The<i>British Journal of Dermatology</i>: 125 years, 28 editors, enduring values
Authors: Alex Anstey
Journal: British Journal of Dermatology (2013)

1888 was a significant year for dermatology. Consider, if you will, the young English dermatologist Dr Malcolm Morris reading The Times newspaper each morning while eating his cooked breakfast. National news that year included a new law in the U.K. that permitted bicycles on the road (on condition they were fitted with and regularly used a bell), and an alarming series of brutal murders of prostitutes in the East End of London attributed to ‘Jack The Ripper’. International news in 1888 included a law that finally abolished slavery in Brazil, the foundation of the National Geographic Society in Washington DC, and the registration of a patent for a camera that used roll film by George Eastman. In this world of progress, change and uncertainty, Dr Morris is sure to have sought refuge in the sports pages of The Times by catching up on his favourite sport: cricket. Imagine his distress that year in discovering two new sports encroaching on cricket in the sports pages; football announced the formation of a new sporting league in England and rugby announced a 21 man squad of players to tour Australia and New Zealand as The Great Britain and Irish Lions. He probably consoled himself with the inevitable failure of these two ventures. However, worse was to follow as he read about Charles Turner, an Australian, who that year became the first bowler in the history of the English county cricket game to take more than 250 wickets in one season. His fears would subsequently be confirmed through gaps in his fingers at Lords Cricket Ground as Turner destroyed the hapless English batsmen and Australia won the first test match of the summer. Was nothing constant? Something had to be done! And so it was. Morris teamed up with Lancastrian dermatologist Dr Henry Brooke and published a new journal that year dedicated to skin disease: the British Journal of Dermatology (BJD) was born. Twenty-six editors have followed Morris and Brooke. These include three more twinned editorship (Dr John J Pringle and Sir James Galloway 1896–1900; Sir James Galloway and Dr John M.H. MacLeod 1901–1904; Dr Neil Cox and Dr Stephen Breathnach 1999–2001). There have been a number of BJD editors who dedicated long service to the journal, including Dr John Pringle (9 years), Sir James Galloway (8 years), Dr Archibald Roxburgh (8 years), Dr William Goldsmith (9 years), Dr Ray Bettley (9 years), Dr Patrick Hare (7 years), Dr Robert Champion (7 years) and Dr Arthur Rook (6 years). The longest serving editor of the BJD at 13 years was Sir Archibald Gray (1916–1929). There have been just two female editors of the BJD in the 125 years since it was first published: Professor Rona MacKie (1985–1988) and my predecessor, Dr Tanya Bleiker (2010–2013). I accept this appointment as the 29th editor of the BJD with humility if not a little trepidation. My thanks go to Tanya Bleiker for her help and support in teaching me the role of Editor-in-Chief. Tanya was an outstanding, dedicated and hard-working editor who will be a hard act to follow. She has significantly improved the readability of the BJD and has introduced a number of changes aimed at maintaining the BJD as the premier international clinical dermatology journal. My induction as editor included learning the golden rules of peer review, including the following four: firstly, it is the editor's responsibility to ensure that the quality of the journal remains high and what is reported is ethical, accurate and relevant to our readership; secondly, the peer reviewers advise us and make their recommendations – however, it rests with the editor to make decisions; thirdly, Editors-in-Chief must have full editorial independence (this is respected by the British Association of Dermatologists, which is supportive at arm's length to the journal and the editorial team); finally, the editor and editorial team of the BJD recognize and respect their duty to keep the scholarly record sound and free from fraudulent or incorrect data. There are more golden rules for peer review and journal publishing, which can be found on the COPE (Committee for Publication Ethics) website (publicationethics.org) or in guidelines for good practice in peer review.1 One hundred and twenty-five years later, the world has changed on a scale that Morris and Brooke could not have anticipated. Yet some elements of Morris's world of 1888 have endured, including The Times newspaper, the Football League, Great Britain and Irish Lions Rugby Tours, the Marylebone Cricket Club, Lords Cricket Ground, England against Australia cricket matches and bicycles (with bells) on the streets of London. How has the BJD survived so long to take its place among these British traditions and institutions? By continuously adapting to ensure that it stays relevant to practising clinical dermatologists seeking to gain knowledge and insights that will help them to improve their patient care. Importantly, the BJD has become an international journal with more than 70% of submissions from outside the U.K., and an editorial board that represents the continents of the world. The BJD currently describes itself as striving to publish the highest quality dermatological research; in so doing, the journal aims to advance understanding, management and treatment of skin disease and thereby improve patient outcomes. Morris and Brooke would have agreed with these aims, based as they are on fundamental values of clinical medicine focused on helping our patients with skin disease.