Accepting the baton at the Journal : a moment to celebrate success, science, diversity, and future opportunities
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EDITORIALS
Accepting the baton at the Journal: a moment to celebrate success, science, diversity, and future opportunities
Stephan K. W. Schwarz, MD, PhD, FRCPC
Received: 23 September 2020 / Revised: 23 September 2020 / Accepted: 24 September 2020 Ó Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society 2020
This edition of the Journal marks the beginning of a new year and the conclusion of 2020 as the most challenging year, collectively and individually, in recent memory—a consequence of the greatest global public health crisis in a century. This edition also marks the changing of the Journal’s guard.1 I feel both immensely honoured and humbled to have been passed the baton and given the opportunity to serve the Journal and our shared community-at-large as the new Editor-in-Chief. I most enthusiastically take on this challenging task together with an editorial board comprising some of the most amazing group of individuals imaginable. There are immense shoes to fill, and in this context, I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to my predecessor, Dr. Hilary Grocott—not only on behalf of all of us for his outstanding service and accomplishments, tireless work, and inspiring leadership during his tenure of seven years, but also personally for his extraordinary generosity and dedication in transitioning me into this important position. Receiving the baton is one thing, but being handed it from a fellow athlete whose run has just broken several records is another. The Journal’s impact factor, 3.779 (2019), is at an all-time high. Article downloads have been surging, including almost half a million just related to the Journal’s recent series of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) articles. As I write this,
S. K. W. Schwarz, MD, PhD, FRCPC (&) Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics, The University of British Columbia, 2176 Health Sciences Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada e-mail: [email protected] Department of Anesthesia, St. Paul’s Hospital/Providence Health Care, Vancouver, BC, Canada
the number of submissions in 2020 has again surpassed that of the previous year—and by a considerable margin. Particularly in these trying times, such positive news is uplifting and inspiring for all of us. While a difficult act to follow, it is said that the runner receiving the baton must not look back. My principal task after handover, of course, is to firmly keep the Journal on a steady forward course along this positive trajectory. Rather than quickly initiating revolutionary changes and ‘‘reinventing the wheel’’, my vision is one of evolutionary leadership and initiation of incremental advances and new accents, capitalizing on the unified strength of a diverse and inclusive team (more on that below). At the same time, my focus will be on a number of priority issues that I believe will benefit from dedicated attention. When I started my research career in anesthesiology a quarter century ago, clinical studies tended to be small and underpowered, focused on surrogate outcomes, and routinely lacked a longer-term perspect
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