Year: 2012
Type: article
Abstract: Nearly 30 years ago, in 1984, I was approached by Mr Mark Robertson from the then Blackwell Publishing company and asked whether I saw a place for a new journal in gastroenterology and hepatology in the Asia-Pacific region.This was 3 years after HEPATOLOGY had been launched and its success seemed assured, and two other new specialist liver journals from Europe (JOURNAL OF HEPATOLOGY) and the International Association for Study of the Liver (LIVER-now LIVER INTERNA-TIONAL) had started recently.Although the Japanese Society of Gastroenterology had their own very successful journal, JOURNAL OF GASTROENTEROLOGY, it was evident that many major advances in the Asia-Pacific region were published in specialty journals from North America or Europe.Further, those journals, though international in scope, provided less focus on specific health challenges faced by our own region.Hence, like many others, I gave the inauguration of JOURNAL OF GASTRO-ENTEROLOGY AND HEPATOLOGY (JGH) my full support.The first issue of JGH appeared in 1986, and the first publication with my name as a co-author appeared the same year.Since then, PubMed lists 77 articles against the search terms of my name and J Gastroenterol Hepatol; excluding 2 where I was part of an investigator team rather than an author, it appears I have co-authored 75 articles in JGH, a number that surprises even me!More importantly, I have been on the Editorial Board of JGH continuously since its inception, an Editor for 6 years (1991-1998), a co-founder of the JGH Foundation (Trustee 1998-present) which now has a 50% ownership (joint royalty) of JGH with the present publishers (Wiley-Blackwell), and most recently Editor-in-Chief since October 2006.During this long association, I have watched JGH grow from strength to strength, and I have strived to nurture its development wherever possible.The purpose of this article is to reflect on how and why this favourable development has occurred, and how further growth can be ensured.
DOI: 10.1111/jgh.12001
Author: Geoffrey C Farrell
Institutions: Australian National University, Canberra Hospital
Language: English
Subfield: History and Philosophy of Science
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W1575400142