40 Years of Knowledge Informing Care

The Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation (JHTR) was established in 1986 to “advance the field of head trauma rehabilitation by publishing manuscripts that help improve our knowledge base, our clinical expertise, and ultimately the lives of those we treat and their families.”1 The cofounders and original editors, Sheldon Berrol and Mitch Rosenthal, saw the need for a scientific journal to publish studies from the quickly growing field of specialized “head injury” rehabilitation. The journal has continuously published for the past 40 years, bridging knowledge from brain injury mechanisms to rehabilitation strategies. Work published in JHTR addresses outcomes affecting functional independence, participation in the community, subjective well-being, and quality of life in studies using a variety of research designs. The journal has been an outlet for studies seeking to understand how to live with and improve life after brain injury, as well to increase knowledge regarding comorbid health and social consequences that disproportionately affect persons living with this condition. This focus has helped shift the brain injury field away from efforts focused solely on survival and acute care outcomes toward meaningful lifelong recovery and community participation. Topical issues have been the hallmark of the journal since its inception. In the beginning, all 4 annually published issues were dedicated to topical issues. In 1995, when the journal expanded to 6 issues annually, 5 of the 6 were dedicated to topical issues, with only 1 publishing unsolicited manuscripts. Eventually, the proportion of articles published that were part of topical issues declined. Today approximately 25% of articles are in topical issues and 75% are unsolicited. Despite this change in emphasis, the topical issue remains an important tool for JHTR, as it allows for identification of emerging issues, or new perspectives, in the brain injury field that can be advanced by bringing attention to nascent research being done on the topic. The 4 topical issues in 1986 addressed the following subjects: The Persistent Vegetative State (Volume 1 edited by Sheldon Berrol, MD); Minor Head Injury (Volume 2, edited by Jeffrey Barth, PhD); Attention and Memory (Volume 3, edited by John Whyte, MD, PhD); and Pediatric Head Injury (Volume 4, edited by Kenneth Jaffe, MD). To commemorate 40 years of the journal’s publication, we approached current leaders in research on 3 of the 4 topics from Volume 1 and asked them to examine where the field has come over the past 40 years. In this issue of the JHTR, you will find these retrospectives: “Progress in Concussion/Traumatic Brain Injury Science and Clinical Care Over the Last 40 Years” by Noah Silverberg and John Leddy; “Advances in Understanding the Outcomes of Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury: From Baby Steps to Bigger Leaps” by Stacy Suskauer and Keith Owen Yeates; “Advances in Disorders of Consciousness Research and Translation Over the Last Two Decades” by Risa Nikase-Richardson, John Whyte and Joe Giacino; and “Forty Years in the Making: From Nihilism Towards a Therapeutic Neuroethics for Disorders of Consciousness” by Joe Fins. The Disorders of Consciousness article addresses the last 20 years, because Drs. Whyte and Giacino composed a similar retrospective 20 years ago. We have also included a personal reflection by Joe Fins on the intermingling of his professional career with the evolution of our approach to Disorders of Consciousness. I highly commend the authors of the above 4 articles—each group took a unique approach to the invited task and all accomplished compelling and informative pieces. Whether or not you specialize in one of the topics addressed, you will want to read them all. As the journal enters its next 40 years––and I am confident there will be another 40––I know I speak for the Editors, Editorial Board, and Publisher by saying we are all committed to continuing to making JHTR a valuable vehicle for sharing brain injury science. That value will be reflected in high quality peer review and a willingness to publish good science, whatever the findings. It is a great honor to continue the work started by Shelly Berrol and Mitch Rosenthal, continuing to pursue the mission of knowledge informing care. —John D. Corrigan, PhDEditor-in-Chief, January 2026Journal of Head Trauma RehabilitationProfessor, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation,The Ohio State University. Columbus, OH