LIVER TRANSPLANTATION 15:1657, 2009
EDITORIAL
A Message from the Editors: Thank You Jorge Rakela1 and John F. Fung2 1 Department of Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, AZ; and 2Department of HPB/Transplant Surgery, Department of General Surgery, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH Received August 17, 2009; accepted August 27, 2009.
In the midst of the quinquennial transition of the editorial team of Liver Transplantation, we reflect on our tenure as the editors and are struck by the immense level of support that the liver transplant community has provided in our attempts to build upon the successes of the editors before us. We have witnessed the growth of this journal as measured by the number of submissions and publications; by the increased diversity of topics in this specialty; by the further globalization of published work represented in the journal; and, most importantly, by increased readership. The journal has also witnessed another remarkable achievement with the latest 5-year impact factor at 4.492. Our CAQ Corner (subsequently THE Corner) was a popular instrument with our transplant hepatologists for preparing the first certificate of added qualification examination in transplant hepatology, which established hepatology as a specialty in its own merit. We have also witnessed the transition from the printed version to an increasingly used electronic format with multimedia, as ascertained by a recent reader survey. We also believe that the success of the journal reflects the fundamental nature of the multidisciplinary field of liver transplantation and that the contributions reflect the increasing availability and application of this procedure as an established therapy in the management of patients with end-stage liver disease and other liver disorders. The limitation of the donor shortage is being addressed by expansion of the donor pool, including further delineation of the risks and benefits of living donor liver transplantation. This journal has also been a forum for the discussion of the role of liver transplantation in the management of hepatocellular carcinoma as well as cutting-edge approaches to the management
of recurrent disease (in particular, hepatitis C). Increasingly, contributions have come from outside Europe and North America. We have recognized the challenges presented by different cultures and government policies, and this has required establishing a dialogue in terms of the ethics of liver transplantation (as exemplified by an editorial regarding the use of prisoners as a source of livers for transplantation.) The success of the journal would also not have been possible without the inexhaustible support of the members of our editorial board and our outstanding associate editors. In addition, we thank the numerous reviewers who gave generously of their time and expertise to the peer review process by providing thorough and helpful reviews. We acknowledge that this process is one that is truly a labor of love: freeing time for academic pursuits is increasingly arduous in the current healthcare and research environment. We must also thank the 2 sponsoring societies, the International Liver Transplantation Society and the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, for their administrative and moral support through the central office. We wish the new editors, Dr. John Roberts and Dr. John Lake, great success and offer our unconditional support for the tasks ahead. We are confident that with the continued support of the liver transplant community, the future of Liver Transplantation will continue to be bright. Thank you, merci beaucoup, gracias, danke, grazie mille . . . we would like to thank each of you in your own language for your participation and support in making this journal a useful tool for advancing liver transplantation.
Address reprint requests to John F. Fung, M.D., Ph.D., Department of General Surgery, Cleveland Clinic, 9500 Euclid Avenue, Mail Code A100, Cleveland, OH 44195. Telephone: 216-444-3776; FAX: 216-444-2153; E-mail:
[email protected] and Jorge Rakela, M.D., Department of Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic, 13400 E. Shea Blvd., Scottsdale, AZ 85259. Telephone: 480-301-6225; FAX: 480-301-9162; E-mail:
[email protected] DOI 10.1002/lt.21950 Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com).
© 2010 American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.
