By Beth Erickson, MD, FASTRO, Program Chair of the 2022 ASTRO Annual Refresher Course Planning Committee

As 2021 has turned over to 2022, we would like to bring into focus the ASTRO Annual Refresher Course. This is our third year in a virtual format, and we have learned a great deal over the past few years about the nuances of successfully making this meeting format both enriching and enjoyable. Your evaluations of the meetings and the feedback we have received have been considered in creating this year’s virtual program. Though we miss the interpersonal connections we love at an in-person meeting, the virtual format has allowed more ASTRO members to attend and have access to this robust program.

We are very excited to invite you to attend this informative and pivotal meeting. There are many reasons to attend to expand your knowledge and enhance your learning plan and below, we list some of our top reasons.

1) Phenomenal faculty with sessions focused on all the major disease sites and scheduled live, interactive Q&A time to allow for exchange of strategies and perspectives. Here is our line-up:

• Gastrointestinal
  • Upper GI Theodore Hong, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
  • Lower GI Emma Holliday, MD, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston
• Pediatrics
  • Julie Bradley, MD, University of Florida Health Proton Therapy Institute, Jacksonville, Florida
• Lung
  • Russell Hales, MD, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
• Central Nervous System
  • Christina Tsien, MD, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
• Gynecologic
  • Endometrial Cancer Lara Hathout, MD, FRCPC, Rutgers Cancer Institute, New Brunswick, New Jersey
  • Cervical Cancer Mitchell Kamrava, MD, Cedars-Sinai Cancer Institute, Los Angeles
• Radiobiology - Molecular Profiles of Particular Cancer and Relationship to Therapy
  • Phuoc Tran, MD, University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins University, MD
• Breast
  • Mylin Torres, MD Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University School of Medicine
• Lymphomas
  • Bradford Hoppe, MD, MPH, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Florida
• Genitourinary
  • Rahul Tendulkar, MD, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland
• Biology- Guided Radiation Therapy
  • Murat Surucu, PhD, Stanford University, Stanford, California
• Oligometastatic Cancers and SBRT
  • David Palma, MD, PhD, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, Ontario
• Sarcomas
  • Meena Bedi, MD, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
• Head and Neck
  • Sue Yom MD, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco

2) An interactive format combining recorded sessions with live Q&A and networking opportunities.

3) A Young Professionals Networking Event and Expert Breakouts for attendees.

4) Six Live SA-CME sessions with the opportunity to earn up to 8.5 MOC Part 2 SA-CME credits: Lung, Central Nervous System, Gynecologic, Breast, Lymphoma and Head and Neck.

5) Opportunity to earn CME credits. ASTRO designates this live meeting for a maximum of 17 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™.

6) New this year: A session on Oligometastatic Cancers and SBRT.

7) Returning this year: The option to add eContouring webinars to your registration.

Be sure to take advantage of the discounted early-bird rate when you register by February 16! We look forward to joining you at the ASTRO Annual Refresher course.

By Sue Yom, MD, PhD, MAS, FASTRO, Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Radiation Oncology · Biology ·Physics

The gift giving season has just passed, but there’s nothing to say that we can’t continue to give throughout the year. As many of you know, I’ve just become the editor-in-chief (EIC) of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology · Biology · Physics (IJROBP or the Red Journal). It’s a great privilege to be named to this position. One of my first acts as EIC is to announce that the ASTRO journals staff and editors have joined together in an effort to enhance the experience of our associate editors and reviewers. This new initiative, called the Reviewer Recognition Program (RRP), officially began January 1, 2022.

We’re aware that these days, everyone has growing pressures on their time and during COVID, many of us are running on empty. Speaking from my experience, it’s amazing to me that despite this sense of barely making it through, everyone at the Red Journal remains so energized and dedicated. Our editors and reviewers continue to find the best content and provide the best review process possible for our authors. As a result, our journal is thriving.

I hope others share my experience that the Red Journal is (already) rewarding. On those gloomy days when it’s all been too much, it is uplifting to me to see that our community of radiation oncology perseveres. I am in awe of my brilliant, articulate peers who continue to work on science, for this idealistic dream of bettering conditions for patients and our field. I love that the Red Journal is a stimulus for our community to learn, to communicate, to disagree. I am sure the other ASTRO editors-in-chief feel exactly the same. These journals are each a truly unique nexus, and the community they create is so much more than just publishing articles.

The Reviewer Recognition Program will be multifaceted, but the first component rolls out now. Reviewers and Associate Editors are eligible to receive a voucher for a free or reduced Article Processing Charge (APC) after reviewing 12 papers within three years. Here’s how it works. We will provide a Review Recognition Form that can be filled out listing the article numbers and dates of filing corresponding to 12 reviews that have been completed for any of the three ASTRO journals. Associate editors, who at times write extensive reviews of submissions themselves, are eligible to claim an especially detailed set of editorial comments for credit. The claimed reviews must have a reasonable level of quality and timeliness. Reviews of article revisions can be claimed if they demonstrate a reasonable level of additional new effort. The reviewer will submit the Review Voucher Form to the ASTRO editorial office. After verification and approval of the form, it will be redeemable for one voucher code. This voucher can be used as credit towards one-half of the APC for an IJROBP or Practical Radiation Oncology Open Access paper, or for one full APC at Advances in Radiation Oncology.

What’s an APC, you say? An APC is the cost charged to an author for the expenses of publishing an Open Access article. Therefore, at Advances, one APC credit would cover the whole cost of publishing, whereas at IJROBP or PRO it will cover half of the cost of publishing your article as Open Access (should you choose that option for your accepted paper). The voucher can be redeemed by its holder after a paper is accepted, as long as the holder is a named author on the accepted paper. Additionally, we will develop a database called the Preferred Reviewer Program, to which reviewers can subscribe so that they can signal their willingness to review often. To maintain Preferred Reviewer status, participants must accept >75% of invitations and complete their reviews within 14 days. In return, editors will preferentially invite Preferred Reviewers with the goal of completing the RRP requirements within three years.

We hope you’ll agree that the RRP satisfies a number of purposes at once. Most importantly and foremost, it gives our reviewers and associate editors a tangible recognition of their efforts. Greater recognition of our reviewers has been a long-cherished dream and we are thrilled to take this step in the right direction. It also moves us toward greater promotion of Open Access, which is a vehicle for wider public dissemination of radiation oncology research and higher citations of our early-career authors. It makes our journals more attractive as Open Access publishing venues for the best radiation-related research. It promotes the careers of our most dedicated and frequent reviewers. In addition, it provides our editors with a pathway to identify and recognize top reviewers and develop those persons for the future.

We will be rolling out other forms of recognition for editors and reviewers in the future. If you have ideas on this subject, please let me know. On behalf of myself and the other ASTRO journals editors, we look forward to the success of this endeavor and thank all of you for your ongoing support of the ASTRO journals.

Learn more: Reviewer Recognition Program