Abstract
It seems really incredible – in the true sense of the word – that it is now 20 years since the launch of JFMS. At the time, back in 1999, the ISFM had been formed for only a few years, and the launch of JFMS represented a major milestone in our development, having been one of the aims of the society when it was first founded. Our vision was to develop a fully peer-reviewed journal dedicated to publishing manuscripts relevant to practitioners and clinical researchers in the field of feline medicine and surgery.
The journal’s anniversary is being marked with special awards, videos, infographics, ‘from the archive’ features and social media campaigns. A ‘timeline’ infographic, charting key milestones in JFMS’s development, appears on page 2 of this issue
Right from the start we were supremely fortunate to have the support of some leading researchers and clinicians, and this helped us to set the benchmark for the journal and to immediately achieve the aim of providing high quality, practical and accessible information for veterinary practitioners. JFMS rapidly established itself as a mainstream veterinary journal, with that position being cemented in 2002 when the AAFP also adopted it as their official journal.
While it would be wrong to single out individuals – given that so many people embraced the opportunity of being involved with JFMS so enthusiastically from the earliest days – as Editors we would like to acknowledge the unwavering support, mentorship and friendship of Prof Marian Horzinek, who sadly passed away in 2016. His encouragement and guidance in the early days helped enormously in shaping JFMS and making it the success it is today.
Again, as Editors, we would like to acknowledge and convey our deep gratitude to all authors, editorial board members and reviewers over the past 20 years. To simply say ‘thank you’ does not begin to express our appreciation of everyone’s contributions to the journal. It is genuinely humbling to work alongside and with such remarkable and talented people.
Ultimately, the success of a journal should be measured by how well it meets its aims and vision. The steady expansion of JFMS (progressing from a quarterly to a monthly publication with the inclusion of ‘Clinical Practice’ as well as ‘Classic’ editions) and most recently moving ahead with publication of our sister journal JFMS Open Reports is shown on page 2.
These milestones in themselves are ample demonstration of JFMS’s success, but more importantly we know that for many practitioners the journal is an indispensable resource for keeping up to date with developments in the field of feline medicine and surgery. It is also so hugely rewarding to see how often articles in JFMS are cited in other publications and in veterinary talks given at conferences all over the world. Indeed it is now something of a rarity to attend a feline talk without some mention of a study in JFMS!
Being able to be innovative – whether publishing Clinical Practice editions every other month, or cover-to-cover PDFs of each edition that can be downloaded and accessed digitally, or indeed the open access JFMS Open Reports – has contributed to the success of the journal. These innovations have been made possible through the close partnership that we have developed with our publisher SAGE, and we thank them too for all their help and support, and for being willing to work with us in new and flexible ways.
What a privilege it is to be able to look back on such a successful first 20 years. Our commitment now is to continue to innovate and work closely with all our stakeholders to make the next 20 years of JFMS just as successful. As we have said before… the future is bright, the future is feline!