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Looking back as we move forward
Vol. 113 No. 1 January 2012
EDITORIAL Looking back as we move forward Franklin D. Roosevelt has been attributed with saying, “There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still.” I believe that this perspective is particularly poignant regarding the current state of academic publishing. Like all forms of media, academic publishing is faced with rapidly changing format options, business models, and subscriber makeup. Although there are many opinions about the future of academic publishing, one thing is certain: Triple O cannot stand still. Rather, it is imperative that we continue to move forward with a decided purpose to improve the quality and the relevance of our organizations’ official journal. With this in mind, Triple O has recently adopted a number of immediate changes as we keep an eye toward the future. Effective January 1, 2012, the Endodontics section will be retired. This section was added to the journal in 1995 and has been an important contributor since that time. I would like to specifically acknowledge Dr. Larz Spångberg for his long and distinguished term as Section Editor from 2000 to 2011. Having a clinicianscientist of Larz’s stature oversee the Endodontics section was critical to the success of both the section and the journal, and I thank him for all of his efforts. One might ask why we are retiring this section. In contrast to the situation in 1995, the Elsevier family now includes the Journal of Endodontics (JOE). Under the direction of Dr. Kenneth Hargreaves, JOE is now considered to be the standard-bearer for the endodontic specialty and is one of the top 5 dental journals in terms of impact factor. Furthermore, someone far wiser than I once said that you can not be all things to all people. This is true in the rapidly changing fields of science, clinical care, and academic publishing. Therefore, we have chosen to align the content of Triple O with the dental specialties that currently sponsor this journal. I strongly believe that focusing Triple O on the areas of Surgery, Medicine, Pathology, and Radiology will result in a more effective journal for these specific specialties. I am also delighted to acknowledge the arrival of Drs. David Precious and Paul Edwards who now serve as the Section Editors of Oral Surgery and Oral Pathology, respectively. Both of these men are highly respected within their areas of specialty and have brought new energy to their sections and to the journal. In addition, Alice Landwehr was hired as the Triple O Managing Editor. She has been in the publishing field
for more than 15 years and has extensive experience with 7 other journals, including as Managing Editor of the Journal of Pediatrics. We are fortunate to have someone of Alice’s expertise, and she has already had a profound affect on the management of the journal since her arrival. Along with Craig Miller (Oral Medicine) and William Scarfe (Oral Radiology), we have a group of dynamic and forward thinking individuals who share the collective goal of making Triple O a journal that each of our sponsoring organizations can continue to proudly call their own. We are also enacting a number of improvements to both the submission and review process with the goal of decreasing the time to publication. Similarly, we are making changes to improve the quality of the work that is published to ensure a higher value to our readers. Overall, these changes include shortened turnaround time requirements for reviewers, a greater stringency for the quality of figures submitted, limiting case reports to the “online only” format of the journal, and the requirement of a “clinical relevance” statement for all full-length manuscripts. In addition, the cover of the journal has been updated, and each month will feature a high-quality figure derived from a manuscript published in that edition. Therefore, I encourage authors to take this cover modification into consideration when assembling your manuscript figures. Finally, for the organizations that have elected to do so, we are also providing table of contents e-mail alerts for each month’s journal issue. We hope that you find this latter feature to be a convenient and effective mechanism to stay informed. We are also looking toward the future by exploring novel methods of distribution and content. In addition, we are actively engaging similar specialty organizations that currently lack an official journal. We are exploring these opportunities based upon the hypothesis that with the increased availability of scientific knowledge as well as multinational collaborations, Triple O can provide a platform for interaction for some of our modestly sized organizations. I look forward to sharing these changes as they come to fruition in the future. Mark W. Lingen, DDS, PhD University of Chicago Editor-in-Chief doi:10.1016/j.tripleo.2011.09.002
1
EDITORIAL Looking back as we move forward Franklin D. Roosevelt has been attributed with saying, “There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still.” I believe that this perspective is particularly poignant regarding the current state of academic publishing. Like all forms of media, academic publishing is faced with rapidly changing format options, business models, and subscriber makeup. Although there are many opinions about the future of academic publishing, one thing is certain: Triple O cannot stand still. Rather, it is imperative that we continue to move forward with a decided purpose to improve the quality and the relevance of our organizations’ official journal. With this in mind, Triple O has recently adopted a number of immediate changes as we keep an eye toward the future. Effective January 1, 2012, the Endodontics section will be retired. This section was added to the journal in 1995 and has been an important contributor since that time. I would like to specifically acknowledge Dr. Larz Spångberg for his long and distinguished term as Section Editor from 2000 to 2011. Having a clinicianscientist of Larz’s stature oversee the Endodontics section was critical to the success of both the section and the journal, and I thank him for all of his efforts. One might ask why we are retiring this section. In contrast to the situation in 1995, the Elsevier family now includes the Journal of Endodontics (JOE). Under the direction of Dr. Kenneth Hargreaves, JOE is now considered to be the standard-bearer for the endodontic specialty and is one of the top 5 dental journals in terms of impact factor. Furthermore, someone far wiser than I once said that you can not be all things to all people. This is true in the rapidly changing fields of science, clinical care, and academic publishing. Therefore, we have chosen to align the content of Triple O with the dental specialties that currently sponsor this journal. I strongly believe that focusing Triple O on the areas of Surgery, Medicine, Pathology, and Radiology will result in a more effective journal for these specific specialties. I am also delighted to acknowledge the arrival of Drs. David Precious and Paul Edwards who now serve as the Section Editors of Oral Surgery and Oral Pathology, respectively. Both of these men are highly respected within their areas of specialty and have brought new energy to their sections and to the journal. In addition, Alice Landwehr was hired as the Triple O Managing Editor. She has been in the publishing field
for more than 15 years and has extensive experience with 7 other journals, including as Managing Editor of the Journal of Pediatrics. We are fortunate to have someone of Alice’s expertise, and she has already had a profound affect on the management of the journal since her arrival. Along with Craig Miller (Oral Medicine) and William Scarfe (Oral Radiology), we have a group of dynamic and forward thinking individuals who share the collective goal of making Triple O a journal that each of our sponsoring organizations can continue to proudly call their own. We are also enacting a number of improvements to both the submission and review process with the goal of decreasing the time to publication. Similarly, we are making changes to improve the quality of the work that is published to ensure a higher value to our readers. Overall, these changes include shortened turnaround time requirements for reviewers, a greater stringency for the quality of figures submitted, limiting case reports to the “online only” format of the journal, and the requirement of a “clinical relevance” statement for all full-length manuscripts. In addition, the cover of the journal has been updated, and each month will feature a high-quality figure derived from a manuscript published in that edition. Therefore, I encourage authors to take this cover modification into consideration when assembling your manuscript figures. Finally, for the organizations that have elected to do so, we are also providing table of contents e-mail alerts for each month’s journal issue. We hope that you find this latter feature to be a convenient and effective mechanism to stay informed. We are also looking toward the future by exploring novel methods of distribution and content. In addition, we are actively engaging similar specialty organizations that currently lack an official journal. We are exploring these opportunities based upon the hypothesis that with the increased availability of scientific knowledge as well as multinational collaborations, Triple O can provide a platform for interaction for some of our modestly sized organizations. I look forward to sharing these changes as they come to fruition in the future. Mark W. Lingen, DDS, PhD University of Chicago Editor-in-Chief doi:10.1016/j.tripleo.2011.09.002
1