The Changing Face of The Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery

Article Outline

• Copyright

There have been some significant changes in our Journal over the past year. The most important of these is that we are now completely up and running with an electronic submission system. In order to submit your manuscripts electronically, go to www.ees.elsevier.com/jses, log in as an author, and follow the directions. This has allowed us to respond more quickly to submissions as well as keep track of them. It is important to note that we have been on this system since August of 2005, and after the end of July of 2006, we will no longer accept submissions by any means other than electronically.

There have also been some changes in the regional editors. After the untimely death of Ian Kelly, his role has been assumed by a trio of European editors headed by Roger Emery, working with Frank Gohlke and Jens-Ole Sojbjerg. In Asia, J.J. Park has assumed the editor’s role. In South America, Osvandre Lech has succeeded Sergio Cecchia. In North America, Jesse Jupiter succeeded Patrick Murnaghan, William Mallon took over for James Tibone, and Lynn Crosby replaced Evan Flatow. To those who have retired or stepped down, we express our thanks for a job well done. For the successors, we say welcome.

A new seven-year contract has been signed with our publisher, Elsevier. The most important aspect of this new agreement can be seen in this issue. Our annual printed page allotment has increased from 600 to 800 pages per year. The effect of this is that we can publish more manuscripts annually, which will reduce our time from acceptance to publication.

Having said that, I want to clarify some policy issues. We request that the text of submitted manuscripts does not exceed 12 double-spaced typed pages. While this is not a hard and fast rule, there will be only a few exceptions. This is necessary in order to continue to publish articles in the most timely manner possible. Another important philosophy is that we will accept case reports only if they add to our knowledge either diagnostically or, rarely, therapeutically. The fact that something has been reported “only” 5,10, 15, or 20 times before is not a reason to accept a case report.

We anticipate that these changes will make for an even better journal and look forward to many more outstanding manuscripts.