FROM THE EDITORS PUBLISHING IN AMJ—PART 1: TOPIC CHOICE

At the moment of this writing, there are 64 submissions in the hands of AMJ reviewers, who have been asked to critically evaluate the merits of those submissions relative to the mission and goals of the Journal. Although those reviewers will read their assigned manuscripts carefully and thoughtfully, their recommendations to the action editor will depend, in part, on a choice made years earlier: the topic of the study. The seeds for many rejections are planted at the inception of a project, in the form of topics that—no matter how well executed—will not sufficiently appeal to AMJ’s reviewers and readers. Likewise, many manuscripts ultimately earn revise-and-resubmits as a result of topic choices that gave them clear momentum, right out of the gate. What is the anatomy of a topic that, in our opinion, creates that sort of momentum at AMJ? Our editorial will focus on five distinct criteria of effective topics: significance, novelty, curiosity, scope, and actionability.