A short note from the Editor-in-Chief: the next 5 years of GIE

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With this January 2010 issue, Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (GIE) begins a new 5-year cycle. Dr George Triadafilopoulos ably led a superb group of associate editors, editorial board members, and reviewers through an exciting period. I was most fortunate to serve as one of the associate editors under George and now am privileged to have assumed the helm as the next Editor-in-Chief. The past 5 years have witnessed major renovations and improvements in the flagship journal of our society. There have been dramatic cosmetic alterations to the journal itself, but, more importantly, the inner guts have changed. I know—bad pun for an endoscopist.

Our journal now has a significant Web presence, including videos that accompany articles, a Web-based submission process, author podcasts, and video interviews. We provide a continuing medical education program for our readers, as well as a Fellows' Corner for trainees to share new ideas and opinions regarding their formative training years. GIE has also improved as an international journal with numerous members of our associate editors group as well as editorial boards bringing perspectives from beyond the United States.

I believe that we have 4 overlapping audiences for our journal: our authors, our readers, American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy members, and the national and international endoscopic communities. Our goal is to serve all of them to the best of our abilities. Although we are all proud of the accomplishments of GIE, it is not time to rest on our laurels. We are introducing new sections for our readership, a streamlined submission process for our authors, and cutting-edge original articles, new methods, and reviews that should be of interest to all our constituents.

To attract the highest quality endoscopic research, we have started an express track for publication. Prospective authors may request this track for original articles. If their articles are selected, the authors will receive an initial decision within 2 weeks, and if their articles are accepted, they can expect publication in GIE within 3 months. Each month we will highlight these fast-track articles in our journal because only a select few will be chosen. We are also already working hard to shorten the intervals between submission, decision, and publication for all work submitted to the journal.

We will now include in our author instructions 2 checklists to improve the quality of reporting of trials and observational studies submitted to GIE. The CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) statement gives recommendations for reporting randomized controlled trials and has been endorsed by the World Association of Medical Editors, the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, and the Council of Science Editors (www.consort-statement.org). The STROBE (Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology) statement (www.strobe-statement.org) provides authors with a checklist to enhance the quality of observational studies submitted for publication. At this point, these are not mandatory checklists, but are meant to aid our authors in preparing and submitting manuscripts to GIE. In addition, our readers will benefit from more standardized presentation of accepted manuscripts.

We are continuing author interviews but will expand these to include interviews with American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy Standards of Practice and Technology Assessment members so that our readers will gain deeper insight into these clinically critical, committee-generated documents from our society.

We are adding 2 new sections: Perspectives, which will include invited reviews discussing practice management issues of GI and endoscopy in the 21st century, and Point/Counterpoint, in which experts will debate the clinical issues incumbent in the performance of endoscopy.

An essential component of any journal is the review process, and as such, our reviewers are the life blood of GIE. We rely on timely, unbiased, evidence-based assessments and critiques from our reviewers. Therefore, we have done significant “rebooting” of all facets of our reviewer groups. I wholeheartedly thank all who have served on these boards and ask that they continue to be part of the GIE team. In addition, I invite all submitting authors as well as any of our readership who are interested to become part of this process as potential reviewers. My e-mail inbox is always open for suggestions, complaints, and the occasional kudo (geisen713@comcast.net).

I am both excited and honored to be taking over as the new Editor-in-Chief. I owe much to George and the previous associate editors group for “showing me the ropes” and placing the bar so high. I am already indebted to Deborah Bowman, the managing editor of GIE and the true brains behind the operation. I envision GIE as something every endoscopist around the world can contribute to and learn from. I look forward to serving you all to the best of my abilities. Thank you.