Most readers will be aware that publishing of medical journals is undergoing a sea change at present. The traditional ‘reader pays’ subscription, with a growing pile of journals neatly filed on the bookshelf, is what most sports medicine practitioners would be most familiar with. The coming tidal wave is of online only journals with free open access using an ‘author pays’ system.

Journals will need to adapt to these new developments. It is either evolve or perish like the dodo. For our journal, the coming year heralds a number of changes, many of which fit into a long term strategy of journal online evolution.

First, the dramatic increase in manuscript submissions means that we need to increase our ability to publish more papers or face unacceptable delay-to-publication times. Over the past twelve months, we have seen a 60% increase in manuscript submissions—far outstripping the growth seen in our ‘competitor’ journals within the field of sports medicine. Over time this will mean an increased number of submissions but, necessarily, this will mean that our rejection rate will also rise. This will no doubt cause some …