Editor's note

Article Outline

• Copyright

I think George Costanza said it best. On the day I received the phone call from Bernie Morrey, informing me that the JSES Board of Trustees had chosen me as the next editor-in-chief of this journal, paraphrasing George, “… a strange calm came over me. I don't know if it was divine intervention or the kinship of all living things, but I tell you, [Jerry], at that moment, I was an editor.” Or, at least, I better become one.

The Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery (JSES) was founded in 1991, and in the ensuing 17 years has had two editors-in-chief. Bob Cofield was the founding editor and held the position for 6 years, followed by Bob Neviaser who has been in charge since 1996. As they are 2 of the leading figures in what was once the nascent field of shoulder and elbow surgery, I feel a bit like Phil Bengtson or Gene Bartow, who once were charged with taking over from Vince Lombardi and John Wooden, respectively. I can hope only to follow in their footsteps and not surpass the leadership they have brought to the world of shoulder and elbow surgery and this journal. And, hopefully, do a bit better than Bengtson and Bartow.

I met Drs. Cofield and Neviaser both briefly in 1986 as a first-year orthopaedic resident, attending my first orthopaedic meeting, a shoulder course in Charleston, South Carolina, where I spoke to them about fellowship opportunities. My next encounter with Bob Neviaser was about as intimidating as one can have in orthopaedics, as he was one of my examiners in Chicago on the day I took my oral boards. Bob asked me to come aboard the JSES masthead in 2004 as an Associate Editor and has been a true mentor and leader to me since that day. I owe him a lot—not least because I passed my oral boards!

But while Bob Neviaser has brought JSES into the new millennium, it is now my job to carry the torch. And it is a new millennium, in many ways. Print journals no longer have the monopoly they enjoyed in the 20^th century. The advent of the Internet and the electronic world has made some question the need to have journals published in hard copy. But most of us still receive our primary orthopaedic journals in hard copy versions, and we think this will continue. Working with the good folks at Elsevier, we hope to bridge the gap between the world of print and electronic media.

And, because of the challenges we face, it is imperative that we move on. I have known since late March 2008 that I would be inheriting this position, and have spent the ensuing 9 months speaking to almost everyone I know about ways we can improve JSES in the 21^st century. Many of you reading this will know, as I probably spoke to you. This began with calls and discussions with Drs. Cofield, Neviaser, and Morrey; but I also solicited opinions from the many members of the American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons, the European Shoulder and Elbow Society, and my friends in the Hawkins Society. In addition, I have spent time with the editors at several other orthopaedic journals, and I now offer my thanks to Jim Heckman (JBJS), Paul Manske (J Hand Surgery), Bruce Reider (AJSM), and Gary Poehling (Arthroscopy), who gave me endless suggestions and ideas, as well as telling me “how they do it.”

Within the next few months you will see many changes in the Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery. Some of them are reflected in this issue—there will be a new cover, a new look inside, and the format of the abstracts and the articles will change slightly. But these are only superficial changes, and we seek to delve deeper to improve the journal. The structure of the associate editors will be different, as will be the way we edit the papers and the way we select and present them to you. The type of papers will change slightly, as we hope to include some “different” types of articles, including review and technique articles. We hope to use the website more effectively and allow you to go there more easily and look at videos attached to the papers. We want to allow the readers to access articles via the website and download them to their own personal electronic folders. Many of the changes will not be evident on the surface, but all are intended to improve the quality of the papers and make the journal a more interesting and fun read for all of us, as we attempt to stave off the challenges facing all print journals today.

Some of the new ideas and changes are mine alone, but many are not. I make no apologies for using ideas borrowed from my many quests for them, as I follow the Ancient Celtic saying, “We all warm ourselves on fires we did not kindle. We all drink from wells we did not dig.” None of the changes are meant to say that the Bobs, Cofield and Nevaiser, did not do an excellent job with this journal, for they did. But it is my charge to move on, to improve on what they started. As Walt Whitman said, “I am the teacher of athletes, He that by me spreads a wider breast than my own proves the width of my own, He most honors my style who learns under it.” And I hope to honor their style, as they will stay on the masthead as, respectively, Founding Editor and Editor Emeritus.

I have had 2 true mentors in the world of shoulder and elbow surgery. One is Richard Hawkins, with whom I did my fellowship, and for whom my appreciation and respect knows no bounds. But the other is a man I never met, as he died 13 years before I was born, E. Amory Codman. I was fortunate to write about Codman as the author of his biography, and learned so much while doing so. He is the true father of shoulder surgery, who passed his legacy on to Charles Neer and the other founders of this great orthopaedic specialty. As we make changes to this journal, I am led by the words of Codman, who said, “Give me something different, on the chance that it may be better.”

And we will. We will follow in the footsteps and the words of Codman, Neer, Cofield, Neviaser, Morrey, Whitman, and George Costanza, as we strive to make the Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery the best sub-specialty journal in the field of orthopaedics.