World Journal of Surgery - Report by the Editor in Chief

Report Editor in Chief WJS

Julie Ann Sosa, Editor in Chief WJS

David Watson, Associate Editor WJS

Hello and fall greetings from San Francisco to members of the ISS/SIC! This is my second contribution to the newsletter as Editor in Chief of the World Journal of Surgery; simply put, we have been busy!

This summer, David Watson MBBS, MD, PhD, FRACS, FRCSEd (hon), FAHMS joined our team of internationally renowned associate editors, replacing Ari Leppäniemi, MD PhD, a gastrointestinal surgeon from the Meilahti Hospital in Finland Dr Leppäniemi faithfully served as associate editor since 2005. Professor Watson is Professor and Head of Surgery at Flinders University, and works

concurrently as an esophagogastric surgeon at Flinders Medical Centre in Adelaide, South Australia. His interests include gastroesophageal reflux, and esophageal & gastric cancer. For more than 25 years, he has led clinical and laboratory research addressing benign and malignant esophageal disease, integrating laboratory, clinical and population research streams. He has published 400 papers and book chapters, led the development of Australian national guidelines for the management of esophageal and gastric cancer, and contributed to national guidelines for the management of Barrett’s esophagus. Professor Watson holds the Matthew Flinders Distinguished Professorship at Flinders University. We are thrilled to have him as a member of our editorial team.

Our associate editors gathered in New York City in August for our biennial retreat; we spent a day and a half together at the Springer headquarters reviewing achievements for the year thus far and formulating strategy going forward. There was tremendous energy, discussion, and creativity, and many new ideas were generated. As a team-building exercise, we took a cooking class together and then created a dinner meal from scratch that was delicious; synergistic collaboration in the kitchen bodes well for great teamwork in the boardroom around journal strategy. Thanks to our publisher Yvonne Chan and managing editor Laura Shearer Hunter for orchestrating the event.

Submissions to the World Journal of Surgery are continuing to rise; as of September 28, 2018, we had received 1,665 manuscript submissions, not counting revised manuscripts that are resubmitted for editorial consideration. As a result, we have been able to become more selective in the manuscripts that we accept. The newest World Journal of Surgery impact factor was announced, and it increased to an all-time high of 2.766, up from 2.673 last year. Our five year impact factor also increased from 2.922 to 3.052. Adding to the influence of the World Journal of Surgery will be our new relationship with the Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) Society; WJS is the official publication of ERAS, and we are anticipating publishing two sets of evidence-based, high impact ERAS guidelines later this year.

WJS is intentionally highlighting issues of importance to surgeons around the world. We published the Joint Statement of the Surgery Journals Editors Group around eliminating sex bias in research, and incorporated instructions to authors to fastidiously report on the sex of animal and human subjects as part of all submissions to WJS. Finally, I would encourage ISS/SIC members to read our Women in Surgery symposium that has appeared on line, reporting on the personal and professional experiences of women surgeons from Australia, Colombia, France, Germany, Malaysia, Uganda and the United States; several important themes were raised by the authors, casting light on opportunities that still exist to expand equity and inclusion in global surgery.

We are planning for the 48th World Congress of Surgery in Krakow, Poland in August 2019; there, we will carry on the tradition of co-sponsoring the Career Development for Academic Surgeons Course with the Association for Academic Surgery, the International Society for Digestive Surgery (ISDS), and the International Association for Surgical Metabolism and Nutrition (IASMEN) on Sunday, August 11, 2019, and organizing the Writers’ Workshop from Tuesday, August 13 through Thursday, August 15, 2019.