Page 4 - ISAKOS 2021 Newsletter Volume 1

JISAKOS EDITOR IN CHIEF’S MESSAGE
JOURNAL OF
ISAKOS
Joint Disorders & Orthopaedic Sports Medicine
The New Year period is a time of reflection and well wishes. The past year has been one that we want to forget but never will. Each day, we are faced with new changes that impact our daily life. For me personally, it was always “family first,” but the past year has made us even closer as a family.
The past year has reconfirmed the power and importance of science, with the quick reaction by and collaboration among scientists all over the world that resulted in a reliable vaccine within 9 months after the publication of the COVID- 19 genetic sequence. In spite of the development of these vaccines, it remains challenging to project ourselves in the future. We all wish to return to normal. We have learned to communicate online in Zoom meetings and webinars, but we miss the interaction between humans. Let’s be confident that we will all meet for the ISAKOS conference in Cape Town in November, 2021.
In spite of COVID, 2020 was an excellent year for JISAKOS. The number of submissions increased by some 75%, with an overall rejection rate of >50% and an acceptance rate for original research of 40%. These figures are important for the Index Medicus application. We applied for Medline indexing last November and expect to receive an answer in the early spring.
Also in 2020, we expanded our Editorial Board and appointed some key editorial positions, including Elizabeth Arendt as Deputy Editor. Liza is Vice Chair of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery of the University of Minnesota. She is a highly respected ISAKOS member and is well respected in the worldwide orthopaedic community. I am personally very happy that she will support JISAKOS in this important position. In addition, Emily Leary was appointed as our statistical editor. Emily is Director of Orthopedic Biostatistics in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery of the University of Missouri. She will provide in-depth reviews of manuscripts whose statistical methods and analysis need attention. Our two social media editors, Manos Brilakis and Andreas Voss, have been very active and will continue to post tweets every other day and coordinate the podcasts for JISAKOS. A major focus in 2021 is to gain a larger audience; to that end, our offerings will include live interviews that add expert opinions and comments on controversial methods and techniques.
Also new in 2021 will be a video-based section on surgical techniques, with Kevin Parvaresh from the medical group of Orange County serving as section editor. We are currently finishing the guidelines for authors, and Kevin will prepare two example videos to serve as a reference for submissions.
Overall, 2021 will be an important year in which we will need to make the important decision as to whether JISAKOS will become an Open Access (OA) journal. We also have celebrated the 25th anniversary of ISAKOS and the 5th anniversary of JISAKOS. To this end, we will acknowledge the best papers with a $1,000 prize at the 13th biennial ISAKOS conference in Cape Town.
Finally, I would like to take the opportunity to thank all of those who helped to make JISAKOS to what it is today: the Board of Directors, Sue Reimbold and her dedicated crew from the ISAKOS Office, the members of the editorial board (JIBOT), our publisher (BMJ), our consultant Stephan Welch, our managing editor Leendert Blankevoort, the authors who submitted their manuscripts, and, especially, our reviewers. We understand that our reviewers may have longer hours and extra responsibilities that come before JISAKOS, especially during these challenging times. For that reason, we are even more grateful for their efforts, and it is because of their fantastic work that our journal is flying. A big thank you for all of your contributions.
I wish for you all to be well and to remain healthy.
C. Niek van Dijk, MD, PhD NETHERLANDS
Editor in Chief, JISAKOS c.niekvandijk@jisakos.com
2 ISAKOS NEWSLETTER 2021: VOLUME I