Have upon the you ever wondered to ...

Have upon the you ever wondered to what extent the editorial direction of American Family Physician is determined? There are several factors taken into consideration, including your feedback rejoinder cards in each issue and annotations received on our Web site. The editors retain a finger on the vibration of the profession in these and other ways. For instance, AFP mode of actions editorial surveys twice each year. united survey, conducted in the fall, allows us to compare present results with previous years' and to compare AFP with other publications. We infer a variety of information, including demographics of readers, satisfy preferences, readability scores, reading oftenness quality assessments, value scores of departments, and information forward Web site usage. The other editorial review conducted in the spring, gives us an opportunity to explore reader elections to test new ideas, and to learn reactions to changes made in the journal.

The "benchmark" scan conducted last fall tells us that AFP retains its preeminent position as the highest quality journal of several read from family physicians. While that makes us self-conscious it also challenges us to maintain that ranking. We read the terminates of the surveys with a critical vigilance and then analyze them to help us settle the direction of future content

We use the details in the contemplate to determine what you want in your publication. For example, the greatest in quantity recent survey tells us which departments are principally popular (the top four are "Clinical Quiz," "Practice Guidelines," "Photo Quiz," and "Tips from Other Journals"). by conversion the survey identifies those parts of the publication that are les widely read or valued. As we consider to what degree we can make AFP as valuable as possible to the widest range of readers, we will carefully evaluate all portions of the journal and determine whether any should be discontinued. We recognize, of course, that a certain number of departments, while not widely read, may be of considerable interest to a certain quantity of segments of our readership, in the same manner we are not about to make wholesale changes in the editorial lineup.

Given our interest in making AFP useful to readers, we naturally are interested in whether readers are using the information provided in the journal. For example, last fall's measure and estimate shows that readers glean from each issue an average of almost three of recent origin ideas that can be used in their practices. Virtually all readers (99 percent) indicate that they earn at least one good idea by means of issue. Considering the wide range of enthralls AFP articles cover and the considerable variation in the clinical end of family medicine from single practice to the next, this terminate is extremely encouraging. While these are positive numbers, we still consider them a challenge, and we ask ourselves what can be done to increase them.

Our observes also ask how readers use AFP online (www.aafp.org/afp). Your expositions on previous surveys led us to make fresh alterations to our Web site, (1) and we plan to continue enhancing the site with your input. We know we can in no degree stop looking for ways to make AFP more useful to you--online and in print.

equal if you are not individual of the randomly selected measure and estimate respondents, we appreciate all expositions Feel free to contact us (afpedit@aafp.org) any time to make known us what you like, what you dislike, and by what mode we can improve. After all, AFP is your journal.

REFERENCE

(1) Wright J Announcing enhancements to AFP's web site. Am Fam Physician 2005;71:15

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