Abstract

This Editorial comments on the article by Philip Donald St John.

Watch your thoughts, for your thoughts become your words. Watch your words, for your words become your actions.

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You are probably wondering what ancient proverbs and a style change for the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS) have in common. More than you might think, as we have learned from the American Geriatrics Society’s (AGS’s) work with the FrameWorks Institute and from the questions we frequently receive from our authors about how to refer to older adults.1 Simply put, language matters. With input from our publisher (Wiley) and our JAGS Executive Leadership Group, JAGS is reinforcing that truth by adopting the American Medical Association (AMA) Manual of Style (presently in its 10th edition) as our guide for manuscript submissions, with some important modifications to how we want JAGS authors to write about older people.2

These modifications are in keeping with JAGS’s legacy as one of the oldest and most influential publications on geriatrics.3 More than 9,000 library collections around the world carry JAGS.3 To continue that legacy and to make contributing easier for our authors and our readers, we are switching to the most commonly used style standards that peer publications have also adopted. This will align how geriatrics research is reported with how other important research is reported. This will benefit geriatrics researchers and support our new efforts to reach members of the public and policymakers with our work.

There are several key advantages to adopting AMA style. For authors, AMA style provides important guidance on everything from the format of references to the language to be used when describing research. Practically, the transition to AMA style will help the JAGS Editorial Board, our reviewers, our copy editors, and our publisher provide faster, clearer, more effective guidance across the continuum of the manuscript submission process. By extension, the switch will support authors as JAGS standards come to parallel those of a host of other top-tier publications.