A successful first year for the <i>IWJ</i> (2004)

The end of the year already! The International Wound Journal has now reached its year end issue celebrating a number of significant achievements in a short space of time. Indeed in this issue we welcome our sixth and final Strategic Partner – Coloplast. As one of the global leaders in the area of wound care they complement our strategic guidance team ensuring that the International Wound Journal remains focused on being the pre-eminent clinical resource of information on wound healing. Our Strategic Partners have been a major factor in ensuring global dissemination of the IWJ and we thank them for their guidance, marketing efforts and advertising in our first year. It is through their significant support that the IWJ has the ability to survive and develop further. The Journal goes from strength to strength, fast becoming the Journal of choice for Wound Carers. In 2004 we have covered many topics on a very diverse basis, both geographically and clinically and this is a trend we continue in this issue. In our fourth edition we include papers on new treatments, technologies and a large review on surgical wound infection. This is a European perspective with authors from many countries dealing with an important but often ignored aspect of wound healing. We also include our end of year indexing providing you a valuable resource to enable the IWJ to be an important reference source. As we all recover from a very busy and productive 2004 for wound carers both locally and internationally we encourage you, the readers, to submit articles; letters and comments; or interesting clinical challenges. Share your experience – that way we all learn from each other and our wound care network gains strength. Experience is a valuable learning tool – learn from others and teach others. We are all educators and all require continuing medical education. Many societies and associations have developed educational, research or organisational initiatives. Whilst these may be of great value to their members, sharing of this information with an international readership will ensure, where appropriate, we do not reinvent any wheels and also may lead others to modify or further develop such initiatives to have a greater relevance and applicability to different countries, professions or societies. As Editor-in-Chief and Editor we take this opportunity to thank the following for their contribution and help with the IWJ in its first year: Subscribers; Readership; Authors; Editorial Executives; Editorial Board; Strategic Partner Companies and our publisher Blackwell Publishing. Next year will see the Journal enter its first expansion phase where we will be increasing our page numbers to ensure additional interesting papers will be published. The inclusion of further languages in our abstract translation services demonstrates our commitment to providing our readers with a truly international journal. So we hope that you continue to read and subscribe to the IWJ. •Editor-in-ChiefProf. Keith Harding •EditorDr Douglas Queen •StatisticianProf. Patricia Price •Editorial ExecutivesProf. David Armstrong Dr Paul Banwell Dr Kyoichi Matsuzaki Prof Christine Moffatt Heather Orsted Prof. Marco Romanelli Prof. Hiromi Sanada Prof. Gregory Schultz Prof. Gary Sibbald Prof. Mike Stacey Geoff Sussman Dr Luc Téot •Editorial OfficeInternational Wound JournalPO Box 2394 Cardiff CF23 9WQ UK •Editorial AssistantSue Harding •Production EditorJennifer Dick Prof. Zulifiqarali Abbas, Tanzania Prof. Bishara Atiyeh, Lebanon Dr Adrian Barbul, USA Suzie Calne, UK Dr Robertto Cassino, Italy Dr Celalettin Çelebi, Turkey Dr George Cherry, UK Dr Mike Clark, UK Dr Diane Cooper, USA Dr Ian Darby, Australia Dr Jeff Davidson, USA Dr Sebastian Debus, Germany Dr William Ennis, USA Dr Vincent Falanga, USA Dr Mieke Flour, Belgium Evonne Fowler, USA Prof. Peter Franks, UK Prof. Xiabong Fu, China Prof. Finn Gottrup, Denmark David Gray, UK Dr Satsue Hagisawa, Japan Dr Eva-Lisa Heinrichs, UK Dr Dirk Hollander, Germany Dr Pamela Houghton, Canada Prof. Kent Jönsson, Zimbabwe Dr David Keast, Canada Dr Kazuo Kishi, Japan Dr Diane Krasner, USA Dr Stephan Landis, Arab Emirates Prof. David Leaper, UK Dr Luis Fernando Lira, Mexico Dr Courtney Lyder, USA Dr Mario Marazzi, Italy Dr Sylvie Meaume, France Dr Joe McCulloch, USA Yvette Moulin, Canada Dr Manoj Pandey, India Nancy Parslow, Canada Prof. Hugo Partsch, Austria Prof. Hermelinda Pedrosa, Brazil Dr Elaine Pina, Portugal Dr Elia Ricci, Italy Dr Ricardo Roa, Chile Dr George Rodeheaver, USA Dr Jose Contreras Ruiz, Mexico Prof. Vijay Shukla, India Dr Mark Tang, Singapore Cath Vowden, UK Dr Peter Vowden, UK