On behalf of the Turkish Surgical Societies’ Council, I would like to present the new changes in our longstanding journal, Turkish Journal of Surgery, which is devoted to surgical sciences. The mission of the journal is to become the voice of surgical communities not only in Turkey but also worldwide.
We have certain goals to reach. The most important one is to increase the quality and visibility of the journal, for which we need very good quality submissions. Very good quality publications are based on well-planned, well-constructed and well-written manuscripts, for which the editorial evaluation processes are also highly important. Therefore, a new, dedicated editorial team under the direction of Prof. Kaya Sarıbeyoğlu has been appointed. We would like to thank them for accepting the job with tremendous workload.
The main difference from the previous establishment is that there will be no one from the Societies’ Council acting as editor. Instead, in order to maximize editorial freedom, only one representative will be there as the coordinator. So as to assure reliability of the evaluation process, new strategies have been developed, such as a new referee system based on specialties and sub-specialties. Rather than increasing the number of bulky editorial board members list, the referee pool has been increased.
Since the principle aim is to be included in well-known indexes, changes have also been rung in the journal’s design. The cover design of the journal has been re-structured in line with the illustration rules of the indexes. In the design of the new cover, the colors red and white connotate the Turkish flag. Ignorance has been symbolized by the color black on the left- hand side of the cover, which fades away upwards and ceases to exist when it is struck by the emblem of the Turkish Surgical Society. However, we all know that this aim of ours is only reachable with high-quality studies.
As Prof. Sarıbeyoğlu expressed in his first “From the Editor’s Desk” report, without your support and passion, we cannot reach any of the above goals.
Sincerely,
On Behalf of The Turkish Surgical Society Council
M. Mahir ÖZMEN MD MS FACS FRCS FASMBS
Professor of Surgery
Coordinator