New Year's greeting and overview of Artificial Intelligence in Medical Imaging in 2021

Abstract

As editors of Artificial Intelligence in Medical Imaging (AIMI), it is our great pleasure to take this opportunity to wish all of our authors, subscribers, readers, Editorial Board members, independent expert referees, and staff of the Editorial Office a Very Happy New Year. On behalf of the Editorial Team, we would like to express our gratitude to all of the authors who have contributed their valuable manuscripts, our independent referees, and our subscribers and readers for their continuous support, dedication, and encouragement. Together with an excellent of team effort by our Editorial Board members and staff of the Editorial Office, AIMI advanced in 2020 and we look forward to greater achievements in 2021.

Key Words: New Year’s greeting; Artificial Intelligence in Medical Imaging; Baishideng; Journal development

Core Tip: On behalf of the Artificial Intelligence in Medical Imaging (AIMI) Editorial Team, we would like to express our gratitude to all authors who have contributed their valuable manuscripts, to our independent referees, and to our subscribers and readers for their continuous support, dedication, and encouragement. Together with an excellent team effort by our Editorial Board members and staff of the Editorial Office, AIMI advanced in 2020 and we look forward to greater achievements in 2021.

INTRODUCTION

As editors of Artificial Intelligence in Medical Imaging (AIMI), it is our great pleasure to take this opportunity to wish all of our authors, subscribers, readers, Editorial Board members, independent expert referees, and staff of the Editorial Office a Very Happy New Year. On behalf of the Editorial Team, we would also like to express our gratitude to all authors who have contributed their valuable manuscripts, to independent referees, and to our subscribers and readers for their continuous support, dedication, and encouragement.

AIMI mainly focuses on reporting research results obtained in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) in medical imaging, but covers a wide range of topics within that field. With the joint efforts of Editorial Board members and Editorial Office staff, it is our hope that AIMI will achieve further advancement in 2021, establishing a strong foundation upon which we may build to become the top journal in the field of AI.

ACADEMIC INFLUENCE OF AIMI

AIMI is a high-quality, bimonthly, online, open-access, and single-blind peer-reviewed journal, featuring research advances in AI involving the emerging fields of medical imaging in each issue. The scope of AIMI covers a wide range of topics, including but not limited to coronavirus disease 2019, radiomics, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, machine learning, deep learning, nuclear medicine, positron emission tomography, pathology image analysis, endoscopy, molecular imaging, and ultrasonography.

With the rapid development of AI technology, the combination of deep learning and image-omics will enjoy broader application and more substantive development prospects, ultimately creating new fields of computer-aided diagnosis and personalized medical imaging. As a future research hotspot, they will continue to support even further investigative and clinical focus, advancing the overall use of AI and its benefit to human health. We will invite global experts to contribute original articles that focus on key scientific issues in medical imaging technology, methodology, and applied research, and propose research ideas, key research directions, and future research trends, to lead the development of the field.

As one of the key developing journals of the Baishideng Publishing Group Inc (BPG), AIMI was launched in 2020, publishing Volume 1, Issue 1 on June 28[1]. To date, it has published 3 issues with 11 articles (Figure 1). The authors of these manuscripts come from countries across the globe (Figure 2). In 2020, the Editorial Board of AIMI consisted of 77 members from 23 countries and regions including 33 from China (42.9%), 9 from the United States (11.7%), 7 from India (9.1%), and 28 from other countries and regions (36.3%) (Figure 3)[2].

Figure 1 Column type distribution of manuscripts published in Artificial Intelligence in Medical Imaging in 2020.

Figure 2 Distribution of authors’ countries for the manuscripts published in Artificial Intelligence in Medical Imaging in 2020.

Figure 3 Distribution of Editorial Board members’ countries for Artificial Intelligence in Medical Imaging.

To help AIMI develop more efficiently, BPG instituted and implemented the following in 2020. (1) In order to provide authors with better services, and supervise and promote BPG’s efforts to publish each article more openly and transparently, BPG published the Author Reviews (https://www.f6publishing.com/AuthorReviews) for each publication, so that all can see the authors’ evaluation and feedback on the publication process. (2) Throughout 2020, BPG continued systematic efforts to encourage more authors to generate articles that are outstanding for their originality and innovativeness and to strengthen our open-access strategy of publication; these efforts were motivated by our dedication to maximizing readers’ access to the latest research results, to promote development of the medical sciences worldwide. In doing so, BPG invited Editorial Board members to conduct Article Quality Tracking-Peer-Review and published the comments (https://www.f6publishing.com/ArticleQualityTrackings) after the publication of the article. (3) To continue to advance BPG’s publishing efficiency and quality, we successfully developed an automated manuscript editor system for manuscript revision and submission, as well as an artificially intelligent program to generate a PDF version of the manuscript. (4) To enable more peers to read, share, and cite authors’ published research results and to help enhance their global academic influence and reputations, thereby also promoting the overall development of the field, BPG initiated the routine of sending its published articles to 1000-10000 highly influential experts in a topically accurate manner. After completing this outreach activity, BPG formally notifies the paper’s authors of the number of experts to whom their manuscript was sent via email.

We are pleased to announce that we have now submitted evaluation applications to the Web of Science, with the expectation that the AIMI could be included in Science Citation Index Expanded in 2021.

CONCLUSION

With the collective support of BPG’s contributors and staff, we expect to continue the trajectory towards more productive efforts that will raise the academic rank of AIMI in 2021. To achieve these goals, we appreciate the need for continuous support and submissions from authors and the dedicated efforts and expertise by our invited reviewers, many of them who also serve on our Editorial Board. As the chief editors of AIMI, we strive to work with the journal’s Editorial Office staff to make the manuscript submission process as simple as possible and to ensure efficient communication with the authors to provide professional support and answer their questions. We are also open to any suggestions that could improve AIMI’s operations and publication. Please feel free to contact us at (editorialoffice@wjgnet.com) with any question on your submission or suggestions.

Once again, on behalf of AIMI, we wish you and your families the best for the New Year.