Adding value to BJS

Scientific articles published in the Journal and on the website are central to BJS. Attracting and publishing high-quality papers are fundamental activities and remain the principal focus of the editorial team. Readers will notice a new cover for 2011 with a surgical illustration that will change every month. This image will usually be selected from articles published in BJS. We hope this will encourage authors to continue to submit high-quality illustrations with their papers that could be featured on the front cover. Reader surveys have suggested that BJS users are eager for more than just the science of surgery. Commentaries on selected articles, videos of surgical technique and podcasts are all recent additions to add value to the printed word. The Editors welcome feedback on these initiatives. The BJS website has also undergone a major upgrade. It remains a repository for the entire BJS archive, as well as giving easy access to the current edition ofBJS and future publications through Earlyview, together with direct access to theWiley Online Library. The BJS Clinical Library will contain additional online material, supplementary to papers published in the Journal, technical videos of methods described in submitted papers and the archive of Snapshots in Surgery. The taxonomy has been revised to make the Library more intuitive and searchable. In time, we hope that this becomes a useful educational resource, allowing material to be accessed for presentations and lectures. The Snapshots in Surgery will change during 2011, moving from simple pictures to an educational format with questions. If this is popular with the readership, we hope that this could become formally recognized as a contribution to the Continuing Professional Development of the surgeon. There will be further podcasts and videocasts summarizing papers published in BJS to put them in a wider context. Experimental research is the bedrock of the future of surgical practice, yet some experimental papers published in BJS are rarely cited, perhaps because their relevance to daily surgical practice is difficult to appreciate. The emphasis will, therefore, be on translational work where there is a reasonable prospect of clinical application or at least knowledge that might impact on surgical strategies in the near future. To give focus to these experimental papers, authors will be asked to put their research into clinical context using a box called ‘surgical relevance’ that will be published adjacent to the abstract on the front page of the manuscript. The length of experimental articles will also be restricted to encourage succinct and clear presentation. In an era of evidence-based medicine, BJS has championed metaanalyses, systematic reviews and randomized controlled trials. We continue to devote more space to these article types than other journals concerned with surgery in general. The Editors are conscious, however, that well constructed observational studies remain important and that ‘state-of-the-art’ reviews can be useful where an evidence base is weak, particularly in relation to the introduction and acceptance of novel techniques. It is planned to include a small number of ‘state-of-the-art’ papers in 2011. Another area to receive greater attention will be trauma. Many general surgeons are still responsible for the management of trauma and BJS is often asked to increase the number of articles on this subject. A 13th issue will therefore be published at the end of 2011, devoted to trauma from the perspective of the general surgeon. This will include invited articles and original papers (after standard peer review). Although the Journal has a distinguished past, the need to maintain the highest possible quality both in print and electronic formats demands progress and adaptation. BJS intends not only respond to many of the challenges in the arena of scientific publication but to be seen as a leader in innovation. The Editors welcome comment and suggestion to continue this process.