Taking Stock

In this, my 19th editorial as your Editor-in-Chief of International Surgery, the Journal of the International College of Surgeons, I thank all of you readers, authors, reviewers, and members of the editorial board, for your invaluable support over the past year.

As we conclude 2014 and enter into 2015, it is a good time to pause, to reflect on progress made in 2014, and to set our course for 2015, taking stock of how we are performing.

We must always be mindful that the authors of manuscripts and their related institutions are our most important partners. Their respective needs and wishes take precedence over everything that we do to enhance International Surgery. Our goal in 2015 is to continue to improve our service to all.

In 2014 we were publishing the journal on a quarterly basis, with 96 pages per issue. As our backlog of approved manuscripts continued to increase, we quickly made the decision to publish on a bimonthly basis, and, soon thereafter, doubled the number of pages per bimonthly issue to 192 pages per issue. Even with these actions, our receipt of manuscripts continued to increase and also our backlog of approved manuscripts.

As we enter 2015, beginning with this January issue, 100.1, we will publish on a monthly basis with each issue having 192 pages. To assist authors further, we will continue to work to reduce the amount of time between manuscript submission and its publication.

We have also instituted a preprint section on the International Surgery website, and will give authors the option to place their respective pre-edited manuscripts in this preprint section of the International Surgery hosted website. When the editing process is completed, the preprint version of the manuscript will be removed from the preprint section of the website, with the final postedited manuscript placed in the published section of the International Surgery hosted website. This option will be beneficial to those authors who wish their respective research data to be available to readers at an earlier time.

Our goal in 2015 is to further improve the expectations of authors and their related institutions. We strongly believe that we can accomplish this goal.

Happy New Year!