Dear authors and readers,
The Journal of Plastic Surgery and Hand Surgery, which originally was named the Scandinavian Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, was founded in 1967 and the 50th volume has now been published. This means that, during 2017, we celebrate 50 years as a journal, which we are very proud of.
The establishment of the journal was enabled by the Society Acta Chirurgica Scandinavica, founded by Professor Axel Key in 1869, and sponsored by the Key Foundation, Sweden. The journal has its origin in the Scandinavian countries, but it is now global. Since many years the journal has been an official journal for the Japanese Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. Both the Japanese and the Scandinavian National Associations appoint members to the Editorial board, and this is a continuous process.
The scope of the journal is towards original papers and review articles of high scientific quality in plastic surgery, hand surgery, and related research. Since 2014, case reports have only rarely been considered for publication. The last volume, number 50, has therefore mainly contained original articles and reviews.
The overall goal of the journal is to improve the quality of accepted articles and to be one of the main international journals in plastic surgery and hand surgery. Regarding the impact factor, the decision to omit case reports will give more space to original articles, which in time will improve the impact factor. From the moment the journal changed name in 2010 the impact factor was zeroed, and has now improved to 0.791, which is gratifying, although our goal is higher numbers.
The in-flow of manuscripts was above 300 the last year, enabling a selection resulting in an acceptance ratio of 23%.
This first number of 2017 is dedicated to the Scandcleft multi-centre randomised study regarding surgical treatment of unilateral cleft lip and palate. The studies published here are the first results reported from this study, and we are very grateful to get the opportunity to publish this historical trial started in 1997 by enthusiastic and brave colleagues in Scandinavia and Great Britain, aiming to improve the knowledge regarding surgical treatment and timing of the cleft palate.
I do look forward to many contributions during 2017 enabling us to fulfill our goals.