Welcome editorial
Authors: Didier Samuel
Journal: Journal of Hepatology (2009)

It is with great pleasure that I introduce to you the new editorial team that will be leading the Journal of Hepatology for the next five years. The Journal of Hepatology is the official journal of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), the premier liver association in Europe. It is a true privilege and honour to have been chosen by the EASL Governing Board as the new Editor-In-Chief of the Journal of Hepatology. Since its founding in 1985, the journal has seen an impressive development and readership numbers are continually increasing, with a worldwide distribution now reaching more than 20,000 readers. Under the direction of the previous Editors, the impact factor of the Journal steadily increased to 7.056 and now ranks second amongst journals dedicated to Hepatology, and fourth amongst journals in the field of Hepatogastroenterology. Over the past few years, EASL has become renown as a leading international Society devoted to hepatology. The last EASL annual congress, called the International Liver Congress™, welcomed more than 7000 attendees and has propelled EASL to the forefront of international hepatology. We expect that the Journal of Hepatology will follow this fantastic development and become the reference in the field. To achieve this goal, a new editorial team has been assembled that includes one Editor-In-Chief, two Co-Editors, sixteen Associate Editors, seven special section Editors, and a statistical consultant. The new editorial team will have the formidable task of selecting the best papers, highlighting the most recent advances in hepatology, all with the ultimate aim of increasing readership, distribution, and impact factor of the journal. Several important changes will take place with the new editorial team. In order to closely represent the international aspect of our society, the core editorial team will also have member representatives from outside Europe. Our two Co-Editors, Peter Galle and Christopher Day are from Germany and the United Kingdom, respectively; while members of our Associate Editors team come from Europe, North America, and Asia. Likewise the Editorial Board is fully international. A new development for the journal is the establishment of a Central Editorial Office located at the EASL headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, which will be managed by Sonia Guimil and Adam Swetloff, Editorial Manager and Editorial Assistant, respectively. All manuscript submissions and management will be occurring through a new system called the Elsevier Editorial System (EES: http://ees.elsevier.com/jhepat). With this new team, you will find that the layout of the Journal has changed. Most noticeably, the graphic designers have created a new cover which also includes the new trademarked EASL logo. Some of the previously published Special Sections will continue in the new version of the journal but under new names. However, several new sections will appear within the next months. The Journal will introduce a Focus section, directed by Daniel Shouval, which will highlight the most poignant manuscripts in each issue. A new section entitled Hepatology Snapshot, led by Massimo Levrero, will briefly aim to describe either a basic mechanism of a molecular pathway, a detailed application of a new drug, or a schematic representation of a clinical aspect in hepatology. The Clinical Application of Basic Science section under the direction of David Adams will provide the reader with further insights into basic science within and outside the field of hepatology which have potential clinical application for hepatologists. This section will be an extraordinary opportunity to broaden and diversify the scientific horizons of the Journal. The section Frontiers in Liver Transplantation will provide insight into the most recent breakthrough in the field of liver transplantation. In this section, Marina Berenguer will continue previous efforts by Pierre Clavien to emphasize that liver transplantation is now considered a permanent trend within the field of hepatology. Under the direction of Graeme Alexander, highly debated issues will be highlighted in Controversies in Hepatology. This section will not simply summarize the pros and cons of specific issues, but will present the controversial advice of two experts with differing opinion on a current clinical and basic subject. We hope that this section will open up these subjects to scientific debate. Lastly, Patrick Marcellin, Josep Llovet, and Detlef Schuppan will keep you updated with the most relevant papers published in other journals in the International Hepatology section. The Editorial team will be open to comments from our readers and any suggestions that can improve the quality of the journal will be greatly welcomed. My personal expertise which I will bring to the Journal of Hepatology is from the field of liver transplantation. I have worked on the mechanisms and therapeutic aspects of the recurrence of hepatitis B and C after post-transplantation and also on many clinical and therapeutic aspects of liver failure; however, my interest in hepatology extends well beyond these specialized fields. As both head of a Liver unit and Liver ICU and director of an Inserm Research unit, over the years I have become absolutely convinced of the importance of the interface between basic science and clinical applications. Indeed, Hepatology has been going through extraordinary changes over the last thirty years. The field has been revolutionized by the emergence of liver transplantation which dramatically modified the prognosis of the most severe patients; also rapid progress has been made in the pathophysiologic comprehension of the mechanisms of liver diseases leading to a formidable therapeutic jump in the fields of portal hypertension, severe cirrhosis, viral hepatitis, and more recently in hepatocellular carcinoma. The aim of the Journal of Hepatology will therefore be to keep the reader at the forefront of all breakthrough developments in the fields of liver cancer, biliary cancer, viral hepatitis, portal hypertension, liver failure, liver injury, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, alcoholic liver disease, cholestasis, metabolic disease, autoimmune liver diseases, liver transplantation, as well as genetic and proteomic developments in hepatology. I am confident that the upcoming years will bring numerous advances in the fields of liver regeneration, treatment of liver failure, and liver support. Before concluding, I have several people to thank. I wish to personally thank Professor Jean-Pierre Benhamou, who unfortunately passed away in 2008. He was my mentor in hepatology, an extraordinary teacher, and a gentleman with very high scientific ambitions. He was also a former Editor of the Journal of Hepatology and I hope to continue the high scientific and editorial standard of his work. I wish to thank Professor Henri Bismuth, an exceptional liver surgeon who first understood the importance of the interplay between surgery and medicine in Hepatology, and who granted me trust. I also would like to thank Professor Christian Brechot, with whom scientific collaborations are always a fantastic booster. I thank Professor Daniel Shouval for his continuous friendship. I would like to thank the team of physicians and surgeons who have worked with me at Hospital Paul Brousse over the years. I thank all the past Editors of the Journal for their extraordinary work and in particular Juan Rodés who gave me the opportunity to work with him as an Associate Editor. I would like to send a personal thank you to Professor Massimo Colombo and his team who have brought the Journal to its highest impact factor yet, have maintained high standards, and have greatly helped to ensure a smooth and fruitful transition to the new Editorial team. I thank Jordi Bruix, Massimo Levrero, Detlef Schuppan, and Andy Burroughs, all past EASL secretaries, for the work done together when I was a member of the EASL scientific committee and for their continuous support. I thank the former and current EASL Secretary Generals, Jean-Michel Pawlotsky and Heiner Wedemeyer, respectively, and the EASL Governing Board for their trust in me for choosing our team to lead the journal. I wish to thank Professor Christopher Day and Professor Peter Galle who accepted to participate in the frontline of this adventure. I also thank Richard Moreau, Pierre Bedossa, and Thomas Baumert for their input in the conceptualization of the Journal. I thank the entire team of Associate Editors and Special Section editors who accepted to be part of the new team and who will face the task of further improving the quality and impact of the Journal. In the upcoming years, we face the formidable yet exciting challenge to bolster the already reputable scientific level of the Journal but also to bring it to new heights of excellence. Only by doing so, we will be representing EASL at its best.