Abstract
The publication of the October issue of the United European Gastroenterology Journal coincides with UEG Week that takes place in Barcelona, October 19–23, 2019. UEG Week is the focus point of European gastroenterology and brings together more than 13,000 participants coming from more than 110 countries. UEG Week showcases cutting edge science through some 4000 submitted abstracts with content relevant for those who care for patients with gastrointestinal disorders. The United European Gastroenterology Journal picks up the pulse of the meeting, and the published meeting abstracts reflect scientific innovation that takes place and the direction of the field. Science is made by people, and that is why it is important to pay tribute to the researchers who create science and progress the field.
As in past years, UEG awards a large range of prizes to our contributing researchers such as the UEG Research Prize, Top Abstract Prizes, Rising Star Awards, Poster Champ Awards, as well as (Inter)national Scholar Awards. I want to single out the top abstract prizes given to upcoming researchers because they are the fruit of extremely hard work and dedication and have the potential to change the way we practice.1–5 For example, Dr Schepers and her team reported in 2018 a clinical trial that demonstrated that early endoscopic bile duct clearance in predicted severe acute biliary pancreatitis did not offer clinical benefit to patients. 5 These results affect our clinical thinking and will find their way in our practice guidelines. UEG’s most prestigious prize is arguably the distinguished UEG Research Prize, and in 2019 this award goes to Silvio Danese for his study of the fundamental mechanisms underlying inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). He is a regular contributor to the journal, 6 and we are proud that this issue features his review paper on the gut virome in pathogenesis of IBD. 7
The United European Gastroenterology Journal also likes to identify the most remarkable papers it publishes and offers the Best Journal Award prize that is awarded yearly during UEG Week. 8 This year will be the fifth time that the United European Gastroenterology Journal selects the journal article that is distinctive and which created impact, causing people talk or write about it. For 2019, we evaluated the many excellent contributions the United European Gastroenterology Journal published, but only one paper could make the cut. Liat Gutin is the lead author of a paper that describes a prospective, open-label, single-centre study including 10 patients with Crohn’s disease undergoing faecal microbiota transplantation. 9 While the trial comes with a sobering message (only three patients responded, while two others had significant adverse effects), it made headlines and found its way to social media. After publication, the paper immediately attracted significant coverage, putting it in the top 5% of all research outputs as scored by the Altmetric attention score. She will receive her award at UEG Week in Barcelona.
While social media have long been regarded as an alternate world removed from the scientific arena where journals are, this has profoundly changed. 10 Increasingly, these two worlds have come together, and many outlets have pioneered the use of social media as a platform for knowledge dissemination. We have decided to use the power of social media in order to serve our readers better. The United European Gastroenterology Journal has appointed Keith Siau as social media editor, and he has really taken off. On Twitter, the journal has received a dedicated journal tag (@UEGJournal) that serves to highlight the scientific offerings. If you are on Twitter, look it up. We have begun to create visual abstracts that capture the message paper in one cartoon. We invite authors contributing to the United European Gastroenterology Journal to provide us with visual abstract, as we believe that they are well liked and serve to get the message out.
UEG is about training and education with a keen eye on the future and the future leaders who will populate our field in the years to come. That is why the United European Gastroenterology Journal has decided to introduce the role of trainee editors. Currently, we are lucky to have Laura Kivelä, Lucas Wauters, Vincenzo Cardinale, Milena Di Leo, Julien Kirchgesner and Keith Siau in our team as UEG trainee editors. They assist the associate editors with their efforts to select the best of the best for publication in the United European Gastroenterology Journal. It is great to see the enthusiasm and energy emanating from this team, and it gives me great pride to see their progress.
Last but not least, the UEG has recently embarked upon a rebranding strategy for UEG, a journey which has been prompted by the desire to evolve continually and bring greater relevance and accessibility to our global audiences. This rebranding effort embraces the digital world in which we now live, with brighter colours, novel onscreen fonts and new digital elements. This creates a new dimension and dynamic to the UEG. The United European Gastroenterology Journal is also changing, with a new cover and a new look and feel which reflects this dynamic drive to delivering clinical information from our field with authority. 11 It is great to see the alignment of the United European Gastroenterology Journal with all of the UEG offerings, and I truly hope that you will appreciate that.