Ted Stern Announces Retirement as Journal Editor
Dr. Stern has been editor-in-chief of the Academy’s journal, Psychosomatics, since 2008
Ted Stern, MD, FACLP, the Academy’s journal editor-in-chief since January 2008, has announced that he will retire from this role at the end of his current contract in December 2020. By then he will have completed 13 years as the Academy’s editor-in-chief of its journal Psychosomatics.
Dr. Stern is the Ned H. Cassem professor of psychiatry, in the field of Psychosomatic Medicine/Consultation Psychiatry, at Harvard Medical School; chief emeritus, of the Avery D. Weisman Psychiatry Consultation Service; director of the Thomas P. Hackett Center for Scholarship in Psychosomatic Medicine; and director of the Office for Clinical Careers, at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).
A past-president of the Academy (2003-2004), Ted also served as annual meeting program chair in 1998, chaired numerous committees (e.g., Standards and Ethics; Education; Web Site; Fellowship & Awards) and task forces (e.g., Evidence-based outcome data; Practice Management), and served on several other committees (e.g., preconference courses, long-range planning, annual meeting), and as a member of the Council (Board of Directors) for nearly 25 years.
Amongst the many awards bestowed by the Academy and other organizations, Ted received our highest honor, the Eleanor and Thomas P. Hackett Memorial Award, in 2008.
Dr. Stern’s stewardship heralded a period of extraordinary redevelopment for the journal. His organizational, administrative, and professional skills contributed to a wholesale reinvigoration of the journal to the distinct place it holds today as a credible and authoritative source of C-L psychiatry science.
Since 2008, more than 1,150 articles have been published in the journal…. and roughly five times that number were submitted and reviewed by Ted. Nonetheless, the average time from submission to a first decision is now less than seven days, and the time from submission to a final decision is less than 19 days. Psychosomatics’ impact factor has increased to 2.534—an historic high! Additionally, citations have increased from 2,564 in 2008 to what is expected to be well over 4,000 in 2019. Online “visits” have increased to about 100,000, while full text article views exceed 15,000 per year. And, the journal has a well-established international audience with significant readership worldwide.
Dr. Stern said: “Working with literally hundreds of ACLP members in various capacities over the past three decades has been a real treat for me… but none of the positions I have held has stimulated me more than serving as editor-in-chief of Psychosomatics.
“Reading and reviewing every paper submitted to the journal has provided me with a steady stream of exciting, challenging, and informative cases, studies, and discussions, as well as with the opportunity to shape our field (in large part through the tireless efforts of our army of reviewers and the members of our editorial board); to them I give my deepest thanks.
“After ending my tenure as editor-in-chief of Psychosomatics, I plan to continue my clinical work and teaching on the MGH Psychiatric Consultation Service, my work as the director of the Office for Clinical Careers at MGH, my teaching of medical students, residents, and fellows at MGH, and to increase my scholarly writing/editing to educate the general public about the interface among psychiatry, medicine, surgery, and neurology. It has been an incredible honor to serve the field of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry and the ACLP.”
“Ted has been an extraordinary leader for the journal during a time of change and growth for the Academy,” says Academy president Rebecca Weintraub Brendel, MD, JD, FACLP. “Under Ted’s leadership, the journal has flourished with enhanced size, scope, impact, and financial viability. The ACLP had high hopes for Ted’s tenure as editor, but his achievements have far surpassed even the imagination. Finding a successor will be a challenging endeavor for the board in the coming year.”
A celebration of Ted’s contributions will be planned for the 2020 annual meeting in Arizona.
Further details on the search for a new editor-in-chief will be announced by the board later this year.