GREETINGS FROM THE NEW EDITOR‐IN‐CHIEF

Abstract

I am Professor of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology at Nippon Medical School in Tokyo. Following the retirement of the former Editor-in-Chief, Emeritus Professor Hiromitsu Saisho, I was appointed as the Editor-in-Chief of Digestive Endoscopy, the official journal of Japan Gastroenterological Endoscopy Society (JGES), at the recent assembly of the Society held in August 2011 in Nagoya. The appointment is my great honor. However, considering the importance of the role as Editor-in-Chief, especially when the Journal is emerging as the international journal in the field of endoscopy that includes not only novel approaches for diagnosis and treatment but also development of technology, clinical research and science, I feel, at the same time, the responsibility I have to fulfill as the Editor-in-Chief for all endoscopists and gastroenterologists who I think must be waiting for the evidence they need for their practice. Therefore, I will do my best at the forefront of implementing what Digestive Endoscopy, as the leading journal, requires for evidence-based science and the clinical practice. Fig. 1. Choitsu Sakamoto, MD, PhD. Most readers of Digestive Endoscopy might not know that the journal was started in publication in 1989 under the leadership of Professor Takeshi Miwa, the founding Editor-in-Chief of the official journal of JGES. A history of just 22 years for Digestive Endoscopy is not a long period of time. However, in such a short period, Digestive Endoscopy became the official journal of the Asian Pacific Society for Digestive Endoscopy (APSDE) in 2001 and was officially affiliated with the World Endoscopy Organization (WEO) in 2011. The Journal is now rapidly growing as an international endoscopy journal to which there are many submissions from all over the world. Such success of rapid growth in terms of being recognized by endoscopists from all over the world and thereby receiving better quality of journal content was brought about by the tremendous efforts of two former Editors-in-Chief, Emeritus Professor Tatsuo Yamakawa (1998–2005) and Emeritus Professor Hiromitsu Saisho (2006–2011). Following the former Editors-in-Chief, what I need to do as the new Editor-in-Chief is, needless to say, to accomplish all necessary objectives to make Digestive Endoscopy the leading journal in the field of endoscopy study. Now that we have an increasing number of submissions every year, Journal publication needs to be done in a different way, which will make the Journal much better in terms of its quality and for the convenience of contributors and readers. In 2010, we had more than 100 submissions to the category of Case Report. This is too many for the Journal to publish, no matter how good they are, so we decided to limit the number of case reports in each issue to just one or two that are rare, interesting and useful to endoscopists. However, in order to respond to the increased number of submissions, we are going to provide six to eight issues yearly from 2012, including bimonthly regular issues, supplements and special issues. Furthermore, we decided to change our editing system to shorten the time from receipt of manuscripts to their online publication in order to provide timely information to endoscopists. As I described above, Digestive Endoscopy is now the international endoscopy journal. It is not only the official journal of JGES, but is also officially affiliated with APSDE and WEO. Therefore, we are soon going to invite some associate editors from APSDE and WEO to not only respond to an increased number of submissions from outside Japan, but also to strengthen the Journal's international status and to collaborate with all organizations supporting Digestive Endoscopy, thereby making our journal substantially much better. I strongly hope that the new editorial team of associate editors and I will be able to fulfill expectations from all contributors and readers, and make Digestive Endoscopy one of the core journals of endoscopy study in the world. To accomplish this, I would also like to ask all endoscopists and gastroenterologists in the world for further active participation in Digestive Endoscopy.