Good Timing

This is editorial letter 18, which I submit to you as your Editor-in-Chief of International Surgery, the Journal of the International College of Surgeons. International Surgery has had ten previous Editors-in-Chief and I am the 11th Editor-in-Chief.

Making good use of one's time is fundamental to achievement and accomplishment over our respective life spans. Making the world aware of achievements and accomplishments is equally important.

This is most true in reference to medical and scientific researchers who, having completed original research, wish to have their research data published as soon as possible. Any delays are viewed as a waste of time and an indication of a poorly performing editorial team of any scientific and medical research Journal.

In this reference, the Editorial team of International Surgery is striving to reduce the amount of time that elapses from the date of manuscript submission by authors to the date of publishing the data in these manuscripts to readers. We continue to make editorial reviews more prompt, and, if a manuscript is accepted by the Editorial Review Board, then to make the new data available to readers as soon as possible.

We now are considering monthly publishing of International Surgery beginning in January, 2015. Our goal is to reduce the backlog of accepted manuscripts by publishing more frequently. We will also consider further streamlining the publishing process by publishing on a manuscript by manuscript basis – as soon as a manuscript is ready for publishing, this manuscript will immediately be made available to readers.

In addition, we are also considering a pre-print option for authors, who, following editorial review approval, wish to place their respective manuscripts in an online pre-print section of the hosted website. These pre-print manuscripts, without any allowed modifications by the authors, will remain in the online pre-print section of the hosted website until the editing process is completed, at which time the pre-print manuscript will be removed from the pre-print section of the website, and the final edited version of the manuscript is placed in the published section of the hosted website.

Our Journal continues to receive increasing numbers of manuscripts for consideration. We hope that the foregoing considerations will be helpful to authors, who wish to publish their respective data as soon as possible.