A conversation among friends

Abstract

For the past ten years, working with my able Managing Editor Morag Teek, and Associate Editors Andrew Thompson, Heather Buchan, Joseph Ibrahim, Jorge Hermida and Klaus Piwernetz, I have edited this Journal. Guided and supported by the Chief Executive Officer of the International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua), Lee Tregloan, and the ISQua Board members responsible for the Publications Portfolio, Nancy Dixon and Heather Buchan, we have lived through exciting times—most notably the transfer of the Journal to joint-ownership by ISQua and the Oxford University Press (OUP) in 1998. From that date on, we have had support and guidance also from the experts at OUP, especially Mandy Hill, the Head of Science and Medical Journals in the Journals Editorial Department. Throughout, we have received valuable advice from an Editorial Committee of 30 individuals, all members of ISQua, drawn from around the world (the names of the current committee members appear on the title page of every issue). Most important of all, without the hundreds of authors and reviewers, each devoting many hours to their efforts, the Journal would not exist. So, after thousands of manuscripts submitted and reviewed and hundreds published, what has it all been for? What is all this activity about? From the author side …