Foreword

Peter D. Siersema

Dear readers, authors and friends of Endoscopy,

Yes, this is an issue of Endoscopy you are holding in your hands! We have a whole new design, both inside and out. As you can see from the cover, our editorial team, besides their dedication to the world of endoscopy, have also proven themselves to be masters of the paintbrush. Enjoy a new work of art from this creative team in each issue of the journal in 2017.

But it is not only the painting that is new on the cover; you will have noticed that the cover now follows the typical Thieme pattern of blue-blue-white, a color combination that has formed, together with the logo (Thieme and its little tree), the brand image and has become the publishing house’s signature color code. And the changes don’t stop here: inside – as in this New Year greeting – a new, modern layout highlights the pages and helps to identify the essentials instantly. The new layout is designed to guide you easier through the articles and we trust that it will make your reading experience of Endoscopy even more enjoyable!

As of January 2017, we are also presenting a new “E-Videos” section. This replaces the Cases and Techniques Library section and, as the name suggests, all publications here contain videos. Endoscopy is a discipline rich in illustrative and often educational video footage and we are confident that the introduction of E-Videos will capture the interest of our readers. We would much appreciate your feedback and would also encourage you to submit your case videos via the dedicated portal at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/e-videos.

With our colleagues at Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, we joined forces in 2016 to publish “Endoscopic abbreviations[1]”, a consensus on commonly used acronyms. In 2017 we will continue our collaboration with the introduction of the “Masters of Endoscopy” section. Here, authors from two distinct geographic areas will together ponder a specific procedure, sharing their experience. The aim of these articles is to have a consensus of opinion which will hopefully contribute to the dissemination and standardization of endoscopic procedures.

Endoscopy’s cooperation with the European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy continues to grow. We are very thankful for the excellent ESGE guidelines that appear in our journal. Today, these are the reference for many practicing endoscopists in Europe and beyond. I realize that the production of such guidelines is a huge amount of effort and requires real teamwork and would like to take the opportunity to thank all the authors for their dedication.

I would like to draw to your attention that our publisher has produced a practical and useful application, the “eRef App”, for Android and IOS. Experience for yourself how easy it is to read and access Endoscopy’s content in the new layout on your mobile device – online or offline.

A huge thank you goes to our authors. For the first time, an award was presented to Dr. Schmidt and coworkers for their excellent work[2] during the UEG Week 2016 in Vienna. And naturally my sincere thanks also goes to all those who reviewed Endoscopy submissions in 2016, including our top five reviewers, Drs Joseph Anderson, Nick Burgess, Hajime Isomoto and Kondal Kyanam Kabir Baig.

On behalf of the whole Editorial team, I wish you a healthy and happy year ahead

Peter D. Siersema

Editor-in-Chief, Endoscopy

An artist in the making, Hilary Hamilton-Gibbs, Managing Editor.