Abstract
Welcome to the first issue of JICS for 2018 and a belated ‘Happy New Year’. As most of you will be aware, we ended 2017 with the fantastic news that JICS has (finally) been recognised by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and indexed on PubMed Central. It has been a long time coming and it’s been a long road to get here. The process was started by my friends and colleagues Drs Neil Soni and Carl Waldmann about seven years ago; initial rejection was met with requests for feedback but, despite addressing the criticisms, subsequent applications were again rejected. Since taking over as Editor-in-Chief in 2013, the attainment of PubMed indexing has been a primary goal for JICS, although the challenge has been to achieve this while keeping the Journal true to its founding ethos and readership. The transition to our current publisher (SAGE) was a ‘game changer’. I have worked closely with SAGE’s Senior Commissioning Editor, Will Rushton, to adopt a strategy targeting specific NLM criteria, and the end result is finally one of success. It is probably my over-inflated perception, but I genuinely believe that this is a watershed moment for UK intensive care medicine (ICM). For the first time, the UK intensive care community has ownership of an internationally recognised journal for which PubMed indexing has provided the badge of credibility needed for respected peer-reviewed medical journals. This achievement honours the work of past and present editors, reviewers and authors in equal measure and allows the Journal to support our ICM research community in a way that has been challenging in the past. The next step is to generate an impact factor. This will inevitably be humble in its beginnings, but it will allow an objective assessment of the Journal’s growth and strategic direction; again, it is vital that the Journal remains true to its readership and its founding principle of disseminating information that will influence clinical and academic practice within the ICM community. If it’s worth reading then it’s worth publishing – irrespective of influence on impact factor. Most journals would never consider adopting such an approach; but JICS isn’t ‘most journals’!
On other news, you may remember that last year it had been my intention to step down as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal. Accordingly, an advert was placed to seek my replacement; however, no suitable candidates were identified and, given this pivotal time for the Journal, I decided it was important to stay in post until we are settled into our new PubMed era. The process did make clear how small the world of medical editors is within the current ICM community, and I would love to see this change. It is true that editing is time-consuming and often unremunerated, but the rewards are many; if one considers each article reviewed as continued medical education then the ‘points’ accrued are massive. Editors tend to get advanced warning of new changes and evidence, and the network of colleagues with whom you come into contact is huge and a genuine joy to embrace. It has always been my goal to increase trainee involvement in the publication process and this is best achieved for novices through supervised manuscript reviewing – something that has been commonplace at JICS for several years. The natural stepping stone from reviewing manuscripts is to move into an editorial position, and it is my aim over the coming years to adopt more trainee editors for targeted roles within the Journal. My hope is that this approach will ensure succession planning and a bright future for the Journal, led by enthusiastic and experienced individuals from our specialty.
This issue of JICS epitomises the breadth of issues our specialty encompasses; from organ donation, complications of procedures, ultrasound techniques, through to Kratom toxicity, I couldn’t dream up a more diverse range of articles! I sincerely hope that there is something for everyone, and that the articles are presented in a manner that will entertain as well as educate. As always, if you feel you have need to comment or you have work that you would like to see aired, then JICS welcomes your contributions.