The concept of a Journal devoted to Cochlear Implants emerged during the Annual Meeting of the British Cochlear Implant Group (BCIG) in York in 1999.
After the 1999 York meeting, I was approached by Jonathan Osborne, a friend and colleague in North Wales, who suggested that I might be prepared to edit such a journal. I asked a Medical Publisher and friend called Colin Whurr whether he might be prepared to publish such a journal and he agreed.
In January 2000 the first issue appeared, with supportive Editorials by Professor Graeme Clark and Jack Ashley (Lord Ashley of Stoke). We published two issues a year during the first three years, then four issues a year until 2012 and currently, since 2015, the present six issues a year. Our current Publisher is Taylor & Francis.
The important aspect of our Journal is that, as shown on the Front Cover, it is aimed at readers from all the disciplines that are found in a Cochlear Implant Team, including Audiologists, Speech Therapists and Pathologists, Teachers, Psychologists, Radiologists, Acousticians, Audiological Physicians, Surgeons, Pathologists, Hearing Therapists and Engineers. Of course, each of these groups of Professionals has one or more specialist journals that cover their own field. However, the aim of our journal was to bring together all these disciplines in a single publication.
Cochlear Implant International is now Indexed by nearly all the relevant Medical Indexing Organisations, including PubMed, Scopus, and MEDLINE. We are not cited by Thomson / ISI because they cite only journals covering either 1 or 2 disciplines, while our Journal covers all the 12 or more professional disciplines involved in the field of cochlear implantation.
This year, after 20 years as Editor-in-Chief, I have decided that it was time for me to hand over the Editorship, and Iain Bruce has very kindly agreed to take over.
I wish the journal, Iain Bruce, and our Assistant Editors: Steve Broomfield and Helen Cullington in the UK, David Schramm in Canada and Susan Waltzman in New York, as well as the 72 very supportive members of our Editorial Board, every success in the future.