Each year we present authors with various awards for their work published here in the Journal of Visual Communication in Medicine. In 2015 a new prize, the Keith Duguid New Author Award was established following the sad news of his death.
Keith was a past editor of this journal, and the award, to honour his memory, aims to incentivise new authors so that they may feel inspired to prepare and submit research to this journal for the first time. It was Keith’s encouraging and supportive nature that was the deciding factor in naming the award as such and it has to date been awarded on two occasions. The award is kindly supported by the Institute of Medical Illustrators and is monetary.
The current editor of this journal has always sought to engage first time authors and support them through article conception, drafting and submission. A mentoring scheme exists to provide formal guidance and a paper pledge form can be obtained and used as a tool to plan and set deadlines for submission. Of the papers published within the Scientific and Technical Section of this journal throughout issues 40:1 and 40:2, fifty-seven percent were from new authors, and its hopeful this will continue.
This issue again sees a combination of experienced and first-time contributors from all areas of visual communication which makes for what we hope is a mentally stimulating read. If you read this as a keen but inexperienced author, a manager who would like to encourage your team or a potential mentor then get in touch to find out more at [email protected].
Behind the scenes at the Journal of Visual Communication in Medicine, we prepare for a changeover in Editorship and would like to take this opportunity in this penultimate editorial of the outgoing editor to thank board members Andrea Thompson and Garry Swann for their incredible support and valuable contribution over many years. Garry and Andrea will both retire from their board roles this year. It is only due to the efforts of such professionals that this journal can continue to grow.
Carly Dakin
Editor