Abstract
In the October issue of 2015, David Stanley wrote an editorial detailing the story so far since the first edition of Shoulder and Elbow was published in 2009 when he was President of the British Elbow & Shoulder Society (BESS). He rightly paid tribute to Ian Trail who had conceived the idea of this journal and commended his achievement and guidance, as its first Editor-in-Chief, in the development of by then an already successful publication, not only for shoulder and elbow surgeons but also for physiotherapists, who since its inception have fully supported a valuable rehabilitation section of the journal.
David Stanley has built upon the initial success of Ian Trail and during his tenure, the journal has gone from strength to strength achieving PubMed recognition in 2016 and seeing a year-on-year increase in submissions. In the past 12 months despite the disruption of COVID-19, there have been over 300 articles submitted from 26 countries around the globe. This success has in fact led to one of the problems I currently face as the new Editor-in-Chief, that of a backlog of articles waiting for publication. This is taking priority and discussions are currently taking place with the publishers to remedy this not only by the addition of supplement issues but to develop a long-term solution which I hope to be able to report to you soon.
The most important development however going forward is whilst acknowledging that the submissions are increasing the quality of the articles accepted for publication must be maintained. We, therefore, continue to welcome high-quality original research which will both improve the impact factor in the future and continue the ethos set by both Ian Trail and David Stanley during their tenure as Editors-in-Chief of Shoulder and Elbow.
With quality in mind, David Stanley decided to invite the Editorial Board members to write a review article for the journal and I have great pleasure in welcoming the first by Dr W Ben Kibler entitled ‘AC joint injuries revisited: Pathoanatomy, pathomechanics and clinical presentation’. Dr Kibler, who is the Medical Director of the Lexington Sports Medicine Center and Associate Professor of the University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, should require no introduction and his research and widely published articles on biomechanics and rehabilitation should be known to us all. I thank him for this excellent contribution to Shoulder and Elbow which highlights the quality the journal is striving to achieve.
I officially took over the role as Editor-in-Chief after the BESS annual scientific meeting in Liverpool in June, the first face-to-face meeting since 2019 due to COVID-19. As we look forward to a return to some sort of normality, I hope I will be able to serve in this role to continue the success achieved by my two predecessors and look forward to the challenges ahead to further develop this journal. If you have any suggestions as readers and authors as to how we can improve Shoulder and Elbow please do not hesitate to contact me.