Celebratory message from the EditorinChief on th

Authors: Akira Andoh

Publish Date: 2015/02/24

Volume: 50, Issue: 4, Pages: 361-363

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Abstract

Two years ago Professor Mamoru Watanabe director of the Japanese Society of Gastroenterology called me to consider getting to EditorinChief of the Journal of Gastroenterology Although it seemed to surpass my ability I felt a bit overwhelmed at the beginning With feeling worry I began my editorship in April of 2013 and in 2 years it was completed Now I am glad I did it For this mission I really appreciate the sincere and continuous support of Prof Mamoru Watanabe Prof Naoya Sakamoto vice Editorin Chief and all of the associate editors who are great leaders of gastroenterology in Japan and large secretariats of the society In addition this success was actually dependent on enthusiastic contribution of the peer reviewers all over the worldIn these 2 years we have made some challenges to make the journal more attractive At first we changed the cover and the style of the first page of each article The cover of the Journal of Gastroenterology was entirely painted by dark blue and slightly businesslike look of previous years We introduced pale blue in the lower half part of the cover with an illustration or picture from the included articles A blue mark line and the symbol of the society were drawn on the top of the first page of each article Through these changes we aimed to call the Journal of Gastroenterology “Blue Journal” for the nickname Authors sometimes publish the figures as a blackandwhite version although they submit color figures for the review process So we extremely reduced the charge for color figures and now all color figures on submission are published in color in the journal In the future to give the journal a more contemporary look visual illustrations may be helpful in making complex processes easily understandable Indeed Gastroenterology the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association introduced a medical illustrator to the editorial staff to make cover illustrations and to redrew all authorsubmitted line art for increased consistency of style In addition the entire peerreview process is getting much faster and the first decision for a submitted paper is completed within 16 days Therefore the time from acceptance to publication is getting shorterThe submission of international papers continues to increase and reached 780 65  of total submission in 2013 However the acceptance rate of international papers is only 6  in contrast to approximately 25  for domestic papers The net result is that international papers were approximately 30  of original papers published in the journal in 2013 This is not the result of biased reviews but due to slightly low originality or quality of international papers How will the journal continue to be competitive in attracting the best original papers of the world I think that one of the ways to attract highquality papers is to provide timely supportive and highquality review papers For this the Journal of Gastroenterology is planning to invite international experts as international editorsCollection of highquality review papers has another importance The main objects of the Journal of Gastroenterology over the years has been the reporting and documentation of original and highimpact findings of the fields of gastroenterology from both the laboratory bench and clinical bed side However according to the accumulation of such primary information making a connection between the many disconnected fields of the original reports is being required in order to give an overview of the crosstalk between many fields of science For example it is impossible to discuss the pathophysiology of inflammatory bowel disease without the recent advance of immunology and deep understanding of gut microbiota The pathophysiology of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis is well known to be associated with diabetes mellitus or abnormality of energy metabolism To achieve this task collection of good review papers of various fields is important We have invited many wellknown specialists from various fields not only in gastroenterology but also other topic fields to give a chance to connect many disconnected fields of the science It will take a little more time to know whether our mission was really successful or notThere are some issues for the Journal of Gastroenterology to be considered For accessibility and appeal of the journal Prof Sugano the previous president of the Japanese Society of Gastroenterology mentioned that providing commentaries on the articles by editorial members is effective in highlighting the new findings of the journal 1 Some journals also utilize social network services as providing tool of journal information to increase the awareness of their articles Although such efforts have not been tried in the Journal of Gastroenterology realization in near future is our task to increase attractively of the journal We should also consider how to freely access the articles of publicly funded research It is well known that all National Institutes of Health NIHfunded papers must be deposited into PubMed for open access after 12 months of publication The Journal of Gastroenterology is already ready for such a condition As another approach the journal keeps in mind to become openaccess electronic journals since print journals are expensive and difficult to read store and access Finally we are required to consider involving professional writers and illustrators for the enhancement of the accepted paper with simple and understandable conceptsBasic and translational research is constantly developing and the Journal of Gastroenterology is facing an environment of new era generated by hightechnology platforms to analyze gene expression and proteomic and metabolomic patterns In response to such evolution the journal must enhance a new webbased approach to review and present an enormous amount of data I hope that through such an approach the Journal of Gastroenterology gets to be much more flourished and stronger in many ways without delay

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