiasm and excitement of the evolution of our Journal,” said Dr. Armitage. “We undertake these changes, including increased publication frequency, expanded clinical content, synoptic presentation of our research, and a new design, to meet the needs of our readers and to provide a larger audience to our authors.”
The online component of JOP (jop.ascopubs.org) is getting a facelift as well and will provide readers with an enhanced Web experience. The website changes will be phased in over 2016 and should be completed by the end of 2016. Authors and reviewers will also find improvements in the editorial systems for submitting manuscripts and completing reviews.
“We fully expect that the transformation of JOP will make our content more accessible to readers and more attractive to care delivery research authors,” said Dr. Cox. “We hope JOP captures the science of how we deliver care and want authors and researchers in the care delivery space to recognize that this is a valuable place to publish their work, and that’s our goal.” ■
Disclosure: Dr. Cox reported no potential conflicts of interest.
