Collaboration between the Journals Interventional Neuroradiology and American Journal of Neuroradiology

INR's Perspective

Operating Principles. INR was created almost 15 years ago to provide the international community involved in the practice of neurointerventional therapy with a scientific forum to exchange ideas, results of therapy, and research carried out in this rapidly growing field. Its mandate was endorsed by the World Federation of Interventional and Therapeutic Neuroradiology, the South American Working Group in Interventional and Therapeutic Neuroradiology, the Asian and Australian Federation of Interventional and Therapeutic Neuroradiology, and the Japanese Society of NeuroEndovascular Therapy. Collaboration between INR and AJNR will combine the worldwide experience in INR with the academic excellence in neuroradiology publishing as exemplified by AJNR. Future strengthening of the relationship between the journals is expected to occur and to result in excellence of scientific exchange at a global level.

Editorial Office Communications. The editorial office of INR will be modified to reflect the cooperation of the 2 journals, and its functioning unit will be changed to facilitate access and integration in line with current practices at AJNR. This should lead to a user-friendly submission and exchange of homogeneous information between the journals, signifying their alliance. It will facilitate a strategy enabled to accommodate the highest caliber submissions to be published in the most appropriate environment.

Neuroradiology/Interventional Neuroradiology Benefits. From its beginning some half a century ago, neuroradiology has included and fostered research in all aspects of imaging of the central nervous system. This included advances in neuroimaging and new techniques proposed not only by neuroradiologists but also by practitioners with a background in the various aspects of the neurosciences. Advances in neuroimaging facilitated the feasibility of image-guided therapy and treatments performed by specialists in neuroimaging. This in turn resulted in the evolution and establishment of interventional neuroradiology as a distinct specialty. At the same time, interventional neuroradiology benefited greatly from the participation of neuroscientists with different backgrounds (neurology, neurosurgery, and radiology), which enhanced the specialty and facilitated its introduction into the realm of multidisciplinary patient care. Guidelines for standards of training and standards of practice in interventional neuroradiology will benefit greatly from endorsement by neuroradiology. A close link between neuroradiology and interventional neuroradiology will ensure advances in the field are the result of high-quality scientific exchange of information and lead to excellence in patient care.

AJNR's Perspective

At the beginning of this year, Dr. terBrugge approached the American Society of Neuroradiology with the idea of establishing a collaboration between INR and AJNR. This idea was first floated by ASNR's Publications Committee and afterward gained approval by the Executive Committee. A letter of agreement was developed, and I flew to Toronto to personally speak to Karel and discuss the details of our collaboration. Karel responded to our ideas in his usual gentlemanly form, and I feel very pleased that our agreement was signed with enthusiasm by all.

Operating Principles. AJNR receives a significant number of interventional-related submissions, which are handled by 2 dedicated Senior Editors. Because of limited space, many excellent manuscripts are rejected; this is particularly true of Case Reports. The INR/AJNR collaboration opens the possibility of offering publication to a wider number of these papers. AJNR's subscriber base lies predominantly in the Americas while INR's enjoys wide readership in Europe, Asia, and Oceania. We are working out discounted fees for subscribers and advertisers in both journals. Dr. terBrugge and his editorial team are working with AJNR's Web designer to modify their Website so it will have a similar functionality to that of ANJR. A link to INR may already be found on our Website. Last, our future series of Special Collections dealing with interventional articles will benefit from containing articles from both journals.

Editorial Office Communications. Dr. terBrugge and Dr. Timo Krings will serve as liaisons between their journal and ours, a fact clearly identified in our masthead. Similarly, Drs. Strother and Cloft will serve as members of the INR editorial board. Our submission Website now has the ability to generate letters to corresponding authors advising them that their submissions should be sent to INR when they cannot be accommodated by AJNR. In this fashion, we should be able to track the number of articles that benefit from our collaboration and determine their eventual fate. All of these activities would not be possible without the involvement of our editorial staff. Collaboration between staff will provide INR the administrative/editorial experience of AJNR in setting up their Website, streamlining submission processes, and obtaining INR's own Impact Factor.

Neuroradiology/Interventional Neuroradiology Benefits. In this era of turf disputes and fragmentation of our specialty, I am very satisfied that the first steps have been taken to ensure the worldwide presence of AJNR in association with interventional neuroradiology. Sharing subscriber bases will help both journals reach a wider audience. Because INR has the strongest international support within interventional neuroradiology and AJNR is the pre-eminent diagnostic neuroradiology journal, our agreement heralds a new era of global collaboration and understanding between radiologists and related scientists. I want to thank ASNR's Executive and Publications Committees, especially Dr. Gordon Sze, for their support. I cannot think of any other “American” imaging-related society that has done anything similar to what we are attempting with this collaboration. At this early stage, it is difficult to speculate where this activity will lead to in the future, but with good will and enthusiasm from all parties involved, Dr. terBrugge and I feel very optimistic and invite all of our readers and authors to participate and embrace this alliance.