International Musculoskeletal Medicine (IMM) has now been published for 37 years, and in that time has established itself as a ‘must-read’ resource for both musculoskeletal medicine clinicians and researchers in this field. There are many individuals – our international authors, Editorial Board members, manuscript reviewers and so on – without whose contributions the journal would not have reached its fourth decade, nor would it have enjoyed ongoing recognition by three prestigious professional bodies in musculoskeletal medicine; the British Institute of Musculoskeletal Medicine, the International Academy of Manual/Musculoskeletal Medicine, and the Society of Musculoskeletal Medicine.
Critically, at the helm of every successful medical journal, there is typically a dedicated and hardworking Editor-in-Chief and IMM is no exception. For the last twelve years IMM has indeed been fortunate to have had Dr Richard Ellis at its helm. Dr Ellis has now decided to step down as Editor-in Chief to pursue other interests, but it would be an unforgivable oversight to not acknowledge his sustained and diligent contribution as Editor-in-Chief, and in particular his leadership of the journal's Editorial Board and patient mentoring of beginning authors.
The other large change occurring over the past year has been the successful transition of the journal to a new publishing group – Taylor & Francis – one of the leading scholarly journal publishers world-wide.
As we head toward 2017, we continue to strive to improve IMM to provide a platform for research in the field of musculoskeletal medicine as well as a useful resource for clinicians. We do this with the valued support of the co-editorial team including Dr Nefyn Williams, Prof Jacob Patijn and Dr Angela Clough.
The ongoing success of the journal can only be assured by presenting clinically relevant and cutting-edge papers and by endeavouring to meet the needs and expectations of our readership and the member organisations for whom the journal is a source of information. To that end, we strongly encourage both individuals and affiliated organisations to engage with IMM, provide your thoughts and feedback, and contribute to the content and direction of the journal either through the submission of original material or registering for involvement in peer review of manuscripts submitted to the journal. Peer review remains central to the credibility of scientific literature and the maintenance of quality of the articles published in IMM. It also exposes reviewers to the opportunity to remain at the forefront of emerging knowledge and ensuring that the manuscripts published in IMM are both valuable and clinically relevant.
We look forward to bringing an evolving IMM to the readership in the coming year. In an environment of increasing competition for scientific papers, IMM is privileged to serve its long-standing subscribers and affiliate organisations and maintain its role as a journal that reflects and advances clinical practice in the rich and fascinating field of musculoskeletal medicine.