The Journal at Forty: A Proud Legacy and a Look to the Future

This year will mark the 40th anniversary of Movement Disorders, founded by Stan Fahn and David Marsden. From its birth, the Journal filled a unique gap and set new directions. Movement Disorders was the first journal to integrate video submissions, and these remain an important component of our field to this day. While many appropriately think of Movement Disorders as a clinically oriented journal, the very first issue in 1986 included a broad range of topics. The lead article was a review by Jack Penney and Anne Young on striatal inhomogeneities,1 in which they incorporated the recent pioneering work of Ann Graybiel2 into their original model of basal ganglia dysfunction. Exciting new developments from the Graybiel laboratory on non-canonical direct and indirect pathways3 have been outlined in a recent review in these pages.4 In keeping with the Journal's commitment to a fundamental understanding of basal ganglia function and how it is disrupted in disease, the first issue also contained articles on the phenomenology of tics, pain in Parkinson's disease (PD), menstrual fluctuations in PD, as well as several case reports and observations derived from neuroimaging – all topics that remain as relevant today as they were 40 years ago. The original Journal was published quarterly, but this has increased over time to the current 12 issues per year. The original editorial model was based on two Co-Editors-in-Chief, representing the Eastern and Western hemispheres. This model continued under the leadership of key players in our field (Andrew Lees and Tony Lang, Christopher Goetz and Guenther Deuschl) until a decade ago, when Jose Obeso stepped away from his role as Co-Editor-in-Chief with Warren Olanow (2010–2015) and became the sole Editor-in-Chief, supported by Assistant (Maria Stamelou) and Deputy (A.J.S.) Editors. Concurrent with the shared tenure of Warren and Jose, the Journal was supported by a professional editorial office, which helped increase the efficiency and professionalism of its production. The current Editor-in-Chief is blessed with the support of extraordinary Deputy Editors (Christine Klein and David Standaert) as well as a team of outstanding Associate Editors. Although the basic principles of the Journal remain remarkably close to those at its inception, there have of course been shifts in emphasis and in workload. The Journal receives >2000 submissions per year, ranging from clinical observations (many of which are referred to our sister journal, Movement Disorders Clinical Practice, now entering its 13th year of successful publication) to increasingly complex fundamental science that incorporates the latest developments in molecular and cellular biology, genetics, optogenetics and electrophysiology, as well as the more traditional clinical research domains of epidemiology and neuroimaging, and a welcome growth in reports of clinical trials. Changes in publishing trends have been accompanied by shifts in the types of papers that are most frequently cited. Highly cited papers from the first two decades of the Journal often described clinical variants such as young-onset PD,5 the definition of restless legs syndrome,6 and the first MDS consensus on tremor,7 as well rating scales for Huntington's disease8 and PD.9 Over the last two decades, there has been increased recognition of the importance of non-motor features of PD,10 including quality of life,11 pain,12 and the ultimate high prevalence of dementia,13 accompanied by a high citation rate for diagnostic criteria for dementia14 and mild cognitive impairment,15 and rating scales for non-motor features,16 rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder,17 apathy,18 and impulse control disorders.19 There has also been growing recognition of the importance of classifying non-PD disorders including dystonia,20 progressive supranuclear palsy,21 and multiple system atrophy,22 as well as highly cited updated consensus statements and diagnostic criteria for tremor,23 PD,24 and prodromal PD.25 Although there are now many papers on the microbiome in PD (Scheperjans 26 and Keshavarzian 27 amongst many others in recent years), it is worth noting that the importance of gastrointestinal function in PD was recognized in the Journal's pages many years earlier.28 The last few years have seen several highly cited papers on inflammation, including several observations on clinical and potential mechanistic aspects of COVID infection, and of course a marked increase in hitherto largely undeveloped areas including genetics, the role of ⍺-synuclein, and fluid biomarkers. There has been growing interest in the control of posture and gait, and particularly the importance of executive function,29 coupled with an increased recognition of the role for wearables and other automated measurement devices. As the field moves away from more traditional descriptive studies, we have seen more submissions on factors that may influence disease progression (eg, type 2 diabetes, genetic modifiers) and the role of lifestyle factors including diet and exercise. While the quest for pharmacological or biological agents that can modify disease progression continues, there has been an explosion in papers on neuromodulation. The Journal published one of the sentinel papers on the effects of subthalamic lesions in experimental parkinsonism,30 a highly cited review on the role of oscillations in basal ganglia dysfunction,31 and continues to publish observations on novel adaptations of deep brain stimulation as well as other forms of non-invasive stimulation and exciting progress in lesions generated by focused ultrasound. Like all journals, ours continues to address new challenges. Open access will continue to grow. This ensures wider reader access to published articles, but there is considerable disparity in access to agreements that cover the associated article processing charges. While we embrace the easier access to our readers, Movement Disorders has continued to operate in hybrid fashion, so there is no charge to authors who choose (or are permitted) to publish their work in a more traditional fashion. Open access publication also changes the publication model in favor of publishing more articles; we prefer to ensure maximal editorial control over decisions regarding priority for publication. The growth in pressure on authors to publish and on the number of publications has led to enormous strains on the peer review system. We are fortunate to have a very committed group of experts who review for us on a regular basis, as well as many who review in a more ad hoc fashion, but some papers are sent to >20 reviewers in order to secure two evaluations. This inevitably leads to delays and is stressful for authors. It is hard to adequately express the gratitude owed to our regular reviewers, who are thoughtful and without whom we could not maintain the quality of the Journal. Pressure to publish also inevitably leads to some incidents of misconduct, which are fortunately relatively uncommon as regards our Journal, but can be increasingly difficult to detect. All papers submitted undergo an automated plagiarism detection review, and papers about to be accepted for publication additionally undergo a detailed image check. It is, however, sometimes quite challenging to accurately detect machine-generated content and ‘paper mill’ activity, and this can consume a fair amount of editorial time, despite a series of automated but imperfect system checks. While we go to considerable lengths to ensure the scientific and ethical quality of the Journal, we also recognize that this is a society journal and we have a responsibility to the members of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society to produce a publication that is relevant to their interests and to societal issues, including equity and world events. Thus, while we obviously pay close attention to journal metrics, our measure of success is that our readers will look forward to each issue of the Journal and will find items of interest to them within its pages every month. Over the course of the coming year, we will not only continue to disseminate novel translational work in the field, but we hope to publish a number of perspectives from authors who have made key contributions during our history, inviting not only their thoughts on how the field has evolved over the past 40 years, but also their vision for a future that is increasingly exciting. Happy Anniversary!