<i>Emergency Medicine</i> in the new millennium: ‘Quo vadis’?

2000 has been challenging, exciting and rewarding to be at the helm of this Journal, now in its 12th year of publication. Although purists may still be awaiting 1 January 2001, I consider that Emergency Medicine has already made a seamless entrance into the new millennium with the development of important initiatives, including the formation of a Journal Executive. This includes an Editor-in-Chief, Editor and Assistant Editors for Australia and New Zealand, who now drive forward the day-to-day policy, planning and strategic issues to enhance the Journal. An expanded International Editorial Board with representatives from Hong Kong, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Canada and the USA reflect the growing global importance of emergency medicine, and assures a cross-cultural balance within the Journal’s structure. Close liaison with them and the Australasian members of the Editorial Board has consolidated a strength of purpose, and I thank everyone for their support over the year. This year has also seen an expansion of the cohort of Section Editors, who now coordinate the peer review process in no less than 15 different areas, from original research, clinical management consensus, review articles and technology to ethics, toxicology, paediatric emergencies, and education and training. Other areas covered include professional issues and perspectives that will allow the Journal to showcase pithy, practical experience-based articles and the more personal, private, sometimes difficult experiences that arise at work or at home, that inevitably impact on our delivery of emergency care or our perceived role in this process. The broadening of the scope and aims and deliberate international thrust of the Journal has seen a significant increase in Australasian and overseas papers, both commissioned and unsolicited. Importantly, there has been a 50% increase in the number of original research papers published, strengthening the overall scientific content of Emergency Medicine. The average time from receipt of an article to final acceptance has dropped to 7 weeks, which is encouraging for those authors still awaiting their names in print. This really is a tribute to the excellence of the refereeing/review process, which continues to be unblinded to both authors’ names and referees’ identity. There is ongoing debate about the purpose and efficacy of peer review and whether it protects the reader from inferior papers and unreliable research or acts to preserve the authors’ integrity! What is not disputed is that the best reviews combine a critical eye with a positive, creative attitude aimed at improving manuscripts and educating fellow researchers by explicitly discussing the originality, importance, design and interpretation of a study, in detail and with references from within and outside the manuscript.1 This idealistic, often apparently thankless, task is time-consuming, but does not go unheeded. Therefore, I also extend my sincere thanks to the Section Editors and referees for their hard work, energy and enthusiasm, that is integral to the ever-improving quality of the Journal (see list of referees on page 367). Emergency Medicine is now enjoying the fruits of its strong relationship with our publisher Blackwell Science Asia. This has blossomed into a creative nexus, that is focused on maximizing the Journal’s potential by pursuing inclusion in abstracting and indexing services, such as the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) Science Citation Index, among others. This will allow an essential systematic and objective means of determining the relative importance of papers in Emergency Medicine, by monitoring the impact factor rating, particularly as changes and new imperatives are introduced into the Journal. In addition, Blackwell Science, as a leader in the development of on-line publishing, makes Emergency Medicine available electronically worldwide in a user-friendly format through Blackwell Science Synergy. This gives access to abstracts, full-text articles either as HTML files or reprints as PDF files, ‘hot-link’ cross-referencing to other Blackwell Science journals, electronic linkage of references to Medline™ abstracts, key word searches and authors’ publication history searches. Blackwell Science is also among 17 major publishing organizations developing an electronic reference-linking service among thousands of journals across millions of articles, christened Crossref in December 1999. I am indebted to the professionalism, high quality and vision shown by Blackwell Science Asia staff, and thank you all. It is quite clear that rapid changes in the electronic provision of information and communication services offer exciting prosects in the knowledge that Colleges, libraries, hospitals, surgeries and private homes alike may now be linked by common communications systems. This will empower some and expose others, by making public medical data, down to and including intricate medical nuances, hitherto known only to a privileged few. Clinicians and researchers alike must be able to comfortably access this plethora of information, dictating that information technology skills are now added to their repertoire of essential clinical skills.2 Finally, I am fortunate to have the indispensable and unfailing support from the Production Manager Jennifer Freeman and Production Assistant Gabrielle Whiting, who remain the backbone of Emergency Medicine, and are a joy to work with. I believe the product of everyone’s hard work is something to look forward to. Each new issue that arrives aims to educate, inform, enlighten and perhaps entertain you in your busy schedules. Whether clinician, researcher, administrator, educator, student or expert, not only in the Asia–Pacific region, but in Europe and North America, the Journal should join us all together in our common bond as practitioners of emergency medicine.

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