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Receiving the Baton
Dear Readers:
Following in the footsteps of an icon in anything is sure to be difficult, and I find myself in just such a position. Dr. Terry Treadwell was at the helm of Wounds for more than the last decade. I have probably never met a more thoughtful and rational person. I first met Dr. Treadwell in 2007, and since then I have followed his compassion to his patients, his devotion to his family, and his thoughtful scientific leadership of this Journal.
During Dr. Treadwell’s tenure, the Journal has most notably become indexed in MEDLINE. The editorial board has been strengthened where needed. The metrics of Wounds have become definable, we know who reads the publication and how often; in the last year alone, the time from submission to publication has decreased by 66%. Certainly, Dr. Treadwell was only one part of the team that made this possible. However, he was the visible part of the team.
Over the course of his 16 years, Dr. Treadwell read every article that was published and wrote over 200 editorials. His dedication to Wounds, and more notably our field of medicine, has been nothing short of incredible. I am humbled to be asked to follow him as Editor-in-Chief of Wounds. This is a daunting task, but I take it on with a great deal of support. The senior editorial staff at the Journal is thoughtful and professional, and the publisher wishes to see the publication succeed, grow, and change with how we as caregivers receive and retain our clinical and research information. In addition, Wounds has an exceptional Editorial Board whose members are dedicated to fair, practical, and evidence-based medicine. They are also thinking dynamically on how to move Wounds into our modern information age. In addition, I know Dr. Treadwell will make himself available with his always sage guidance. I am also very lucky to have Dr. Vickie Driver fill my position as Clinical Editor to focus on the quality of the reporting standards that you see in the Journal. Her focus will be on the quality of the clinical trials, best clinical practice, and review articles.
Over the last year, there has been a significant investment upon the part of the publisher to invest in technology that will aid the speed of the editorial process—some of which is aimed at reducing the chance of duplicate publications and inadvertent plagiarism, while other processes will aid the editorial staff in identifying additional specific content experts.
In the upcoming months, we will see more multimedia content in relation to articles published and forthcoming; and you, the reader, will be asked for your feedback on everything from how you prefer to get your wound medicine and surgery updates to how you best like to get your professional education credits. We will be exploring various social media platforms as well as the more traditional pathways. There may be opportunities for letters to the editor to bring up topics that may be grounded in opinion but are still very germane to our readership. With all this being said, Wounds will continue to focus on becoming the right place to publish prospective randomized controlled trials and articles of clinical practice that better help us to heal our patients.
For my small part, I hope to help Wounds continue its trajectory to be the preeminent journal supporting the clinical practice of treating chronic wounds. This is a hard task, as one must note that there are many journals in our field that are thoughtful, well-managed, and have a strong editorial commitment.
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