Veterinary Dermatology Journal celebrates 20 years

Many of the readers of this journal are members of the European Society of Veterinary Dermatology (ESVD) and there are over 500 members across the world. In 2009 the Society is celebrating the 25th year since Didier Carlotti, Pierre Fourrier, Hans Koch, David Lloyd, Claudia von Tscharner and Ton Willemse, as founder members established the society. The annual congress of the European College of Veterinary Dermatology (ECVD) and the Society will be held in Bled, Slovenia, in September, 2009. This event will celebrate the 25 years of the Society and the ground work laid by the founder members for the success of the society. The constitution of the ESVD states that the objectives include: to further scientific progress in veterinary and comparative dermatology and to encourage and promote improved methods of diagnosis, treatment and prevention of skin diseases in animals. Commensurate with those aims are those of the Journal. Established as part of the Society and initially published through Pergamon Press, part of Elsevier, the founder editors were Pierre Fourrier and David Lloyd. Carol Foil joined the journal as a co-editor in 1991 and represented the North American interests in terms of the American College of Veterinary Dermatology (ACVD). Sharing the copyright, the ESVD and ACVD made the journal their official publication. Since then the dermatology chapter of the Australian College of Veterinary Scientists and the Canadian Academy of Veterinary Dermatology also made the journal their official publication. Most recently, and significantly, reflecting the growth of interest in veterinary dermatology in the Far East was the establishment of the Asian Society of Veterinary Dermatology which has also adopted the journal as its official publication. In 1994 Carol Foil was joined by Ian Mason as a co-editor and David Lloyd became editor in chief. In 1996 Karen Moriello took over the North American reins from Carol Foil who retired as co-editor. Another big change that year was the move from Pergamon Press (part of Elsevier Science Ltd) to Blackwell Science Ltd who have published the journal to the present. In 2006 Blackwell's established an editorial office in Oxford for the journal reflecting the growth of the work and the need for editor support. More recently Blackwell have combined with Wiley and this is reflected in the website platform readers can use to access electronic copies of articles in the journal. Readers are reminded that all of the issues from volume 1 issue 1 are now available on-line to the various affiliated society members and to personal subscribers. In 1999 the editorial board bade farewell to Ian Mason, while Karen Moriello was joined by Ross Bond as co-editor. The “bridge” established between the Americas and Europe with Carol Foil and Ian Mason was thus sustained and the journal continued to grow in terms of circulation and numbers of articles published, with bi-monthly production starting in 2001. Underpinning the work of the co-editors was the editorial board, which, as now, takes a large part of the work in reviewing papers and providing editors with expert opinion. Back in 2000 an editorial expressed concerns about the quality of reproduction of illustrations and highlighted the work of Thelma Lee Gross and Donald McGavin, two eminent pathologists, in preparing guidelines for the preparation of illustrations. Despite the rapid advance of digital photography illustration quality remains a perennial challenge for editors, not least when considering images of cases collected in the clinical realm. The author guidelines are now considerably more detailed and expansive than the original simple guidelines established by Pierre Fourrier and David Lloyd. Prospective authors are encouraged to carefully follow the guidelines when preparing a submission and to ask the editors and editorial office for help when guidance may be needed. In 2001 David Lloyd stepped down as editor in chief and Ian Mason was appointed as his replacement. Professor Lloyd's attachment to the journal that he established has not been broken because he still guides the editorial board on commercial aspects of the work of the journal. Over the years special issues have been the focus for a series of articles also termed narrative overviews or updates that selectively review the literature and discuss a topic. Since 2003 we have seen the advent of the systematic evidence-based clinical reviews that aim to review comprehensively the literature to formulate the best approach to treatment and diagnosis of animals under the care of a veterinarian. The first such review was a systematic review of the therapeutic interventions for canine atopic dermatitis. The authors were from the International Taskforce that comprises clinical veterinary dermatologists from across the world who have published a number of reviews in the Journal. Evidence-based reviews have included reviews of hydrolysed diets and the treatment of Malassezia; they have been commissioned and edited by Thierry Olivry who has also been one of the most prolific authors for the journal. More recently an evidence-based review has been written, which forms an update on the 2003 paper, looking at interventions for canine atopic dermatitis and this study has been prepared on the same basis as those published in the Cochrane skin group which provides evidence-based reviews for many dermatological conditions in humans. In 2004 Joan Rest took over the chief editorship and inherited a journal with a rising impact/citation factor. Working initially with the co-editor Peter Hill who was appointed in 2002 the growth of the journal was such that in 2006 Sheila Torres was appointed as an additional co-editor. Under Dr Rest's guidance the journal introduced electronic submission at the end of 2004. In 2006 Dr Rest also recruited new co-editors with David McEwan Jenkinson and Rosanna Marsella joining the board, as Peter Hill retired. In 2006 I took over as editor in chief from Joan Rest and Tim Nuttall and Karen Moriello have joined the board as co-editors to replace Rosanna Marsella and Sheila Torres. In recent years the journal has published the abstracts presented at the annual congress of the European College/Society of Veterinary Dermatology and at the North American Veterinary Dermatology Forum. In 2008 we also published a supplement with abstracts from the sixth world congress of veterinary dermatology held in Hong Kong having also published supplements for the fifth and fourth congresses in Vienna (2004) and San Francisco (2000) respectively. The editorial board is drawn from across the world and includes clinicians and pathologists, academics and people in specialty practice. We also have translators, statisticians, many expert reviewers, and production staff with Wiley-Blackwell who are involved in the publishing process. Compared to other professions veterinary medicine is small and although the ESVD is one of the largest veterinary societies of its kind in Europe veterinary dermatologists are still a relatively small community. Given the demands on our authors, reviewers and editorial board colleagues I am very grateful for all the support and many hours that they devote to the work of the journal. We aim to provide a forum for a variety of high quality articles from a variety of species and from authors across the world. Let us hope that Veterinary Dermatology continues to prosper and retain its position as the leading journal for the publication of articles on all aspects of the discipline for the next 20 years.

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