Editorial

Abstract

It is with great pleasure I announce that Paul S. Sidhu, MD, Professor of Imaging Sciences at King's College London and Consultant Radiologist in the Department of Radiology at King' College Hospital, will succeed me as Editor in Chief of Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology (UMB), starting 1 January 2022. Dr. Sidhu graduated with honors from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School (now part of Imperial College) in 1982. He received clinical training at St. Mary's Hospital on the Professorial Medical Unit and served in Senior House Officer positions at the Brompton Hospital, Hammersmith Hospital, Hospital for Tropical Diseases and Guy's Hospital. He spent a year as a lecturer in the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, before returning to radiology training at the Hammersmith and King's College Hospitals. He was appointed a consultant radiologist at King's College Hospital in 1996, with a role in ultrasound and interventional radiology. He was made Professor of Imaging Sciences in 2012. He is currently Medical Director at King's College Hospital, works with the vaccination program, and oversees operational activities. Dr. Sidhu has published extensively on many aspects of clinical diagnostic ultrasound particularly in relation to male health and liver transplantation, as well as applications of echo contrast agents. He has published predominantly on subjects related to diagnostic ultrasound and vascular interventional radiology, including six original contributions and one World Federation of Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology (WFUMB) clinical guidelines review in UMB. He has edited 6 books and published over 330 peer reviewed scientific articles. His h-index (excluding self-citations) is 45, according to Scopus, and he has 2 articles with over 780 citations. Dr. Sidhu also has extensive editorial experience. Most recently he was Editor in Chief of Ultraschall in der Medizin – European Journal of Ultrasound. He has also served as Associate Editor of Radiology, Deputy Editor of The British Journal of Radiology and a guest editor in Imaging, Radiologic Clinics of North America, and Andrology. Dr. Sidhu is inheriting a robust and healthy scientific peer-reviewed journal. UMB online submissions have steadily increased during the years of my tenure as Editor in Chief from July 2006 through December 2021. The number of manuscripts submitted in 2006 was 441, and this had increased by a factor of 2.5 to 1111 manuscripts submitted from authors in 58 countries around the globe by 2020. The annual number of publications also increased over the years from 211 in 2006 to 329 in 2020, yet the journal impact factor rose from 2.011 to 2.998 in the same 14-year time span, despite the increase in this metric's denominator. The impact factor for a specified year is defined as the ratio between the number of citations (in journals indexed by Clarivate) and all articles published by the journal in the two previous years. Some journals implement strategies to massage their impact factors, but UMB has not engaged in this unethical game. UMB authors have the ultimate power to improve the impact factor by simply citing recent UMB articles. Authors from the United States of America and China contributed the most published UMB papers in the last three years (266 and 224, respectively) followed by Germany (67), Canada (63), Italy (62), and the United Kingdom (59). UMB is the only journal that balances basic science and clinical ultrasound papers. Our journal is highly complementary to the purely clinical ultrasound journals and the editorial board has been very keen to further enhance its visibility to both pre-clinical and clinical researchers. UMB enjoys a unique position as an official federation journal that is attractive to basic scientists and clinicians alike. Focusing on innovative diagnostic and therapeutic applications helps to define aims and scope that are different from its more clinical competitors. UMB has strong foundations in innovative ultrasound developments, elastography, biological effects of ultrasound, and therapeutic ultrasound and has become the journal of choice for reporting innovative pre-clinical research. This is in part due to the acknowledged rigor with which papers are judged. UMB has a strong and respected tradition of peer review, for which I am indebted to members of the editorial board and reviewers who have ensured the success of the journal. UMB is regarded by many as key to the training of the next generation of ultrasound researchers, for which I am immensely proud. From my personal experience, this contribution is a key element of success, and the impact is long term. I am indebted to Rose Randolph, UMB Managing Editor, who has so aptly processed every manuscript for the last 15 years, for serving on the front line and gently reminding reviewers and editorial board members of their duties to keep the review process humming along. I am pleased that she will continue serving the ultrasound community under Dr. Sidhu's leadership. I also credit the success of the journal to the Deputy and Associate Editors: Gail ter Haar, F. Stuart Foster, Nico de Jong, Martin Krix, Pai-Chi Li, Mark Palmeri, Jonathan Rubin, Eleanor Stride, Luca Sconfienza, and François Tranquart who have worked tirelessly to attract the very best submissions to UMB. The ultrasound community is fortunate to have enjoyed their expertise and leadership skills over the last fifteen years. WFUMB has determined that the journal needs to change the balance between clinical and basic science publications to increase the number of clinical publications. With the appointment of Dr. Sidhu as the next Editor in Chief, there is an opportunity to expand UMB to include more high-quality clinical papers. The journal content will undoubtedly continue to bridge engineering and the development of new ultrasound imaging and therapeutic ultrasound techniques, and first-in-human clinical applications. First in human feasibility studies and early clinical trials seem to be UMB’s “sweet spot.” I would like to thank the Deputy and Associate Editors for their tireless energy, and extraordinary insight into the publishing needs of both the clinical and pre-clinical ultrasound communities, which has taken the journal from strength to strength during my tenure. UMB is the world's premier journal for promoting cross-fertilization of ideas between the scientific and clinical ultrasound communities. The next few years promise to be important ones for the future of the journal, and I am confident that, under Dr. Sidhu's leadership, UMB will continue to serve our scientifically active community in the years ahead.