Since 2005, The Journal of Medical Toxicology (JMT) has published high-impact manuscripts that have helped define the principles and practice of medical toxicology throughout the world. As our field has advanced, we at the journal have learned alongside our readers from the original research, seminal case reports, and commentaries published therein. And as the field has evolved, so has JMT: it has changed the way it disseminates published content, enhanced the rigor of its high quality reviews, acquired an impact factor, and expanded its means of outreach. Concomitantly with these changes, JMT has remained steadfast in the belief that JMT exists for and serves you—our authors, reviewers, editors, and readers—and that together, we can promote and advance the field of medical toxicology. To further this intention, in 2019, we hosted an in-person focus group of representative readers of the journal to hear their candid thoughts about JMT; we followed that event with an electronic survey of all subscribed readers to give every individual an opportunity to share honest feedback with us in a confidential and anonymous manner. Although the pandemic has delayed our report from that focus group and survey, we are pleased to share those findings with our readers here. We thank all those who participated in that focus group in San Francisco and all who completed the electronic survey instrument. Please know we have heard you and are committed to continue improving JMT to meet your needs. We will also use this opportunity to highlight some recent changes and future plans for JMT.

Publishing, as much of life, has undergone a rapidly changing evolution towards increased digitization. In an effort to keep pace with the briskly advancing publishing model, and to enhance content delivery to readers, our publisher, Springer Nature, transitioned JMT and many of its other journals to an online-only format in 2015. While many of us still can recall the smell and feel of the glossy magazine, we have grown accustomed to receiving published studies more quickly, perusing emailed tables of contents, and discovering manuscripts through novel tools. We learn about new literature through posts on social media, the American College of Medical Toxicology (ACMT) grand rounds, webinars, and meetings, and the novel Twitter-based chat group, #firesidetox [1]. These venues have brought readership and the public closer to authors. Our continued growth in the digital world has expanded our reach and has been informed by measures of engagement like Altmetric scores, a non-traditional but increasingly popular bibliometric that aggregates social media-based citations of manuscripts in concert with traditional citation impact metrics, such as the impact factor.

Although we had previously surveyed readers about their experience reading JMT, our goal with the focus group and electronic survey in 2019 was to hear how you felt about the journal and how you consumed its content given the digital transition. One hundred seventy-eight readers provided responses. Most respondents (78%) reported that they found new articles through the emailed table of contents. With the transition to the online-only format, 90% reported that they no longer read JMT cover-to-cover but viewed selected articles. The two sections deemed most popular among readers were Original Research and Reviews.

The survey provided us with key feedback on areas that would benefit from improvement: access to journal articles was the most cited concern. While many users accessed JMT content through their membership portal via the ACMT website, those accessing JMT content through institutional access (e.g., university or hospital) found this path cumbersome and at times obstructive. This feedback has been extremely important as we navigate a paperless world in biomedical publishing. JMT and publisher Springer Nature are working to ensure continued, easy access to the journal via ACMT or via subscribing institutions—doing so requires responding to the rapidly evolving landscape of technological change, while maintaining a commitment to data security and identity protection. One immediate intervention born of this feedback was the implementation of a “one-click” full-text sharing feature: the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative can be found in the “About This Article” section of an article.

Readers also stated they wanted special sections and special content issues which covered topics such as medico-legal discourse, pharmacology, forensic toxicology, the development of private consultation services, and visual diagnosis features. This feedback is extremely important and greatly appreciated as we seek to grow and improve the journal. We also aim to launch at least one special interest section within the year. And we plan more special content issues like our COVID-focused issue in July 2020, one of the very first biomedical journals to devote an issue to the pandemic.

Throughout its growth, JMT has remained committed to maintaining high quality peer review and increasing the value of the journal to prospective authors. We have published increasingly robust guidelines to help authors with their case reports, survey studies, and statistical analyses. Additionally, statistics editor Mark Su recently launched a regular feature that reviews key biostatistical and epidemiology concepts pertinent to medical toxicology. We have responded to suggestions from readers and researchers by adding new sections to advance medical toxicology scholarship, such as our Preliminary Research section which expedites publication of papers needed by investigators to secure extramural funding [2]. Last year we added Research Letters, a section for brief reports on original research with novel findings of interest to the medical toxicology community, as well as preliminary data or studies with small numbers demonstrating the need for further investigation. Finally, we have renewed our commitment to soliciting the most up-to-date scholarship in Addiction Medicine under the guidance of Senior Editor Leslie Dye. In parallel, we have reaffirmed our commitment to the highest standards of scientific integrity with our membership on the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and adherence to the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

It is important to acknowledge that these changes are due in no small part to your feedback, and many of those changes were led by our talented cohort of medical toxicology fellows who participate in the fellow-in-training (FIT) program under the auspices of Editorial Board member Trevonne Thompson. For those not familiar, each year JMT recruits 1–2 FIT members to the editorial board and provides them with training and mentorship in peer review, editing, and publishing. Each FIT member is given the opportunity to publish mentored commentaries and develop an initiative to improve the procedures used at JMT. Many of these initiatives are now permanent components of JMT: the statistics review procedure used for all submissions, the quarterly tweetchat and social media outreach, the new Research Letter section, and our published guidelines on survey studies and retrospective studies were all led by former FIT editor members.

We are enthusiastic about the progress we have made at JMT, and we remain unwavering in our dedication to publishing high quality research and information related to medical toxicology. We understand that you have many choices to read, with limited time, and we are committed to continued improvement to make your attention worthwhile. We provide a rapid and efficient peer review process with an average time from submission to first decision that is approximately 1 week. Our editors are committed to working with authors to improve the clarity and impact of their submissions with constructive feedback and open communication. As JMT continues to evolve and grow, we strive to benefit our readers, and sincerely welcome feedback at any time. This is your journal, and we want it to serve you. We take reader input seriously: you can always provide feedback to any member of our editorial board or in general by writing to us at jmtinfo@acmt.net. Thank you to the participants of the focus group, the respondents to the reader survey, and to all of you for your continued support for almost two decades. We look forward to your continued fantastic contributions to JMT, now, and in the future.