For 8 years, I have had the privilege to work as editor-in-chief for this journal. It has been an exciting time, with big changes in scientific publishing, which will continue for many years to come.
During this time, we have purified it to be a urology only journal, as the formerly close contact with nephrology has decreased. One of my first ideas was to create a closer cooperation with the Nordic Urology Association by recruiting associate editors from the other Nordic countries. This has been a rewarding experience with our annual editorial meetings. We could also celebrate our half-centennial anniversary with a special symposium at the NUF congress in Odense 2018. A supplement with reprints of articles from the first issues with commentaries was published at that time. It really illustrated the large changes since then in our view on urological disease, but also the high quality of the work from the authors at that time
Social media has also become more important in the publishing of scientific results. The trustees allowed me to add a webeditor to our board. Now we can report results rapidly on both Facebook and Twitter.
As in all international business, we have seen the effects of globalization in the publishing area, and the administrative functions have thus moved from the Nordic countries, first to the UK and later to India. This transition has not been without problems, but hopefully all is now settled.
Recently the pandemic has had an impact on us, as on the rest of the world. This spring the associate editors was temporarily relieved from editorial work to focus on their clinical duties but have now joined the board again. Strangely, there has been no drop in submissions during this time, partly because many manuscripts have been submitted dealing with the effect of the virus on urological diseases and working conditions.
I take this opportunity to thank the Associate Editors, our wider editorial team of authors and reviewers, our publisher and the ACTA foundation. Finally, also I thank the Nordic and Swedish Urology Associations for extremely important support.
I am proud to hand over SJU to my friend, Pär Stattin, and wish him good luck with the challenges ahead.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).