Dr. Yealy became the new editor-in-chief of Annals of Emergency Medicine in 2022.

Why is Annals of Emergency Medicine the best journal in emergency medicine?

Dr. Yealy: For 50 years, Annals has recruited the best talent to evaluate submissions and created the best processes to make that happen. When you put those [processes] together, you have a recipe for both impact and recognition.

Tell me a little bit about your journey to how you got into this position.

Dr. Yealy: I finished my training in 1989, and I did a research fellowship as part of that training. Back then when I did a research fellowship, there were two other research fellows in emergency medicine in the country. We could have come to this meeting [ACEP22] and met in almost any room or any corner; it was easy to know everybody in it. And that’s a symbol of how far we’ve come, because now you wouldn’t be able to have that in the single room. I got interested in the creation of knowledge and once you have some skill toward creating knowledge and writing the manuscripts around it, you quickly get invited to review that same process for others. I started reviewing for both Annals and other journals, and over time developed an aptitude and skill for it. [I] took on increasing roles at both Annals and at other journals, and over the past 16 years have been deputy editor [for Annals].

What’s the deal with reviewer number two?

Dr. Yealy: How is it that we manage to find the most difficult person and always assign them two? Just like on K-type questions, the right answer is always B. I think that it’s actually not true. Your expectation is such that when it happens, it reinforces what is otherwise a haphazard event. It’s not random, but it’s haphazard.

How does Annals fit in with JACEP Open, ACEP Now, and all the other publications that the College publishes?

Dr. Yealy: The College has, as part of its mission and goals, the desire to meet the educational and practice needs of anyone who’s a member. And they can do that through a variety of different formats. That includes peer-reviewed, original scientific research. That includes other platforms where work that maybe has already been through peer review or hasn’t quite made it to peer review yet can be shared. I think for ACEP, it’s a wise strategy to have multiple different platforms that overlap and yet provide information in the style and manner in which the end user likes to take it up. And that would include both print online and standard traditional formats. Each of those overlap because they’re sharing knowledge, and they share from each other. Annals and JACEP Open focus primarily, but not exclusively, on original work. Annals, perhaps more mature original work. And JACEP Open maybe more nascent work. ACEP [Now] would take the output from those things and talk more about, how can that be integrated into practice? I see them as distinctly different but overlapping platforms that are important for any successful organization to make sure they’re meeting the needs of all the members. [Annal’s] mission is to provide the highest quality science, whether it’s new or assimilation of old known science, in formats that are the more traditional formats.