A message from the new Editors

Article Outline

• Copyright

This month the Journal of Vascular Surgery celebrates its silver anniversary. Today, one can only marvel at the wisdom of our founding Editors: Drs Michael DeBakey, Emerick Szilagyi, and Jesse Thompson. These pioneers in our field foresaw the evolution of vascular surgery, and the need for our own dedicated peer-reviewed publication. Through their visionary leadership, and that of their Editorial successors, the Journal of Vascular Surgery, the primary publication of the Society for Vascular Surgery, has achieved its current status as the leading and most widely respected vascular and endovascular surgical journal in the world - a truly international journal, dedicated to the advancement of knowledge in the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management of vascular disease, through leading edge clinical and basic science research. In fact, the growth and success of the Journal has paralleled the remarkable maturation of vascular surgery as the leading specialty in the care of patients with circulatory disease.

We are deeply humbled and honored to be selected to assume the Journal's Editorial leadership as it enters its second quarter century. Each of us has served the Journal for many years in the past in several capacities; as Reviewers, Editorial Board members, and Assistant and Associate Editors. We have learned much from our predecessors. We are intimately familiar with the enormous responsibility we have undertaken, and approach this new chapter in our professional lives with unbridled enthusiasm and passion for the challenges ahead.

As the reader has noticed, with this issue we have introduced a new, brighter cover of the Journal. This cosmetic change symbolizes our commitment to continued improvement of the product. The foundation of the Journal will continue to be full-length manuscripts reporting original clinical and basic science research and we will maintain the successful features introduced by our predecessors. We will continue to publish truly unique Case Reports, Vascular Images, Selected Abstracts, and Ethics articles. However, we will introduce a “fast track” review process for what we perceive to be extremely timely and time sensitive clinical and basic research. We will increase our space allotment dedicated to Review Articles that will be published on a monthly basis on subjects of topical interest and we will expand their focus to include vascular medicine topics. We are encouraging the continued submission of technical notes, but with videos to be published online. In addition, several new features, written by experts in the field, will be included in the new Journal of Vascular Surgery.

Specifically, we are introducing Evidence Summary; brief, focused data-driven summaries of the available evidence on topical issues in the clinical practice of vascular surgery and endovascular therapy. Practice Management Issues will include articles focusing primarily on the business of medicine. Another new feature, Vascular and Endovascular Techniques, will provide experts' technical tips on the performance of endovascular and conventional open vascular surgical procedures. Expert Debates will provide a point/counterpoint discourse between two recognized experts in the field on controversial issues in clinical practice. CPT Advisor will provide CPT coding suggestions related to procedures discussed in certain articles of the Journal. Finally, we are witnessing the conduct of an unprecedented number of clinical trials; not infrequently preliminary data from these trials are presented at meetings and courses, or even in the lay press, without the filter of peer-review. Clinical Trials Updates will report the latest clinical trials news accompanied by an objective editorial overview.

We are delighted to introduce our Editorial team. Dr Jan Blankenstijn will join us as Clinical Associate Editor while Dr Louis Messina will remain our Basic Science Associate Editor. Dr Thomas Forbes will assume the role of Special Projects Assistant Editor and Dr Richard Cambria will be the Review Article Assistant Editor. Drs Greg Moneta and James Jones will continue as Abstracts and Ethics Assistant editors, respectively. We are pleased to have been able to keep Ms. Jessica Brabant as the Managing Editor of the Journal; having Jessica in this position will ensure a smooth transition to the new editorial team.

In an increasingly competitive clinical environment, vascular surgeons are unquestionably the pre-eminent vascular specialists, and the Journal of Vascular Surgery embodies that unique expertise and leadership. In that regard, Editorial leadership of the Journal is a truly special and critical responsibility. We begin our term with profound respect and admiration for the accomplishments of our Editorial predecessors, cognizant of the high standard they have set, and with the dedication and commitment to take the Journal to the next level.