The Journal of Foot and Ankle Research experienced significant growth and transformation in 2025 – including editorial team changes, a new management platform and plenty of research highlights.
It has been big year for the Journal of Foot and Ankle Research (JFAR). This year has seen change but also continued growth of the journal. We have had a regeneration of the editorial team, as well as a move to a new journal management platform that has improved the user experience for authors and peer reviewers.
Despite any change, JFAR continues in its mission as the official journal of the Australian Podiatry Association (APodA) and the Royal College of Podiatry (UK) to provide high quality and open access research, focusing on the foot and ankle.
The journal would not be able to function without the hard work of people who are committed to its aims.
We must acknowledge those who have served JFAR over several years and thank them for their contributions. We especially recognise Professor Keith Rome who was the Australian editor-in -chief for seven years. Much of the success of JFAR can be attributed to Keith’s leadership and commitment.
We must also acknowledge the work or Dr Matt Carroll and Dr Gordon Hendry who contributed as associate editors for several years.
JFAR now has a dedicated team, led by myself as Australian editor-in-chief and Professor Sarah Curran as the editor-in-chief from the UK. We are supported by deputy editors Professor Cylie Williams (Australia) and Dr Stewart Morrison (UK). Our associated editors are Dr Prue Molineux (New Zealand), Dr Peter Roberts (UK) and Jane Lewis (UK), and we have been fortunate to add Dr Ryan Causby, Dr Jennifer Sonter, Dr Sean Sadler (all from Australia) and Fran Campbell to the team as our newest associate editors. We must also thank our journal manager Alison Bell and the team from our publisher Wiley for their support. In addition, all of the peer reviewers who have given their time and expertise to provide peer review and academic insights for the journal.
Finally, we would like to thank the podiatry community for reading, downloading and contributing to JFAR. We hope that the journal’s important insights can enhance clinical practice.
Up to the time of publishing this piece, JFAR has had an increase in the number of submissions (increased by 35%) and the number of published articles (increased by 36% compared to 2024 levels).
As of September 2025, the higher number of manuscript submissions were from China (61 manuscripts), with the second highest coming from Australia (46 manuscripts). The average time from submission to first decision was 13 days, and the mean time from submission to acceptance was 127 days.
The number of full text views of JFAR articles up to the end of September was 245,765, which is a 37% increase compared to 2024. The most up-to-date impact factor from 2024 for JFAR is 2.2, down from 2.5 in 2023.
JFAR once again featured an article in the Wiley NAIDOC collection, which showcases outstanding Indigenous research and First Nations authors.
Gu, Y., Zheng, Z., Zeng, Q., Yang, C., Song, Y. and Wan, X. (2024), Acute effects of negative heel shoes on perceived pain and knee biomechanical characteristics of runners with patellofemoral pain. J Foot Ankle Res, 17: e12001.
The background to this study was based on previous research findingsh, which showed that people displayed differences in running gait when they wore a negative heel shoe (shoe with lower midsole thickness in the heel compared to the forefoot). The authors hypothesised that that wearing the negative heel shoe would benefit people with patellofemoral joint pain due to theses biomechanical changes.
For the study, 16 male runners with patellofemoral pain were recruited. The participants were asked to run in a shoe with a negative heel drop (-11mm) and a control shoe with a positive heel drop (5mm).
The results found no difference in pain reported when wearing the negative heel shoe during the trial. However, differences were found in several biomechanical variables, including foot inclination angle, peak patellofemoral joint stress (during stance phase), patellofemoral joint reaction force, knee extension moment and quadriceps force and the time of peak patellofemoral joint stress.
Bonanno, D.R., Couch, A., Haines, T., Menz, H.B., O’Sullivan, B.G. and Williams, C.M. (2024), Burnout in podiatrists associated with individual characteristics, workplace and job satisfaction: A national survey. J Foot Ankle Res, 17: e12003.
Burnout negatively impacts job performance, patient care, career retention and psychological well-being health practitioners. The aim of this study was to identify the factors that were associated with burnout in Australian podiatrists.
Surveys were sent to registered podiatrists in Australia. Information was collected about work history, job preferences, personal characteristics, health, personality, life experiences and risk-taking behaviours. A total of 848 podiatrists responded to the survey with 268 (31.6) experiencing burnout.
Those clinicians that experienced burnout were slightly younger, more recent to practice, had poorer health, greater mental distress and lower scores for resilience, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability and openness to experiences. Prediction accuracy of these individual characteristic variables for burnout was 72%.
Overall, the findings of the study found that many of the factors associated with burnout in Australian podiatrists were modifiable; therefore could provide opportunities to implement targeted prevention strategies.
Armstrong, D.G., Swerdlow, M.A., Armstrong, A.A., Conte, M.S., Padula, W.V. and Bus, S.A. (2020), Five year mortality and direct costs of care for people with diabetic foot complications are comparable to cancer. J Foot Ankle Res, 13: 16.
This short article was published in 2020 and it is the most cited article this year.
The impact of the findings in this article is significant, as indicated by the continued interest in its content by researchers around the world. The study pooled data from studies reporting five-year mortality for diabetic foot ulcer, Charcot arthropathy and diabetes-associated lower extremity amputation.
These results were compared with cancer mortality reported by the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute. The five-year mortality rate for diabetic foot ulceration was 30.5% and major amputation was 56.6%. This compares to the 9% for breast cancer and 80% for lung cancer.
The findings indicate that that diabetic foot ulcer and amputation are not just markers of poor health, they are independent risk factors that are associated with premature death.
Franettovich Smith, M.M., van den Hoorn, W., van den Hoek, A., Kerr, G. and Hurn, S.E. (2025), Immediate Effects of Footwear Design on In-Shoe Plantar Pressures, Impact Forces and Comfort in Women With Plantar Heel Pain. J Foot Ankle Res, 18: e70055.
The aim of this study was to investigate the effect that wearing different shoe and shoe insert combinations has on people with plantar heel pain.
For this study 29 women with plantar heel pain were recruited and were asked to walk in six different footwear conditions along a flat walkway. Each condition included two different shoes. These included the test shoe which featured design features that are recommended for people with plantar heel pain, and a control shoes without these features.
The findings of this study found that participants who wore the test shoe reported reduced heel peak pressure, had lower loading rate of the vertical ground reaction force and reported greater overall comfort compared to the control shoe. However, there were no differences reported in vertical ground reaction forces and comfort between orthotic condition.
The overall findings suggest that shoe outsole design has a greater effect on impact forces and comfort than the kind of shoe insert worn.
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