04 October 2021 (Last updated: 14 Oct 2021 10:28)
I am to demit as Chair of the Committee of Management of JHS-E at the end of the year and will hand over the reins to Grey Giddins, who is sure to do a great job. JHS-E continues to perform strongly; the Impact Factor for 2020 has been released for the Journal and saw an increase to 2.688, its highest ever, and keeps it as the most highly ranked hand surgery journal in the World. It is now ranked at 93 in the category of Surgery. For comparison, the American Journal of Hand Surgery is ranked at 117 with an Impact Factor of 2.23.
It can be seen from the chart below that there was a recent dip in the IF, but this was as the result of a “dilution factor”, as we increased the number of issues published each year. All this is a testament to the hard work and quality of our editorial team. Jin Bo Tang, our Editor-in-Chief, is due to demit at the end of the year and the post has been advertised, with several high quality applicants.
Submissions have increased from 625 in 2016 to 987 in 2020 and so the editorial team and reviewers, are kept busy. This is also a reflection of how the JHS(E) has become the most desirable platform in which to publish work on hand surgery.
We are now half way through our contract with the publishers, Sage. As BSSH own the Journal, this has been lucrative. This year, BSSH received royalty payments of £333,375, as well as a stipend payment of £134,848 which goes to pay the Editorial running costs of the Journal. This money is crucial to enable BSSH to further its charitable and education aims.
As FESSH have adopted the Journal as their official Journal, BSSH make a goodwill payment of £40K, which is made annually in May. No other Hand Society makes such a payment to FESSH.
On a less joyful note, we dealt with a case of significant academic misconduct relating to numerous publications in JHS-E and other journals by a group from South Korea. This concerned fabrication of data, with unfeasibly high activity and numerous Randomised Controlled Trials conducted on multiple disorders concurrently with papers submitted to a variety of journals every two weeks. It was the most serious example of deceit ever seen by JHS-E. We wrote to numerous institutions, organisations and journals to highlight this and consequently, over 60 papers have been withdrawn from various journals. All authors on all papers are now prohibited from publishing in JHS-E in perpetuity. The matter became known worldwide in September 2020 when we published a statement retracting the papers in the JHS-E, with an editorial outlining the implications. The authors have been reported to their academic institutions and face disciplinary sanctions. One very prominent member of the Hand Surgery community resigned from an IFSSH position. This action, however, has resulted in significant protection of patients, the care of whom may otherwise have been compromised by this fraudulent research.
The Social Media arm of the Journal continues to flourish and it was agreed that secretarial support will be provided for the social media editors. The BSSH Journal Club webinar, suggested by Zaf Naqui, has been running and has been extremely successful. We now have a website, a social media platform (the first in hand surgery), an online journal club and online videos and lectures are in progress.
Finally, our cover artist Julia Ruston continues to produce beautiful works which adorn the front of the Journal. These help to reinforce the Journal’s strong identity and make it stand out.
None of this could happen, of course, without the fantastic Wendy Patterson, who runs the Journal office. I have relied very heavily on Wendy’s wisdom and knowledge during my tenure.
I have thoroughly enjoyed my time as Chair of the COM. Over to Grey…..
David Shewring,
Chair; Committee of Management
Journal of Hand Surgery (European Volume)
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