The Editor is dead, long live the Editor

Citation

Wright, J. (2009), "The Editor is dead, long live the Editor", Clinical Governance: An International Journal, Vol. 14 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/cgij.2009.24814baa.001

The Editor is dead, long live the Editor

Article Type: Editorial From: Clinical Governance: An International Journal, Volume 14, Issue 2

This will be the last issue of Clinical Governance: An International Journal that I have the pleasure of editing. After almost ten years sharing the editor’s seat with my colleague and friend Professor Jeff Lucas, I have decided that it is time for fresh eyes and a new mind to help to guide the journal ever onwards.

My time as an editor has been a greatly enjoyable experience. It has provided the chance to develop a new journal tailored to the new ideas of clinical governance. The journal was originally called the Journal of Clinical Effectiveness, but jumped quickly into the world of clinical governance when it was introduced in 1998, first as the British Journal of Clinical Governance, and then as our readership became more international, Clinical Governance: An International Journal. Along the way we have strengthened the journal with a broader approach to quality improvement including clinical guidelines, health technology assessment, risk management patient involvement in quality and patient safety,

As the name has changed, so has the standard of contributions. Clinicians from all specialties and countries have submitted thoughtful, insightful and practical articles sharing their lessons of quality improvement and signposting the direction for future innovation. When we started off we struggled to maintain a stream of sufficiently good papers to publish. But the volume and the quality of submissions has continued to increase, and so inevitably has our rate of rejections.

My successor will face the well-recognised challenges that face health journals. Contributors want their papers in press so that they can disseminate their ideas and increase their legitimacy. Readers face a never-ending deluge of information and struggle to get the right information at the right time. Readership of all traditional print journals is falling, and electronic access is without question the future mountain of knowledge. Increasing demands for free access to this knowledge will also continue with the justifiable basis that everyone is entitled to learn from it.

My role in adding to the mountain of knowledge has been a small and passive one, carrying the pebbles submitted by others and laying them on the ever rising ground. However I am humbled by the commitment and passion that our contributors have demonstrated in their efforts to improve the quality and safety of health care. Quality and safety improvement may not be as glamorous as finding a cure for cancer, but its impact for individuals may be just as important.

John Wright