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Patrick J. Hanley, PhD
Commissioning Editor
Cytotherapy

As I eagerly await seeing the Bob Dylan biopic, “A Complete Unknown”, I can’t help but hum the tune “The Times they are a Changing” as I think about the direction of Cytotherapy since I joined as Commissioning Editor four years ago – and more specifically, since Dr. Ed Horwitz joined as the newly minted Editor-in-Chief in September 2023.

I start this piece with an enormous amount of gratitude to Dr. Don Phinney, the previous Senior Editor of Cytotherapy. I am thankful to Don for hiring me as Commissioning Editor 4 years ago and giving me the freedom to explore new directions for Cytotherapy. Without a doubt, it was Don’s vision, network, scientific acumen, and dedication that elevated Cytotherapy from an impact factor of 3 to a high of 6.196 in the 2021 impact factor window. Although 2024 saw the impact factor of Cytotherapy slightly decline along with most similar scientific journals, the journal remains strong, with a record number of submissions in 2024 (637, a 14% increase over 2023).

In 2023, with the introduction of Ed as Editor-in-Chief, ISCT surveyed members on their perceptions of Cytotherapy and solicited feedback about the Journal. Overwhelmingly, the sentiment among members was that Cytotherapy was a recognized brand and had a reputation on par with premier scientific journals such as Blood and Nature Medicine. There was concern from authors, however, that the turn around time at the journal was unacceptable and was a threat to the Journal’s reputation and pipeline. Respondents identified the turn around time at the Journal to be too slow. We heard this loud and clear and told you this issue would be addressed. I am happy to report back today that the turn around time from submission to decision has reduced by 36% and the time to first decision in 2024 was 39 days. The first quarter of 2025 showed continued improvement with a median time to first decision of 23 days. This change is what I am most proud of, and we have to thank the previous Managing Editor Ken Witwer for spearheading this change.

In addition to the better turn around times and increase in manuscript submissions, the Journal also has a refreshed look. The cover is now black instead of navy and we removed the names of the authors from the cover of the journal to better showcase the beautiful pictures we now feature, which are submitted each year as a part of Insta Your Cells competition. This program has been an immense success – thank you to everyone who has submitted an image. Each page of the Journal has a unique layout so that it is easily identified as being an article from Cytotherapy.

The new cover and page design give Cytotherapy a refreshed look.

For papers that are published in Cytotherapy, we have committed to highlighting papers of interest on social media. Thanks to the hard work of Sam Baker and Dr. Rachel Burga, the LinkedIn Page of Cytotherapy, started a bit more than a year ago, is now approaching 2,000 followers and has been an active forum to showcase and discuss the top papers in Cytotherapy. Be sure to visit the Cytotherapy LinkedIn page in a few months to see highlights from the soon-to-be-released Editor’s Special Issue of Cytotherapy titled “The Golden Age of Cell and Gene Therapy”.

In summary, there is much to be excited about with Cytotherapy, the Official Journal of ISCT. We are committed to a rapid turn-around for submitted papers and ask you, the members of ISCT, to consider us as your first-choice journal for translational cell and gene therapy manuscripts. If you are interested in submitting a review or would like to discuss a potential manuscript, please contact me at Commish@isct-cytotherapy.org, I would welcome the opportunity to chat with you.

Sincerely,

Patrick J. Hanley, PhD