Description

We are still a little behind our self-imposed schedule, but anticipate remedying this comprehensively over the next few months. We anticipate a flood of submissions as the Journal reaches its new readers gained by the generous sponsorship from Procter and Gamble Pharmaceuticals Ltd UK.

The present issue covers a typically varied mixture of topics, ranging from gastrointestinal manometry, through morbid obesity, and Clostridial diarrhoea, to the potential future use of calprotectin in diagnosis. I was especially pleased to receive Dr Levine’s article on the appraisal and assessment of consultants in gastroenterology. There has been much written in a generic sense, but this is first contribution that I have come across that addresses itself specifically to our practice. It is relevant not only to appraisers but also to those being appraised, and I am sure it will be of value to trainees as well.

It is this issue of the year that provides our regular update on the activities of the Journal, with some audited data on the rates of acceptance and the reasons for the rejection of unsuccessful submissions. The first edition (over 5 years ago) included 6 commissioned articles and 2 case reports. This ratio altered as the Journal became established and a balance of 4 to 5 major commissioned pieces to 2 to 4 case reports is generally maintained. The word-count is always biased towards the commissioned reviews of course. We still reject a proportion of spontaneous submissions, but this proportion has fallen from the 50% that I listed last year, as we no longer receive so many inappropriate submissions. The rejection rate for 2001-2002 was 35%; this reflected insufficient originality or the lack of a discernible teaching point.

We remain ready to accept interesting case reports, but would caution prospective authors that we are much more interested in the case that bears a generalisable educational message than a description of some extraordinarily rare new variant or of a clinically irrelevant issue. The door remains open also for accounts of completed audit projects.