In the year 2021 the fears regarding the pandemics mostly relieved but concerns about the disease and its consequences in our lives were not completely eliminated. The efforts in the process of normalization brought a new way of life for everybody as well as for the scientific community. In 2021 the “routine” came back with the delayed and postponed workload. We could not manage the life to be normalized, but instead “hybrid” scientific facilities became the new normal, which were embedded in our life onto our daily workload. When the review process of our journal was compared to the previous year, the most striking point was the prolongation of manuscript turnaround times. This seemed us to be the result of that change in the way of life of the scientific community, including the authors, reviewers, and editors. In 2020, finding reviewers was relatively easy because COVID-19 was a new topic to read, learn or criticize. Additionally, people had reasonable amount of time to spend in reviewing manuscripts during the periods of restrictions. However, in 2021 we experienced difficulties in finding reviewers for COVID-19 manuscripts, probably due to loss of the charm of the topic, and for non-COVID manuscripts because of the fatigue of the reviewers. On the other hand, re-submission duration by the authors and the revision times were also prolonged in 2021. The following years would clarify the picture of these observations.
In 2021 the announced JCI-impact factor of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology (for the year 2020) was prouding, as 2.63, representing a significant rise when compared to the previous years (1.87 for 2019 and 1.46 for 2018). The expected impact factor for 2021 that is going to be announced in 2022 will be higher than the present one.
Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology annually publishes an acknowledgment letter to thank all the reviewers of the previous year. Among the reviewers, some are distinguished with their performances and recognized as “Special Distinction in Reviewing” or “Distinction in Reviewing”. “Editor’s Recognition Awards” category includes the reviewers who consistently provide top-level service to Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology. I greatly appreciate their service and dedication to Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology. Many thanks to all of our reviewers, authors and section editors for their priceless contribution to our journal.
