With this first edition of AP&T for 2022, we enter the third year of the Covid-19 pandemic. We hope that you are staying healthy and have availed yourselves of one or other of the highly effective vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Although submissions to AP&T spiked during the initial period of the pandemic, this has subsequently stabilised. From 1 January 2021 to 30 September 2021, we received 1405 submissions (excluding editorials and letters). However, we were only able to accept 146 (10.4%) of these for publication.

As announced last year, Jon Rhodes stepped down from co-editorship at the middle of 2021 and was replaced by Rohit Loomba who has helped to strengthen the liver and clinical trial expertise on the board of editors. We are already seeing an increase in liver-related submissions to the journal.

We are pleased to announce one new addition to the team of Associate Editors; Dr Cynthia Seow of the University of Calgary joined the group in November, 2021. She will be predominantly responsible for the handling of submitted papers on IBD.

Our 2-year impact factor for 2021 increased from 7.515 to 8.171. This puts us in 15th place among 92 journals in our field. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Covid-19 was strongly featured among the 10 papers published during 2020 that were most highly cited during 2021. As you will see, “Covid-19,” “COVID-19” or “SARS-CoV-2” feature in the titles of eight of our top 10.1-8 The other topics that attracted most citations (apart from vitamin D related to Covid-19) were hepatic fibrosis in NAFLD,9 and gastric microbiota.10

The number of downloads of articles published in AP&T has continued to rise; between 1 October 2020 and 30 September 2021, this increased from 2,666,149 to 2,723,013. The 10 most frequently downloaded papers published over that period covered topics including biologic agents in adult and paediatric IBD, constipation, the intestinal microbiome, the anti-emetic properties of ginger in children, and—inevitably—Covid-19.11-20

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Associate Editors, the International Editorial Advisory Board members and our dedicated reviewers. The continued success of AP&T is due largely to their contributions and effort. We hope and plan to continue to attract high-quality research across a broad spectrum of digestive and liver issues.

As per our mission statement, “AP&T aims to publish high quality, clinically relevant original research and review articles in gastroenterology and hepatology.” While we hope that we are meeting this mission, we always welcome your comments about the journal or suggestions about how we can improve.