State of the Journal,2025

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Stacey Reynolds, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA

The American Journal of Occupational Therapy (AJOT) has maintained its top-ranking status in the field of occupational therapy while expanding its efforts related to knowledge translation and improving reporting standards. Key outcomes for 2025 showcase the journal’s breadth and depth, with 137 articles published including a special issue on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, Accessibility, and Belonging in Occupational Therapy Practice and Education. The AJOT Authors & Issues interview series has reached more than 21,000 views, and the AJOT Instagram account now has more than 1,200 followers. As AJOT looks ahead to 2026, we will focus on maintaining a high bar for research rigor and reporting standards as well as transitioning to a new Editor-in-Chief, who will begin their term in July 2026.

The past year has brought significant shifts in the U.S. federal landscape, with proposed and enacted changes to funding priorities that could reverberate across occupational therapy and occupational science. At the same time, the legitimacy of the scientific process itself—particularly the peer-review system relied upon by social science and medical journals—has come under scrutiny (Paul, 2025). Understanding these developments is critical for all occupational therapy professionals. In this editorial, I will briefly explore these challenges and describe the action steps AJOT is taking to safeguard the profession and maintain our standing as a rigorous and reputable source of information.

Federal budget decisions shape every aspect of our work: the research that informs best practices, the practice settings in which we operate (e.g., schools, Veterans Affairs hospitals), and the clients we serve. While most occupational therapy practitioners are not directly engaged in research, all are affected by reductions in federal research funding, most of which was proposed or enacted in early 2025. Some of these cuts are being contested in the courts, yet others have already been implemented and will have immediate consequences for people with disabilities. For example, the current federal budget includes a proposed 40% reduction in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding, jeopardizing the Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Centers (IDDRCs). Without the IDDRCs, the pipeline of discoveries and technologies that advance health care for individuals with disabilities could be severely diminished (Kennan, 2025). In addition, the current administration’s reorganization of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) places the Administration for Community Living (ACL), which funds rehabilitation research and provides essential support to older adults and people with disabilities, at risk of elimination (HHS, 2025).

These reductions not only shrink the number of available grants but also drastically diminish indirect costs that fund the infrastructure required to conduct research. Indirect costs, sometimes referred to as overhead, provide universities and research institutions with the behind-the-scenes support that makes science possible. These supports may include laboratory space, administrative staff, compliance oversight, and research personnel. Steven George and Alan Jette, current and former editors of PTJ: Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Journal, expertly describe the distinction between direct and indirect costs using the analogy of driving a car (George & Jette, 2025). Direct costs are akin to purchasing the car, paying for fuel, and securing car insurance. Indirect costs, supported by taxes, include road maintenance, signage, and the construction of new routes. Without this infrastructure, driving becomes inefficient and unsafe. Similarly, without institutional infrastructure funded through indirect costs, research programs may struggle to thrive, limiting discoveries, diminishing support for practice, and reducing opportunities to train the next generation of scientists. These challenges highlight the urgency for advocacy and strong leadership within our field.

Equally concerning is the broader erosion of trust in science. On May 23, 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order called Restoring Gold Standard Science to “restore the American people’s faith in the scientific enterprise and institutions that create and apply scientific knowledge in service of the public good” (White House, 2025), a statement that underscores perceptions of diminished trust. Misinformation has certainly been a challenge in recent years. However, allegations directed at scientific journals, including claims of political bias, data falsification, lack of transparency, and inconsistent standards, remain largely unsupported.

The peer-review process, while imperfect (Kreiman, 2016; Morley & Grammer, 2021), is the profession’s most established mechanism for ensuring accountability. Peer review engages experts in evaluating one another’s work before publication, with the aim of strengthening research, correcting errors, and building a reliable evidence base. Recent federal actions, however, risk destabilizing this system. The termination of U.S. science agencies’ subscriptions to key journals (Brainard, 2025), proposed cuts to peer-reviewed journals published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Offord, 2025), and the introduction of federally run journals that financially compensate reviewers (Gardner & Schumaker, 2025) raise concerns that rigorous science will become increasingly difficult to distinguish from pseudoscience or political messaging (Dyer, 2025). The weakening of trust in peer-reviewed scholarship makes it harder for practitioners, policymakers, and the public to rely on evidence when making important decisions. At a moment when clear, evidence-informed guidance is essential, our responsibility as a profession is to uphold these values, model scientific integrity, and communicate why they matter.

As the flagship publication of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), AJOT takes seriously its responsibility to communicate with members and the public in a way that reflects fairness, integrity, and rigor. Occupational therapy may be a relatively small professional community, but we are committed to maintaining high standards of scholarship and transparency. I would note, for example, that during my tenure as Editor-in-Chief, two of my own submissions have been rejected through peer review, a reminder that our processes are impartial and that all work is subject to rigorous scrutiny. We will remain steadfast in allowing peer review to guide publication decisions and ensuring the integrity of the scientific record for the profession.

Key Outcomes for 2025

In Volume 79 of the journal, AJOT published a total of 137 articles (excluding supplements). These included 104 full-length Research Articles and 4 Brief Reports, for a total of 108 research-focused papers. Beyond research, we featured 12 The Issue Is articles, 6 Letters to the Editor, 1 Practice Guideline, 3 Editorials, 2 Health Policy Perspectives, the Eleanor Clarke Slagle Lecture, and 2 Presidential Addresses from the current and incoming AOTA presidents. This year also marked the debut of the Dr. Lela A. Llorens Award of Excellence for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion lectureship, delivered by Dr. Shirley Wells.

A highlight of 2025 was the publication in March of a special issue dedicated to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, Accessibility, and Belonging (DEIJAB) in Occupational Therapy Practice and Education. Guest edited by Khalilah R. Johnson, Razan Hamed, Tyra M. Banks, and Selena Washington, this collection appeared in Volume 79, Issue 2, and brought together 25 articles representing a wide range of cultural and population perspectives as well as diverse research methodologies. The scholarship featured in this issue explores best practices for advancing DEIJAB in the occupational therapy profession, strategies for evaluating the impact of these practices, and the structural and systemic barriers that impede progress in educational and clinical environments. In their guest editorial, the editors also reflected on emerging practice trends and underscored the value of embedding DEIJAB principles across all aspects of occupational therapy practice, education, advocacy, and professional leadership.

The first issue of 2026 (Volume 80, Issue 1) will feature a special section on Sensory Processing Across the Lifespan and will be guest edited by Amber Angell, Leah Stein Duker, Brittany St. John, and Jewel Crasta. We are also in the process of preparing another special section for Volume 80 entitled Recovery of Veterans and Those Experiencing War-Related Risks. This special section will be guest edited by Adam R. Kinney, Alison M. Cogan, Tonya Rich, and Heidi Cramm and is tentatively scheduled to be published in Volume 80, Issue 2 (March/April, 2026).

In 2025, we continued the AJOT Authors & Issues interview series, which can be accessed through AJOT’s YouTube channel as well as through the AJOT website (https://research.aota.org/ajot/pages/authors_issues_series). Since the series launched in December 2021, we have published 42 interviews with AJOT authors, tallying more than 21,000 views, doubling our viewership from last year alone. Topics covered in the 2025 Authors & Issues sessions are listed in Table 1. The most-watched episodes so far in 2025 have been related to sensory integration in schools and home assessments using video conferencing. We have continued to make articles featured in the series available Open Access through the AJOT website, improving access and knowledge translation to all practitioners and policymakers.

AJOT content reaches readers across multiple platforms, including our website and Instagram account (@ajoteditor). On Instagram, followers can engage with a variety of recurring features, such as twice-monthly research briefs, editor highlights, interactive polls, summaries of the Authors & Issues interviews, and direct messaging access to the Editor-in-Chief. Since its debut in August 2022, the account has grown to a community of more than 1,200 followers. The AJOT website likewise serves as a central hub for streamlined access to full-text articles, clinical practice guidelines, author and reviewer resources, and abstracts from AOTA INSPIRE. In addition, the site curates regularly updated special collections on emerging and high- priority topics. This year we added a special collection on Occupational Therapy Practice with Children and Youth, COVID-19, and articles featured in the Authors & Issues series.

Since 2021, AJOT has recognized scholars whose dedication has made a meaningful impact on the journal and, by extension, the profession of occupational therapy. Each year, the AJOT Outstanding Reviewer Award is conferred on reviewers who exemplify excellence through the number of reviews completed, the quality of their feedback, and their timeliness in returning reviews. Nominations for this award are made by members of the AJOT Editorial Board and the Editor-in-Chief, and this year 13 individuals were honored. In addition, 22 reviewers received the AJOT Certificate of Appreciation, which is awarded to official reviewers who completed at least four reviews during the year, with each submitted within 30 days of acceptance. Finally, the AJOT Impact Award was presented to Hon Yuen and Wen-Pin Chang and recognizes scholars who have achieved the remarkable milestone of completing more than 50 reviews for the journal. These recognitions not only celebrate individual achievement but also underscore the vital role of peer review and editorial service in advancing the profession. By honoring the time, expertise, and generosity of our reviewers, AJOT affirms the collective commitment to scientific rigor and knowledge dissemination that sustains the growth of occupational therapy. A full list of awardees can be found in Table 8.

Journal Impact Factor

A journal impact factor (JIF) is one of the most widely recognized metrics for gauging a journal’s influence in the scientific literature. It reflects the average number of citations received by articles published in the journal over a defined period, most commonly 2 or 5 yr. The JIF is calculated by dividing the number of citations in a given year to items published in the prior 2 (or 5) yr by the total number of citable items published in that same period. The 2024 JIF, for example, was determined by taking the number of times AJOT articles published in 2022 and 2023 were cited in 2024 and dividing that total by the number of research articles published during those 2 yr.

For AJOT, the citable items counted toward JIF include peer-reviewed research articles, brief reports, and AOTA Practice Guidelines. Editorials and opinion pieces, such as The Issue Is columns, are not considered citable items and therefore do not contribute to the denominator in the calculation. While JIFs do not fully capture the breadth of a journal’s influence, they remain an important benchmark used by authors, institutions, and funding agencies to assess scholarly impact. Strong JIF scores signal not only the quality of the articles we publish but also the profession’s increasing recognition within the broader scientific and health care communities.

AJOT’s 2-yr impact factor remained unchanged at 2.1 (Journal Citation Reports [JCR], 2024). While the journal’s 5-yr impact factor dropped slightly from 3.2 to 3.0 (see Table 2). The top 10 most-cited articles contributing to AJOT’s 2-yr impact factor are listed in Table 3. Of these 10 articles, four were review articles.

JCR ranks journals in various categories on the basis of their JIF as well as other factors, such as citation and article counts, publisher information, and subject categories. Based on JIF, AJOT ranked 47/173 in the category of Rehabilitation. This is in comparison to a rank of 40/170 in 2023. Similar to our 2-yr impact factor, our status within rehabilitation journals continues to remain stable. Of the 16 occupational therapy journals ranked in the Rehabilitation category, AJOT continues to have the highest JIF in 2024, maintaining our spot as the top-ranking occupational therapy journal worldwide.

2025 Article Production Statistics

Goals for 2026

The coming year will mark the transition to a new Editor-in-Chief for AJOT, as my second and final term will come to an end. The full vision for what the journal will become and how it will evolve, therefore, will be for the new editor to determine. However, I hope that the next year sees us continuing to improve the translation of research into practice, specifically by making research more accessible. Part of this process will be encouraging authors to use new reporting guidelines developed by the Cochrane Rehabilitation Guideline for Intervention Description in Rehabilitation (GUIDE-Rehab). These new guidelines aim to provide a comprehensive framework for describing interventions in rehabilitation studies for the improved translation of research into practice. As the final version of the guidelines are published, AJOT will need to provide information, resources, and supports to researchers and clinicians to support use of GUIDE-Rehab.

In addition to preparing for new reporting guidelines, our editorial board has outlined the following specific goals for the 2026 volume year:

Hire new associate editors to replace those who will complete their term of service on the board.

Conclusion

As we look ahead, AJOT’s commitment to research excellence, transparency, and accessibility remains steadfast. Despite external challenges to funding and the scientific enterprise, we will continue to uphold the highest standards of peer review and reporting, ensuring that occupational therapy scholarship remains rigorous and relevant. With the upcoming editorial transition, AJOT is well positioned to build on its strong foundation and lead the profession into its next chapter of growth and impact.