21st Century Technology and Online Publishing

This is my sixth editorial letter to you since I became the Editor-in-Chief of International Surgery by election of the governance of the International College of Surgeons.

In my last editorial letter to you, I emphasized that we had set goals in November 2010, and that with the publication of the previous issue of International Surgery, via electronic publishing, we had effectively accomplished the initial goals we had set in 2010. In so doing, we have taken International Surgery into the 21st-century digital publishing arena and have “opened the door” to the many additional enhancements and opportunities to further improve the value of International Surgery for our audience.

The specially hosted website for International Surgery is indicative of the complete, focused dedication to enhance and constantly improve our International College of Surgeons journal. Our publisher is providing hosting service software developed for online publishing, backed up with dedicated, quality personnel capable of supporting our journal in an excellent manner. Training, support, and maintenance are the operative words in this sense. Implementing e-commerce transaction capabilities is part of this overall endeavor.

With International Surgery, every Fellow now has the opportunity to publish original studies on clinical, experimental, cultural, and historical topics pertinent to surgery and related fields that are peer reviewed by surgeons and surgical experts. The journal is a vital channel of communication between surgeons throughout the world in recording certified findings, disseminating new knowledge, and preserving these results for the future. In addition to recording and disseminating manuscripts for publication, overall communications—one of the four key missions of the College—are also enhanced. Information pertaining to educational meetings, surgical teams, and the many other activities in the College may be published online.

The International Surgery website will provide immediate access to articles in a searchable format, making the task far easier for any author who is developing a manuscript for publication. Suitable indexing is provided to aid retrieval of International Surgery articles via the major Internet search engines and other world databases. If researchers can easily and efficiently find our journal's content, the likelihood of papers citing International Surgery articles is far greater.

I close this editorial letter by sharing some very good news with you. It is most encouraging that the latest Journal Citation Reports, published by Thomson Reuters, found that the impact factor of International Surgery has increased in excess of 100% from 2010 to 2011! Not only have we accomplished our goals, set in November 2010, but we are also experiencing success in the area of citations, all of which indicates a growing readership and an increasing number of citations pertaining to International Surgery.

Thank you for your continued support and for your ongoing suggestions and commentary as we proceed.

Sincerely,

Professor Christopher Chen

Editor-in-Chief

International Surgery