Editor-in-Chief’s Editorial: A New Chapter for the Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association

I would like to share an important update about the future of the Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association (JAPMA).

Starting in 2026, JAPMA will move to an open access publishing model in partnership with MDPI, one of the largest open access publishers in the world with a portfolio of just over 500 journals. This change reflects a strategic decision by APMA, and will advance APMA’s goal of increasing the visibility and reach of the work published in the journal while keeping pace with changes in scholarly publishing.

With this transition, all JAPMA articles will be freely available to readers worldwide. MDPI will provide publishing and operational support, while editorial oversight, journal scope, and quality standards will remain firmly under JAPMA’s control. This maintenance of editorial control was a “red line” on the part of APMA in their negotiations with different publishers. We have been assured by MDPI that we will keep this control. Our commitment to rigorous peer review and to publishing high-quality clinical and scientific research will not change.

There should be many benefits to this change for our authors and readers. MDPI maintains a huge database of qualified reviewers, and they use proprietary, state-of-the-art AI to assist in this task, along with identifying conflicts of interest, plagiarism, assuring ethical compliance, and checking statistical accuracy. This should significantly decrease the time from submission through the review process to publication, allowing for critical scientific/clinical information to become available in a more timely fashion. Furthermore, their extensive experience and worldwide reach in medical publishing opens JAPMA to even more submissions from top researchers around the globe.

As is standard practice with open access journals, authors will be charged an Article Processing Charge (APC) once their manuscript is accepted for publication. This fee is currently set to be lower than any other journal currently in the foot and ankle space. MDPI will also allow us to offer waivers of the APC to some authors/manuscripts that we feel strongly deserve to be published so as to not discourage submissions from young investigators, residency programs, private practitioners, and colleges of podiatric medicine.

It is often said that the Chinese word for “turning point (机)” is the same as that for “opportunity”. Actually, this is a misinterpretation widely spread after John F. Kennedy used it in his presidential campaign (thank you AI!) and parroted by pop-culture philosophers to the point of banality. Even if it is a Western linguistic mistake, the concept behind the saying still has merit. I believe that this major change in the way that we will publish JAPMA will open many exciting opportunities, only some of which I listed above.

Unfortunately, with every major change comes some pain. Our Managing Editor (ME) of over 20 years, Noelle Abouzeid, the longest serving ME ever, will be leaving APMA. I have worked with Noelle since she started with us as an Editorial Assistant. She has been my invaluable righthand throughout these past 20 years. All of you who have submitted manuscripts also dealt with her and know how she made each of your papers, and thus the entire Journal, better. I cannot thank her enough!

Every member of APMA should be very proud of JAPMA. We have been published continuously for over 107 years, making it the oldest peer-reviewed, indexed scientific publication in the foot and ankle field. Each year, we receive submissions from between 30 and 40 different countries, demonstrating our international reach, presence, and respect. The number of manuscripts we receive each year continues to increase steadily. With the experience of MDPI, I only see us expanding our global footprint as we move into the Journal’s second century.

• Warren Joseph, DPM, FIDSA
• Editor-in-Chief