In the footsteps of the gods: Janus revisited and the pursuit of timeliness.

Dr. Bradley is the Editor of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, and is from the Divisions of Infectious Diseases and Geriatric Medicine, Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System and the University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2007; 28:373-374 2007 by The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. All rights reserved. 0899-823X/2007/2804-0001$15.00. DOI: 10.1086/515709 Janus, the Roman god of new beginnings and good endings, has been an important symbol and recurring theme since the inception of this journal. In 1980, Drs. Richard P. Wenzel and William A. Schaffner “introduced a new scientific journal that would focus on hospital epidemiology and all aspects of infection control.” In less than a decade, Infection Control evolved to become the official journal of the Society for Hospital Epidemiology of America (SHEA), renamed Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology (ICHE). In 1993, Dr. Michael D. Decker assumed the helm. Dr. Decker vigorously pursued his goals to make ICHE the premier journal in hospital epidemiology, to make it the most cited in its field, and to increase its scientific content and the proportion of papers dedicated to original research. By 2000, he had enhanced “the visibility and prestige of the Journal” so “that it would be able to compete with specialty and second-tier journals.” By the close of his tenure in 2002, almost all submissions were original articles, and Dr. Decker had increased the global appeal of the journal, with almost 50% of submissions coming from outside North America. In 2002, Dr. Barry M. Farr became Editor-in-Chief of ICHE. Dr. Farr pledged to “maintain the scientific quality and global reach and content of the Journal, while trying to expedite both reviews and publication.” ICHE entered the electronic publication age with the availability of a CD-ROM containing journal issues from the first decade and a Web site with on-line search capacity in 2003. The number of manuscripts submitted increased markedly during this time, and backlogs became a new issue for this young journal. Through sheer force of will and great personal effort, Dr. Farr and his editors did what they could to reduce the backlog at the level of the editorial office. Dr. Farr was a major force in searching for ways to expedite the review and publication process. He was and remains a tireless advocate for control of multidrug-resistant nosocomial infections. With his retirement from the University of Virginia, Dr. Farr was unable to continue as Editor of ICHE. In July 2004, then Deputy Editor Dr. William R. Jarvis assumed the duties of Editor-in-Chief; he was officially appointed in January 2005. One of Dr. Jarvis’s major challenges and achievements was presiding over the change of publishers from Slack Incorporated to the University of Chicago Press (UCP). With his leadership and UCP’s vast experience in publishing such journals as Clinical Infectious Diseases and the Journal of Infectious Diseases, the visibility of ICHE has increased markedly. Manuscript submissions continued to increase, with further increase in the backlog. Dr. Jarvis sought to rectify the situation by increasing the number of pages per issue and increasing rejection rates. He also ensured that the increased rejection rate would not disproportionately impact submissions from international authors. During the transition to my editorship, Dr. Jarvis has been most gracious with his advice and his oversight of the assembly of early 2007 issues. Now, the ICHE editorial office has moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan. In preparing for this editorial, I retrieved a version of Edith Hamilton’s mythology text, a 38-year-old, tattered relic of a freshman high school English class. Written inside the front cover was a familiar but too legible scrawl with a definition for “hubris.” This citation did not refer to the more common usage meaning “arrogance or conceit,” but rather to “mere mortals aspiring to do the work of the gods.” How does one follow in the footsteps of editors who are legends in infection control and the field of healthcare epidemiology? This is truly a task worthy of Hercules, or more likely, Sisyphus. The temple of Janus had two doors; at each end stood his likeness, a statue with two faces. One side of his face depicted the god’s likeness as a young man and the other as an old man. It would therefore seem appropriate that the transition of editorship be passed from Dr. Jarvis, a pediatrician, to me, a geriatrician. Dr. Jarvis’ tireless efforts have led to a seamless transition and he has left the journal in excellent health. The continued growth of the journal under his tenure has left us with a plethora of accepted articles to be published. The transition also could not have occurred as seamlessly as it did without the generous support of the SHEA Board