Adlocutio cohortium: Introduction of a New Editor-in-Chief

This is a brief introduction to readers as I start as the new Editor-in-Chief of Anesthesia & Analgesia and A&A Practice. I confess my emotions are mixed: deep honor at being entrusted to this task by the Board of Trustees of the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS), balanced by normal apprehensions of taking on such an important leadership role, coupled with the anxiety of maintaining the high standards of excellence set by my predecessor, Dr Jean-Francois Pittet, whose warm welcome and guidance has been invaluable in the transition period, and before that Dr Steve Shafer, who worked tirelessly on behalf of the journal.1 Nevertheless being selected to lead the world’s oldest and in my view (of course!) most prestigious anesthesia journal is an enormous privilege that I will always find difficult to articulate. Any anxieties I had at the start have vanished with meeting the strong and experienced team supporting me. Dr Tom Vetter as Deputy Editor-in-Chief offers continuity and stability, Jason Pointe as Publications Director, and Daniel Mount as Executive Journal Manager bring collective decades of experience not only in handling this journal, but also in scholarly publishing more widely. In turn, the Editorial Board, which includes the A&A Practice Editors, are represented in world-class scientists and clinicians who hold, or have held, very senior leadership positions across our specialty, nationally and internationally, including being Chairs of leading departments. This is a truly astonishing team to manage and for me, underlines the role as Editor-in-Chief of merely being primus inter pares. It is their efforts that have made the Journal what it is, in essence the most enduring and largest repository of high-quality scientific and practice material within the specialty. Its hallmark of encompassing both the basic sciences and the clinical practice of anesthesia is something we must strive to retain. Many of the Executive Section Editors link us strongly to no fewer than 15 affiliate societies, in turn representing key subspecialties across anesthesia globally. Editors enjoy the curious pleasure of “living in the future” in at least two ways. One is through the unique trust placed in us by authors of viewing research well in advance of it being published, with unparalleled insights in seeing how the specialty is developing long before others do. Second—and as a result of this—editors naturally look to the future in terms of strategy and not dwell on the past. The most successful journals are those that are “agile”: able to adapt rapidly to changes as they arise, and ideally foresee them. This agility forms part of a wider strategy for any firm or business of maintaining "dynamic capability" and “competitive advantage” in the market. Successful organizations are not just those that do the same thing more cost effectively or at greater volume, but that offer things that are unique or different.2 In this regard, Anesthesia & Analgesia is arguably the only anesthesia journal with a stated global reach, and which embraces both clinical practice and the basic sciences relevant to anesthesia. While far too early to articulate what should be our strategy for the years to come, it is apposite to outline some guiding principles. First is to continue to enhance the author experience, and hence the reader experience, as authors are readers and vice versa. We will strive to seek ways to make it ever-easier for authors to submit papers, to improve constructive feedback, and to ease access to the Journal across the various electronic and media platforms as they emerge. The Journal will continue supporting authors in disseminating their work through podcasts, social and conventional media, and press releases especially targeted in the relevant countries where impact will be greatest. The postpandemic era facilitates increased Journal presence and visibility at key conferences and meetings. Here, potential authors—and readers—should feel free to approach any Editor they spot for advice or updates or ideas for the Journal. I would especially welcome such approaches and opportunities for discussion. Moreover, you will hopefully see more in-person lectures by our Editors and workshops and educational sessions to guide prospective authors and trainees develop their work for publication. This outreach work will reflect and strengthen the truly international nature of our Journal and our parent IARS. There will be parallel work behind the scenes in Journal management, invisible to readers, to help deliver on all these goals. In this last regard of globalization, it is timely that this salutatory editorial accompanies the issue on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). This concept has many facets, but global inclusivity is certainly one of them. It will not escape notice that I am not only the first Editor-in-Chief from and based outside of North America in the 100 years of the Journal’s history, but also the first person of color to hold the position. In a similar vein, I was elected Fellow of St John’s College, Oxford 23 years ago—for an explanation of what it means to be a Fellow of an Oxford college, see Palfreyman and Tapper.3 The College was founded in 1555, subsuming St Bernard’s College founded 1437, which means I am its first non-White Fellow in over 500 years. On a professional level all this is irrelevant, as it has no bearing on the work to hand, or proper selection on basis of merit. Yet, if for others in different circumstances or facing personal challenges, this information is in any way an inspiration, then this is a good thing. I will leave it to the other articles in this issue of the Journal to expand on and explain how role modeling plays its part in redressing inequities.4 The Journal faces many challenges other than achieving DEI aspirations. The Journal’s fate is inextricably linked to that of academic anesthesia which, worldwide, faces something of an ongoing crisis. I analyzed this in some detail for the United Kingdom in an official national report,5 and the broader issues are recognized on both sides of the Atlantic.6 This in turn impacts disproportionately on women and ethnic minorities, adding further barriers to academic career progression.7,8 An important part of the Journal’s mission is therefore to contribute to the specialty-wide effort to reverse any decline by supporting academic training through workshops, helping fund grants, and disseminating findings of high-quality research. Among new pressures on academic anesthesia is the political drive to open-access publishing along with the rise of preprint repositories. Any competition from the latter can be mitigated by maintaining our focus on quality, which by their very definition these nonpeer reviewed repositories lack. Any threat from the former requires us to work with publishers and other journals, who share the same concerns, and develop effective counter-strategies. Challenges from within the specialty include, unfortunately, misconduct and research fraud of which we need to be constantly vigilant. One of the most impressive papers I have ever handled as a past editor for another journal was Carlisle’s analysis of Fujii’s body of work.9 Explaining the principles,10 I had the privilege of coauthoring both Carlisle and Shafer in a more detailed cross-journal technique to detect suspicious data distributions.11 Although the method is not perfect, it is one of the tools in our armamentarium to detect and fight this challenge. An American saying in baseball (attributed to the commentator Yogi Berra) is that “it’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future,” so I will desist from suggesting which academic themes present the most important or exciting areas for growth in anesthesia research. Just like the media do not dictate the political agenda, journals do not dictate the specialty’s research programs—authors do, and we are merely the reporters. However, certain themes do lend themselves to strong interdisciplinary collaborations and these include: perioperative medicine (identifying anesthesia interventions or practices that improve outcomes), genomics (personalizing anesthesia care), and big data (identifying important associations to guide further research, to make predictions, and to track performance and delivery of anesthesia services). Of course, basic science research in cardiorespiratory physiology, immunity, and neurosciences will and should always be rich in important advances, especially if the last delivers on the promise of elucidating “how anesthetics work”! The Journal is ultimately truly “owned” by its authors and readers, and editors are simply there to serve. I hence very much look forward to my time as the Editor-in-Chief of your Journal and to publishing and promoting your excellent work. Even where a manuscript is rejected, I hope the feedback is received as something courteous, scholarly, and constructive, which helps better shape the work for future success. A predecessor shared his positive emotions in holding this role in his valedictory address,12 and if my tenure yields even a fraction of that delight and satisfaction in a job well done evident in his writing, it will have been time well spent. DISCLOSURES Name: Jaideep J. Pandit, DM, DPhil. Contribution: This author conceived, wrote, and approved all versions of the manuscript. This manuscript was handled by: Thomas R. Vetter, MD, MPH, MFA.