From the first issue in 1958, the semi-annual WFOT Bulletin chronicled the changes taking place around our global profession and the advances in occupational therapy in response to social and technological changes. As the WFOT Bulletin transitions to different forms of communication, we look forward to sharing international insights in different ways to meet our evolving times.
Over its many volumes, the development and production of the WFOT Bulletin required a great deal of volunteer effort. Though I cannot cover all the many contributors, I wish to thank some of those who gave willingly of their own time to lead the Bulletin through the process of amassing, reviewing and publishing the manuscripts which have represented our global involvements throughout the decades.
Acknowledgement must go to all past editors of the WFOT Bulletin including Barbara Posthuma (1984–1986), Ruth Greenberg Harris (1987–1988), Clephane Hume (1988–1992), Evelien Bongers (1995–1996), Adele P. Diday (1996–2000), Louisa Shing-Ru Shih (2000–2002), Chin Yu Wu (2004–2007). I took on this role from 2008 and at the particularly early stages of internet, I depended on the support of WFOT delegates to solicit articles and case studies to meet the themes of the Bulletin. Each issue featured one of the four official languages of WFOT, English, Spanish, German and French. News from National Associations was included as a regular feature by a news editor before it was moved to the WFOT website. With more access through the internet and improved publishing processes, there was also an increase in the number of new authors and individual manuscripts submitted. This brings me to the heart of any journal’s success, our reviewers.
Appreciation goes to our loyal reviewers who took on the task of double-blind reviews, requiring sometimes multiple revisions and subsequent reviews. The Editorial Board and our more recent editorial team, Pat Chung and Margarita Gonzales have been exceptional.
I wish to particularly acknowledge and thank Carmen Forn de Zita (Venezuela) who for more than 15 years promoted the WFOT Bulletin in Latin America and coaxed her colleagues into producing manuscripts in Spanish for the Bulletin. She ably filled every Spanish language issue with a wide range of articles on progressive occupational therapy practice and education in Latin America.
The American Occupational Therapy Association kindly published the WFOT Bulletin for 10 years from 1984 to 1994. Production was then taken on from 1995 to 2007 by Hong Kong Roman Financial Press and moved on to Lavenham Press, then Maney, and finally Taylor and Francis, as the publishing process also became more sophisticated in the management of online manuscript reviews and with the inhouse production process. Now of course, the Bulletin manuscripts have been submitted, reviewed and published totally online. Sincere thanks go to all the people involved through the years, both personally and professionally, for their support of this essential processes which allowed the WFOT Bulletin to be produced to be sent to individual members of the WFOT.
As we produce our final issue of the WFOT Bulletin with Taylor and Francis, we consider the past and future. A lot has evolved over those many volumes and issues.
Many national associations have their own journals which are accessible for authors of other countries. A list occupational therapy journals is available through the WFOT ([email protected]). I urge authors to explore these options.
The WFOT legacy is our strength and WFOT is excited to be building on that strength, through our loyal authors, reviewers and readers as the WFOT Bulletin transitions to the next level. Noted in my April, 2023 editorial, the world’s focus of global communication is evolving and thus the WFOT Bulletin with its original aims for global information sharing is making way for the many channels available to us now. These include the WFOT website (www.wfot.org), Twitter, Instagram, Facebook (World Federation of Occupational Therapists), OTION forums (occupational therapy international online networks) and online learning modules through learning.wfot.org.
My heartfelt thanks to World Federation of Occupational Therapists Executive, and particularly our WFOT Executive Director, Ritchard Ledgerd, FWFOT, for the opportunity and support they have given me to lead the WFOT Bulletin editorial team for many years, and through its pages, to see our profession grow in maturity, strength and diversity.