On April 26, the Urology Practice^® (UPJ) team got the confirmation we had all been waiting for since the launch of our first issue in May 2014:

“Congratulations! You’re indexed by MEDLINE!”

What does it mean to be indexed? MEDLINE is the National Library of Medicine’s bibliographic database that includes more than 29 million references to journal articles in life sciences with a concentration on biomedicine. In addition to the searchability of key published research in this database, indexing signals that a journal is established and relevant. Indexed journals are considered impactful in their field of studies, and a publication in an indexed journal is a critical addition to an author’s CV. Succinctly, this is recognition that a journal “has arrived” and is recognized as one of the premier journals in its field.

The journey to reach this milestone was not an easy one. Starting a journal takes a lot of work, know-how, and an unfailing belief in its ultimate success. Authors had to take a chance on us by publishing in a journal that offered only the AUA name and a unique concept, the opportunity to publish novel research focused on the business, health policy, the specialty, and patient care as they relate to the practice of urology.

We are pleased to share that ALL UPJ content—back to the first article in the first issue—will ultimately be indexed as a result of the National Library of Medicine decision, which is the ultimate reward to the authors who took a chance on a brand-new journal. Thank you, all!

From the beginning, we had a loyal and devoted army of UPJ believers. Authors submitted their best work to us despite no guarantee their work would ever be indexed. Countless reviewers have spent their precious time and effort to ensure that we published only the highest-quality work. And Editorial Board members past and present remained committed to the success of the journal, steadfast in the vision that UPJ would one day be recognized for the elite scholarly publication it is.

The Journal of Urology^® editorial leadership, including Editors Joseph A. Smith and now D. Robert Siemens, devoted their efforts to building our body of work as well by perfecting the cascade transfer of rejected sound science papers to UPJ. This facilitation of the cascade process became a tremendous author service that has now positioned the entire AUA family of publications, including the new Gold Open Access journal JU Open Plus and the digital ecosystem that is AUANews, as the Voice of Urology. The cascade transfer process extends across all publications and ensures that when a quality paper is submitted to an AUA publication, it will find a home in the journal that will best showcase its merits.

As UPJ’s founding Editor, Carl A. Olsson, wrote in the very first issue: “Why do we need another journal? There are 2 excellent answers. 1) The Journal of Urology^® has become heavily taxed by the responsibility of publishing articles of major clinical research importance to the point of having to increasingly restrict articles of interest and significance to the urology practitioner as there is simply not enough space. 2) Urologists are practicing in a climate of change in health care delivery which challenges them daily regardless of practice setting. Health care policy shifts, increasing practice regulations, decreasing support for research, diminishing practice reimbursement, certification and manpower issues as well as ever growing demands to justify patient care decisions are all subjects that require and deserve analysis and reporting in a unique journal format. Urology Practice^® is designed to be the companion journal to The Journal of Urology^® to fulfill these needs.”¹ We are honored to achieve these goals with every issue we publish, and we are proud of the place we serve in the AUA’s family of journals, the definitive and collective Voice of Urology.