What is the purpose of launching World Journal of Anesthesiology?

Abstract

The launch of World Journal of Anesthesiology (WJA) is great news for the community of anesthesiology. Anesthesiology is a rapidly evolving medical specialty. The practice of anesthesia is broad and has an important impact on our society. Thus, it is necessary to have a multi-modal system to rapidly disseminate anesthesiology-related knowledge. WJA’s preparatory work was initiated on December 3, 2010, will be published on December 27, 2011. The WJA Editorial Board has now been established and consists of 121 distinguished experts from 28 countries. It will publish various formats of papers including original studies, review, commentary, guidelines, case report, book review and letters to the editor. The publication of the accepted papers will be quick and it is free of charge for readers to download and read any articles in the journal. Thus, WJA should be an excellent choice for anyone to consider publishing anesthesiology-related papers. Congratulations to the birth of WJA, a new member of World series journal family.

Key Words: Anesthesiology; Journal; Open access; Peer-reviewed; Perioperative medicine

INTRODUCTION

I am Zhi-Yi Zuo, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Anesthesiology, University of Virginia (Figure 1) and the Editor-in-Chief of World Journal of Anesthesiology (World J Anesthesiol, WJA, online ISSN 2218-6182, DOI: 10.5313). I am very pleased to announce that the first issue of WJA, whose preparatory work was initiated on December 3, 2010, will be published on December 27, 2011. WJA is a bimonthly peer-reviewed, online, open-access, journal supported by an editorial board consisting of 121 experts in anesthesiology from 28 countries. With the advance of modern technology, electronic and open-access journals are a preferred place for scientists to publish their work. This format is often the choice for publishers that want to establish a new journal. The benefits for authors who publish in these journals are multiple. The obvious ones include that the author’s work will be published immediately after it has been accepted and that the paper will be accessible by anyone in the world so long as the person has an internet access. This is exciting news because the journal should serve as an excellent channel to rapidly publish and disseminate the work in the field of anesthesiology.

Figure 1 Editor-in-Chief of the World Journal of Anesthesiology. Zhi-Yi Zuo, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Anesthesiology, PO Box 800710, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22908, United States.

As the Editor-in-Chief for WJA, it is a great honor for me to introduce the Journal to everyone. I also would like to invite everyone to contribute to the journal. This includes writing, reading and commenting on articles in the journal as well as providing us with feedbacks on how we do with the journal.

Anesthesiology is a rapidly evolving specialty. It involves advance in technology (such as development of various monitoring techniques and equipment), pharmacology and knowledge developed in many other specialties (such as internal medicine). This is because anesthesiologists not only need to provide proper anesthesia service to the patients but also have to protect patients from injury or harm during surgery or procedure. Preventing any unnecessary injury or “do no harm” is the most important duty for anesthesiologists to perform. This duty will require anesthesiologists to have a broad range of medical knowledge, such as pathophysiology of various diseases, because patients with various diseases will need surgery and anesthesia. Since safety or keeping our patient safe has been a focus for anesthesia practice for many decades, anesthesiology has been cited by Institute of Medicine of the United States as an exampling specialty in medicine in achieving safe practice[1].

Anesthesiology practice is broad and has a great impact on our society. Each year, ~50 million patients will have surgery under anesthesia in the United States[2]. In addition, there is an increased number of patients will receive anesthesia for invasive procedures, such as endoscopic procedures for gastrointestinal system. In addition to providing anesthesia service to these patients, anesthesiology practice also includes pain management and intensive care[3]. Knowledge and practice on the last two fields have inevitably helped the development and growth of modern anesthesiology.

The nature of rapid evolvement and breadth of anesthesiology requires multiple modals to disseminate its knowledge. One such a way is through scientific journals. Currently, there are ~20 journals that are anesthesiology-related. However, most of them are printing journals. It often takes 6 mo or longer for those journals to publish an accepted paper. WJA is a bi-monthly peer-reviewed, open-access journal and will take a full advantage of this type of journals.

CONTENTS OF PEER REVIEW

In order to guarantee the quality of articles published in the journal, WJA usually invites three experts to comment on the submitted papers. The contents of peer review include: (1) whether the contents of the manuscript are of great importance and novelty; (2) whether the experiment is complete and described clearly; (3) whether the discussion and conclusion are justified; (4) whether the citations of references are necessary and reasonable; and (5) whether the presentation and use of tables and figures are correct and complete.

SCOPE

The aim of WJA is to report rapidly new theories, methods, techniques and knowledge in the field of anesthesiology. WJA covers general anesthesia, local anesthesia, obstetric anesthesia, pediatric anesthesia, neurosurgical anesthesia, cardiovascular anesthesia, organ transplantation anesthesia, anesthesia complications, anesthesia monitoring, new techniques, quality control, airway management, volume therapy, pain diagnosis and treatment, and intensive care, as well as anesthesia-related traditional Chinese medicine, epidemiology and nursing. The journal also publishes original articles and reviews that report the results of applied and basic research in fields related to anesthesiology, such as immunology, pathophysiology, cell biology, pharmacology, medical genetics, and pharmacology of Chinese herbs. In a word, WJA publishes articles related to any aspects of anesthesiology.

COLUMNS

The types of articles published in WJA will include: (1) Editorial: To introduce and comment on the substantial advance, development and focus topics in the field; (2) Frontier: To review the most representative achievements and comment on the current research status in important fields, and propose directions for the future research; (3) Topic Highlight: there are three formats that are (A) 10 invited review articles on a hot topic, (B) a commentary on common issues of this hot topic, and (C) a commentary on the 10 individual articles; (4) Observation: To update information on old and new questions, highlight unsolved problems, and provide strategies on how to solve the questions; (5) Guidelines for Clinical Practice: To publish guidelines for clinical practice; (6) Review: To systemically review the most representative progress and unsolved problems in the major scientific disciplines, comment on the current research status, and make suggestions on the future work; (7) Original Articles: To report the innovative and valuable findings of original studies in anesthesiology; (8) Brief Articles: To briefly report the novel and innovative findings of original studies in anesthesiology; (9) Case Report: To report a rare or typical case and educational points associated with the case; (10) Letters to the Editor: To discuss and make reply to the contributions published in WJA, or to introduce and comment on a controversial issue with general interest; (11) Book Reviews: To introduce and comment on quality monographs of anesthesiology; and (12) Guidelines: To introduce consensuses and guidelines reached by international and national academic authorities or associations worldwide on the research in anesthesiology.

Finally, I would like to congratulate the birth of WJA and welcome everyone on the editorial board on board. With the care of everyone including our authors, readers and editorial board members, WJA will have a bright future. Let us all hope that WJA will become a leading anesthesiology journal soon.