For the past 26 years, the American Diabetes Association and its professional constituents have had the great pleasure of working with Lynda (“Lyn”) Reynolds, the director of the ADA Editorial Office. Lyn first joined ADA’s publishing team in 1997, when she was hired by editor in chief Charles M. Clark, Jr., MD, to help manage the peer review operations for Diabetes Care.
Lyn took the helm of Diabetes Care just when the internet revolution was in the midst of reshaping and accelerating how scientists conduct, report, review, publish, share, and cite research. In 1997, the review processes for the journal still relied on the submission of hard-copy manuscripts and floppy disks for digital files, and Diabetes Care received 400–500 manuscript submissions per year. One of Lyn’s first accomplishments was to customize and implement a new software program that allowed staff to track the progress of manuscripts, to quickly generate reports, and to speed up the review processes.
When Dr. Clark’s term ended, ADA and Dr. Mayer Davidson, the incoming editor, asked her to continue in her role as the peer review director for Diabetes Care. (Thankfully, she agreed.) With the transition to Dr. Davidson’s team, Lyn collaborated with a leading vendor of publishing technologies to customize and launch an online manuscript submission and peer review application for ADA journals. This development allowed ADA journals to adopt completely digital workflows, more efficient manuscript submission and review processes, and better tracking and reporting on the status of papers submitted to ADA journals. After this transition, the number of manuscript submissions to Diabetes Care rose to >1,400 in 2002. By 2006, that figure eclipsed 2,500, and the time to initial decision had dropped from ∼45 to 19 days.
During this time, Lyn also oversaw the establishment of an independent and fully staffed ADA Editorial Office. The office grew to oversee the peer review processes for all four of ADA’s science and medicine journals (Diabetes, Diabetes Care, Clinical Diabetes, and Diabetes Spectrum) and to eventually manage more than 7,000 submitted manuscripts per year—more than 10-fold the number of manuscripts that crossed the Diabetes Care desk when Lyn first started in 1997.
Over the course of her career, Lyn worked closely with several editors and editorial teams, including those of Drs. Clark and Davidson, Vivian Fonseca, William Cefalu, and Matthew Riddle for Diabetes Care; Franz Matschinsky, Peter Butler, K. Sreekumuran Nair, Martin G. Myers, Jr., and David D’Alessio for Diabetes; Davida Kruger and Stephen Brunton for Clinical Diabetes; and Jackie Boucher, Joshua Neumiller, and Curtis Triplitt for Diabetes Spectrum. Lyn collaborated with many other publishers and societies to implement new efficiencies for submitting and transferring manuscripts; she served on several advisory boards with vendors and industry associations to develop new policies, procedures, and innovations related to peer review; and she collaborated with each ADA editorial team to launch new features and programs to advance the mission of each publication and ADA’s overall mission. Thanks to her spirit of collaboration, her willingness to take on new challenges, and her dedication to the ADA mission, Lyn successfully built a world-class operation.
We think it’s safe to say, though, that the one characteristic of Lyn that we appreciate the most is her personal approach to helping others. She never hesitates to assist ADA authors, reviewers, and editors, and she is known for being available around the clock to help ADA volunteers and contributors with any question or request. When doing so, she always exhibits patience, appreciation, and good humor. Lyn’s commitment to service is a hallmark of the ADA Editorial Office, and thanks to her leadership and example, she has played a remarkable role in the success of ADA publications. We’re incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with her.
On behalf of the current and former editorial teams of ADA journals and ADA staff, we’d like to extend our sincerest appreciation to Lyn Reynolds for all of her contributions over the past 26 years. We wish Lyn the best in her retirement, and we salute her for a job well done. Thank you, Lyn!
