2024 in Review

The 25th anniversary volume of the Journal closes (1), and at Pediatric Critical Care Medicine (PCCM) we thank all those who have worked as authors and reviewers in providing outstanding support. This foreword to the December issue outlines details about the Journal’s latest impact factor, our process metrics, a summary of featured content, and the new PCCM International educational section. 4.1: PCCM’s 2024 JOURNAL IMPACT FACTOR (USING 2021/2022 LITERATURE CITED IN 2023) For the second year PCCM maintains its peak Web of Science journal impact factor of 4.1 (which was recently upgraded from 4.0 by Clarivate™ after recalculation of the data). This is a great achievement and testimony to everyone involved in clinical science in our field. This result means that the Journal continues to be classed as “Good” (i.e., impact factor above 3.0). PCCM is ranked 13th of 35 journals in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) category of Critical Care, and 16th of 130 journals in the SCIE category of Pediatrics. JOURNAL PROCESS METRICS In the 44 months from January 2021 to August 2024, out of 2,755 submissions (excluding Editorial material) we have 544 accepted items (20%), 2,135 rejected items (78%), and the other 76 items (2%) are still at various stages of review. In the articles published in the 44 issues (January 2021 to August 2024), time in review–from date of submission to date of acceptance–was a median (interquartile range [IQR]) 120 (76 to 173) days. The median interval between article acceptance and appearance in an issue of the Journal was 5 (IQR, 5 to 6) months. These data remain consistent with our performance reported in previous years (2,3). As the journal moves forward to an entirely digital format, we are hopeful that the median lead-time of 5 months will become shorter. Regarding the female-to-male ratio of gender-tagged names of the first author of each submission, as in previous years, our data fail to show evidence of an association between the process from submission to acceptance, and there being a difference in the submission and acceptance ratios: 1.2:1 for submission and 1.4:1 for acceptance, which is the same as I reported in 2022 and 2023 (2,3). Last in PCCM’s metrics, over the period from January 2021 to August 2024, we continued to be supported by an amazing pool of hard-working reviewers–568 in total. And, for completeness, the overall female-to-male ratio of reviewers’ gender-tagged names is 0.8:1. GUIDE TO HIGHLIGHTED JOURNAL CONTENT All content in PCCM deserves reading because each article has succeeded in an intense competition and the authors are communicating new, clinically-relevant material. Over and above taking time to read all our content, there are two accolades that may help to give focus in your approach to PCCM. First, please read content that has been highly cited by peers. For example, as of October 2024, there are six articles in volume 24 of PCCM (2023) that have already gained 10 or more citations in the Clarivate™ Web of Science database for 2024, which places them in an “Excellent” category. Four of these articles focus on the topic of pediatric acute respiratory distress syndrome (PARDS). There are three articles from the 2023 Second International Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of PARDS (PALICC-2) (4–6). Of note, by May/June 2024, the executive summary of the PALICC-2 guidelines (4) had achieved the designation of “highly cited paper” by Clarivate™, meaning that it is in the top 1% of the academic field of Clinical Medicine. The fourth article about PARDS reports an ancillary study to the 2016/2017 PARDS incidence and epidemiology study (7); in this article the authors focus on the use of noninvasive ventilation and associated outcomes, which explores a theme of management that follows from the PALICC-2 guidance (4). The two other articles from 2023 with 10 or more citations in 2024 include a Systematic Review of factors associated with delirium (8), and a Special Article from the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) Pediatric Sepsis Definition Taskforce about operationalizing appropriate sepsis definitions in children worldwide (9). Alternatively, as a guide to reading, consider using the articles highlighted in the Editor’s Choice for each month in 2024 (10–21). This material and the Featured Articles can be accessed from the Journal website (see https://journals.lww.com/pccmjournal/pages/collectiondetails.aspx?TopicalCollectionId=26) and select the “Collections” drop-down menu and click on the items within the “Editor’s Choice” section. For example, two core areas of research which came to the forefront in 2024 included PARDS, and Sepsis and Fluids. Regarding PARDS, there was highlighted work on outcomes (13,15,18), respiratory dead space physiology (18), and use of biomarkers in patient risk-stratification (16). Regarding sepsis and fluids there were articles on: physiologic predictors of fluid responsiveness (10); the use of algorithms (20) and early echocardiography (17) in patient management and evaluation (17); antibiotic pharmacokinetics (21); vasopressor treatment protocols in those with septic shock (11) and shock phenotypes (15); and health related quality of life outcomes (18). Other featured items covered a range of topics: diagnostics with whole genome screening (17), and point of care ultrasound (20); cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) (10,13), and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (16,20); medications including anticoagulation during continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) (10), and anticonvulsant prophylaxis in severe traumatic brain injury (17); rehabilitation and postacute care (11,15), clinical trials (11), and severity of illness risk stratification (12); respiratory management (12,14,16,19); ethics, end-of-life care and death using neurologic criteria (13,19,21); communication and family-centered care (14); and professional career development and trajectory (19). NEW INTERNATIONAL MATERIAL In May 2024, the Journal introduced a section called “PCCM International” for readers. This educational section is now regularly disseminated by the World Federation of Pediatric Intensive and Critical Care Societies (WFPICCS) (22). These highlighted reports have come from all WFPICCS regions and include work on sepsis and septic shock epidemiology from South China (14); a consensus on contemporary CRRT practices from the United States, United Kingdom (UK), Europe, Turkey and Japan (15); clinical trials material from Latin America, UK, Australia and Switzerland, and India (16,17); a multicenter observational study of severe PARDS and driving pressure from Colombia (18); CPR mechanics from Germany (19); and studies using datasets from Uganda, one modeling the “sepsis challenge” (20) and the other reporting peripheral perfusion index in Plasmodium falciparum severe malaria (21). Taking all the above together–our metrics, content, and international mission–the PCCM community is most definitely thriving. Next year we enter volume 26 of the Journal and a new era of solely digital and electronic content. More about PCCM’s new format, new sections, and new types of articles will come in January 2025.