Foreword

Dear readers, authors and friends of Endoscopy,

As the new year commences, I would like to wish all of you a very happy and auspicious 2014!

2013 was a time of change in our journal. Mid-year, Thomas Rösch handed the reigns to me in the role of Editor-in-Chief and I was joined by Mario Dinis-Ribeiro and Michael Bretthauer as Co-Editors-in-Chief. Our core team of Co-Editors remained on board and has since been enhanced by Klaus Mönkemüller (USA) and Marcin Polkowski (Poland). They have brought further new ideas and impetus and our journal is greatly benefiting from their contribution. We will be saying good-bye to one Co-Editor who has been in our team since 2006, Kenjiro Yasuda, and I would like to take the opportunity to thank him here for all he has done for Endoscopy.

In addition, after many years in the core team of Endoscopy, Thierry Ponchon became Editor-in-Chief of our online journal, Endoscopy International Open (EIO). This new open access journal will also be dedicated to the field of gastrointestinal endoscopy and, in particular, offers a platform for a new generation of authors and articles of more local interest. Knowing Thierry’s adventurous spirit, enthusiasm and expertise, I am sure that EIO will be a great success and become a familiar name to all those involved in the world of endoscopy.

I was very happy last year to take forward an important project initiated by Thomas Rösch to improve the quality of papers submitted to Endoscopy. We had realised that a key factor in increasing the quality of papers was to ensure that reviewers provided excellent critical assessments. As a first step, the task force assigned to this project, Mario Dinis-Ribeiro, Thierry Ponchon and Nimish Vakil, drafted guidelines which appeared in the first issue of Endoscopy, 2013 entitled “The Editors’ guide for peer review of papers submitted to Endoscopy”. In a second step, we streamlined the system so that reviewers could be more optimally pinpointed and invited to review the manuscripts of their specialty. Many of you will have received a request to update your keywords in ScholarOne, and we very much appreciate the prompt response we have received. In the coming year, we will do our utmost to further reduce the time between submission and first/final decision.

Below you will find a list of all those who reviewed in 2013 and, on behalf of the Editors, I would like to thank you, as well as the authors who submitted to Endoscopy, for your continuing support. I hope that you will continue submitting your work to Endoscopy or EIO as the cornerstone of endoscopic improvement lies in sharing innovations and research.

Peter D. Siersema
Endoscopy Editor-In-Chief