Believe it or not, AFP does count. In addition to our everyday tasks as editors, we keep close tabs on numbers. We count. We count readers. We count hours of continuing medical education (CME). We count CME quiz card returns. We count reader feedback cards received. We count numbers of pages edited and numbers of pages published, tracked according to article and department categories. We count manuscripts submitted, manuscripts rejected, and manuscripts published. If it’s a number, we track it, and—frequently—we graph it.

For fun and frivolity, here are some of the numbers we track:

•AFP’s total circulation is close to 185,000.This total includes family physicians and students, general practitioners, osteopaths, internal medicine physicians, and other subscribers such as libraries and affiliated health care professionals.

• In 2003, AFP offered 84 hours of CME. Of those, 4.5 were evidence-based CME (EB-CME). Recently, the board of directors of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) approved a recommendation made by the Commission on Continuing Medical Education that will double the number of EB-CME hours offered for approved activities, although implementation depends on modification of the AAFP CME tracking technologies, and the launch date is not yet determined.

• Almost 340,000 CME quiz cards were returned to AFP last year, and 64,000 quizzes were completed online. Don’t forget, AFP’s quizzes are available atwww.aafp.org/afp and can be completed for CME credit up to one year after the issue publication date.

• Over 1,000 reader feedback cards were returned in the past year, and we reviewed each card. Approximately one half of readers who use the reader feedback card responded with positive comments, and another one third offered useful suggestions. The reader feedback card is available in the first issue of each month in the “Clinical Quiz” section.

• Last year AFP published 125 clinical review articles, for a total of 948 pages of clinical review articles and patient information handouts.

•AFP publishes 20 regular departments in addition to clinical review articles.

• A total of 430 “POEMs and Tips from Other Journals” were published in AFP last year, offering 395 pages of reviews of the medical literature.

• Last yearAFP published 72 pages of “Practice Guidelines” and 53 pages of “Clinical Briefs.”

•AFP published 56 pages of “Letters to the Editor” and 69 pages of editorials last year.

• The grand total of editorial pages published in AFP last year was 2,610.

• Some of our readers most often read departments are “Practice Guidelines,” “Tips from Other Journals, and “Photo Quiz.”

•AFP’s rejection rate for unsolicited manuscripts is approximately 45 percent.

As you can see, we count a lot of things, but what we count on most are the dedicated authors, editors, artists, journal staff, and many faithful readers who make this all possible.