Elevating the SFN Journal to Drive Innovation and Impact in Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery

The Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery (SFN) Editorial Board convened during two key events in 2024: the ASSFN meeting in Nashville and the WSSFN meeting in Chicago. These events mark an exciting phase in enhancing the journal’s impact and global reach.

Key Updates and Achievements

During the meetings, Dr. Andres Lozano, Editor-in-Chief of SFN, shared an overview of the journal’s performance metrics, which included:

• A significant reduction in time to first decision, now averaging 80–90 days, compared to over 200 days prior to 2020.
• A rise in SFN’s impact factor to 1.9 this year. This is a notable accomplishment given that 80% of journals in the surgery category experienced declines due to changes in calculation methods.
• Detailed insights into submissions, peer-review benchmarks, citation trends, and the most highly cited and downloaded papers.

New Initiatives Underway

Dr. Lozano announced several initiatives aimed at bolstering SFN’s impact and global reach:

• A new commissioned series on epilepsy, marking the start of a broader effort to spotlight high-priority topics in the field.
• Enhanced Editorial Board renewal processes, including a review of the geographical distribution of board members to ensure diverse representation.
• Efforts to strengthen and centralize SFN’s relationships with partner societies, including ASSFN and other key collaborators.

Addressing Challenges

The board also addressed pressing challenges, such as increased competition from emerging journals, which may divert potential manuscript submissions; as well as obstacles to communicate with partner societies and challenges in providing subscribers with seamless access to SFN papers.

Board members shared valuable insights and proposed actionable solutions to overcome these hurdles, ensuring the journal remains a leader in the field.

Thank you to Dr. Lozano for his leadership, to the SFN Editorial Board for their collaborative efforts; to members for their strong participation and invaluable contributions, as well as to societies for their financial and logistical support in organizing these productive meetings. Their efforts are evidence of a strong dedication to advancing research and innovation in stereotactic and functional neurosurgery.

ASSFN members can access the online subscription to SFN by logging into their myAANS  member portal. Members may also receive a printed subscription at a reduced rate.  Learn more at https://assfn.org/about-assfn/sfn-journal/

Article by Dr. Andres Lozano