Semin intervent Radiol 2020; 37(01): 001-002
DOI: 10.1055/s-0039-3402014
Editorial
Thieme Medical Publishers 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA.

IR Authors—A Special Breed

Charles E. Ray Jr.
1   Department of Radiology, University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System, Chicago, Illinois
› Author Affiliations
Further Information

Publication History

Publication Date:
04 March 2020 (online)

I was recently—very recently—up against a wall with regard to the generation of a certain publication. In fact, to be perfectly honest, you are holding said publication in your hands. By going to five issues per year rather than quarterly, Seminars in Interventional Radiology took a step forward (in my opinion) to get more review articles out to its readership. More articles means more information to the practicing IR and trainee alike, and hopefully will change practice for the better for our patients and health care delivery systems. That, after all, is the goal of any publication—to change something for the better.

The reason I was backed against a wall was entirely my fault. I had drug my feet long enough that I didn't recruit a guest editor for the next issue. Guest editors are, I feel, the most altruistic of all people with a publication like Seminars. They often get very little recognition from their department chairs or other bosses, and in many cases this position doesn't contribute to their academic advancement in any way. It is not an insignificant (double negative—sorry) amount of work, including conscripting all of the authors (10–15 +) and doing the initial edits of the manuscripts. Guest editors, no doubt, do the heavy lifting for the journal. By not finding a guest editor for the following edition of the journal, the next issue was a no-go.

At this point I thought about assigning the duties (and blame) to Bob, the deputy editor of the journal. I didn't do this for several reasons: I was the one responsible for the mess so I should be the one to get out of it; I wanted to protect the integrity of the journal, and as a senior editor I should shepherd through the process; and he'd tell me no. So I was left with coming up with a quality issue that could be turned around quickly. At that point I did what all wise people would do—I called for reinforcements.

As you can tell from the cover of this issue, my cavalry came in the form of the former editor of the journal, Brian Funaki. I called on him for several reasons. He understood my predicament (by finding himself in the same situation in the past, albeit for different reasons). He is one of my best friends (so he knows how I can screw things up). He has a cadre of incredible faculty who produce quality work in short order. And, finally, he gets shit done. I texted him hours after coming up with the idea for this issue, and he responded within minutes with a “what can I do to help” text. There was, at this point, a glimmer of hope.

The next job was to recruit authors, which was another opportunity to call in favors. There were faculties at three institutions to which I turned. First is my own faculty at the University of Illinois. These individuals could be counted on for three reasons—they are good, they are quick, and they work for me. The second institution was the University of Chicago, for the first two reasons as those given above for U of I and because that is where Brian works. The third institution was Emory, for the first two reasons and the fact that they work for the person to whom I report (my wife). It was no mistake, by the way, to get individuals who work at academic centers to author the manuscripts. Many faculty task residents or fellows do write articles primarily while providing guidance for the final product. I love this about a journal such as ours—it acts as a pipeline for junior faculty or trainees to get their feet wet with writing review articles, and it allows for a mentoring relationship between the faculty and trainees. And, in all honesty, many trainees (too numerous to count in my experience) write the best articles. They are thorough, facile with technology, and eager to produce a worthy end product. Authors may or may not get academic credit for review articles, but even if they do it is a significant amount of work to produce such a manuscript. Next to guest editors, they have the least to gain by contributing.

The bottom line is that there are many—so many—individuals in our specialty who are willing to help out a colleague, and do so with one simple phone call. Those individuals can be senior people who know what it is like to both be in a difficult situation and how to get out of it (isn't that what IRs do on a daily basis?). It can be junior faculty who continue to prove to me that we are recruiting the right individuals to whom we are passing our torch. Or it can be trainees, who remind me on a daily basis that I am damn lucky to have gotten into the field when I did. Calling for help from these three types of individuals is simple—just pick up the phone. I would challenge any other specialty to be able to say the same thing, and it makes me grateful, proud, and humbled to be in the same company as interventional radiologists.