Scoliosis and Spinal Disorders journal: a new, cutting-edge frontier in spine publishing

With the start of 2016, we at the journal would like to wish all our readers, reviewers and Editorial Board members a most happy and prosperous new year. Ushering in this year, the journal has made some considerable changes. For one, the journal has been renamed Scoliosis and Spinal Disorders. We feel that with the ever-changing landscape of spinal conditions as well as health-care utilization and the need for a forum to voice cutting-edge and multidisciplinary spine research worldwide, [1, 2] we are broadening the scope of the journal to include all types of spinal deformities and disorders that entail conservative and surgical management that represent clinical or basic science research. The journal will continue to provide an integrated and balanced view of preventative, diagnostic, therapeutic, outcomes and cost-analyses research to enhance effective collaboration among spine specialists and scientists. To reflect the broad, multidisciplinary scope of the journal as well as its worldwide geographical presence, we will gradually revamp the Editorial Board. Thirdly, Dr. Dino Samartzis from the Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology at The University of Hong Kong has been selected to serve as co-Editor-inChief alongside Dr. Theodoros B. Grivas. Dr. Samartzis has had a long and impactful career devoted to spine research, publishing and medical education throughout the world. His expertise and passion further reflects the journal’s commitment to quality, dedication to the broad spectrum of spinal disorders, multidisciplinary nature, and globalization of the spine community and research. The start of a new year is also a time for reflection. In order to understand where we are headed, we must acknowledge and appreciate where we have been. After 2 years since the formation of the Society on Scoliosis Orthopaedic and Rehabilitation Treatment (SOSORT), the board of the society launched in 2006 the Scoliosis journal as its official journal and Dr. Hans-Rudolf Weiss became its first Editor-in-Chief [3]. Dr. Weiss worked tirelessly to organize and establish the journal as an open access publication by BioMed Central, a world leader in open access medical publications. During that period, the journal focused primarily on conservative management of scoliosis. In 2008, Dr. Grivas succeeded Dr. Weiss as the journal’s Editor-in-Chief after having served as an Associate Editor. Dr. Grivas helped align the journal with numerous other societies and expanded the editorial board substantially to include world renowned experts in the field. Under the leadership of Dr. Grivas, the journal further expanded its reach to include other spinal deformities besides scoliosis and also became receptive to articles addressing surgical management of spine deformities. Dr. Grivas also expanded the scope of the journal to address specialized thematic series, such as brace technology, rehabilitation schools for scoliosis, school screening for scoliosis, SOSORT consensus and guidelines, and the etiology of idiopathic scoliosis. The journal remains the official journal of SOSORT, but under the direction of Dr. Grivas the journal became further affiliated with numerous other spine societies in an effort to broaden its demographic and impact. As previously mentioned, the journal was subsequently renamed to its current title Scoliosis and Spinal Disorders. Currently, the journal remains an open access, multidisciplinary, peerreviewed publication that focuses on original, primary research articles as well as broad narrative/systematic reviews and meta-analyses. The journal is indexed in PubMed and in numerous other major search engines. BioMed Central remains the publisher of the journal. Although the journal has enjoyed a rather auspicious start and sustainability, it has also managed to remain at the forefront of medical publishing. Some of the strengths of the journal are as follows: * Correspondence: [email protected]; [email protected] Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Tzaneio General Hospital of Piraeus, Tzani and Afendouli 1, Piraeus 18536, Greece Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, SAR, China