Congratulation for a Giant Leap Forward: Letter from the Previous Editor-in-Chief

Abstract

First of all, as one of the members of the Korean Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons and as the Editor-in-Chief from 2007 to 2010, I am glad to see a new English version of the journal published. Even though publishing an English academic journal was a task that should have been started earlier, as it is the first step in developing into an Science Citation Index (SCI) Journal, developing the support and consensus of all the members required a long time. Changing the name of an academic journal which has a history of 37 years since its first issue in 1974 and changing the language have not been easy tasks. Even as we gained the support of the membership in this endeavor, I instinctively perceived a number of difficult tasks still lay before us: practical tasks such as maintaining an evaluation system suitable for an international journal, globalization of the website and design evaluation team, finding a manuscript editor to copyedit the English language content, and establishing the XML conversion process. I felt so sorry that I left Professor Jeong Tae Kim the most difficult tasks after my retirement from the position of editor-in chief. Without the daring investment and devotion of the Editor-in-Chief, it would only have been a dream to finally receive the first English issue of the journal we have waited for over the last five years. Again, I want to convey my message of great thankfulness and congratulations to Prof. Jeong Tae Kim, Editor-in-Chief, for making this difficult dream real. Also praise the effort and devotion of Dr. Jai Kyong Pyon and Dr. Jang Hyun Lee, professors who contributed as assistant administrators, other editing members, and Professor Sun Huh of Hallym University, our clerk So Hee Ahn, the KoreaMed people, previous Chair of the Board Suck Hwa Kim, and present Chair of the Board Yong Bae Kim. As a previous Editor-in-Chief, I emphasized the importance of the English Journal and prayed for the birth of an international journal suitable for the reputation of the Korean Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Furthermore, I hope that this journal opens the door to active interaction among cosmetic doctors worldwide and contributes to the development of the academy of plastic surgery. For this purpose, we hope to challenge the status quo among the existing plastic surgery journals, offering a journal that meets international standards for the publication process, including a speedy and rigorous review system, a quality submission and citation system, online article access, and cutting-edge content, where readers worldwide can quickly and actively share their knowledge. Moreover, regarding the submission and publication of papers from readers and members, I hope our journal includes a large portion of original articles. I expect more submissions of letters and participation and active discussion of plastic surgeons throughout Asia who felt relatively marginalized before. As far as I am concerned, the most important aspect of publishing Archives of Plastic Surgery with open access would be the agreement of using patients' photos. This part has been long discussed and is where we should be most concerned from now on. In addition, retaining a high quality evaluation team and judging the scientific quality, uniqueness, and usefulness through an evaluation check list are also important. Furthermore, the effort to invite respected scholars to contribute review articles is a significant priority. Additionally, in order to make Archives of Plastic Surgery competitive, we needed to establish characteristics of the journal to differentiate it from other international journals. I believe that these differences will encourage an original Asian approach to plastic surgery. This is because racial differences result in differentiated approaches to methods of plastic surgery more than in any other area of medicine. Lastly, there should be discussions about the working term of the editors. Ensuring that an editor's tenure of office is longer than 2 years is a crucial part of becoming an SCI Journal [1]. Lastly, I write a short comment of mine, thinking of the words that Armstrong pronounced during his first step on the moon: Publication in English is one small step for a journal, one giant leap for the Korean Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons.