There is a period of life when we go back as we advance.
(Il est un terme de la vie au-delà duquel en rétrograde en avançant.)
Rousseau, Ěmile, Chapter 2
The greater part of progress is the desire to progress.
(Magna pars est profectus velle proficere.)
Seneca, Episttulæ ad Lucillium,
Epis. Ixxi, 36
It is my privilege to inform you that Prehospital and Disaster Medicine (PDM), an official publication of the World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine (WADEM) is doing very, very well. More manuscripts currently are being submitted for publication than in the entire history of the Journal. The Journal is in sound shape financially, its staff is experienced, and communications with the authors continue to improve. The global reputation of the Journal is at an all-time high.
For a decade, the WADEM has self-published PDM – the entire process (other than printing and mailing) has been performed by the PDM staff. However, we have been limited in our ability to successfully market the Journal; thus, the circulation growth has been slow. Many who could benefit from the information provided in PDM do not even know that it exists! Given this limitation, the WADEM and the editors and staff of PDM have been considering and assessing the acquisition of a publisher that could successfully market the Journal; this selection process has been a difficult and thorough exercise.
This issue of PDM marks a major advance in the production and distribution of the Journal. Beginning with this issue, PDM is now a part of the Cambridge University Press publishing family. Henceforth, the Journal will be published by Cambridge, but all of the content, editorial policies, copyright, and Editorial Board remain the responsibility of the WADEM. Cambridge University Press now typesets, prints, distributes, and markets PDM.
There are several advantages to the authors, readers, and researchers that are coincident with this change. First, authors eventually will have access to the electronic submission capabilities of Cambridge. The manuscript submission and management process will streamline the processing of manuscripts. It will facilitate the assignment of manuscripts submitted to the peer-reviewers, the ease of the review process by the reviewers, and the tracking of the progress each manuscript through the peer-review process. Furthermore, it will be possible to post pre-prints of manuscripts accepted for publication on the PDM Website well ahead of receipt of the printed version, which in turn, will facilitate earlier indexing. Page proofs of the material will reach the authors for their review, additions, and corrections more rapidly.
All of these changes will contribute to on-time publication of the Journal; there will not be any delays in printing and distribution. As many of you are aware, delays in publication have limited the ability of the Journal to become rated by services such as the Impact Factor.
Cambridge will archive all of the issues of PDM back to Volume 1, Number 1. This will facilitate access to everything ever published in the Journal from its very beginning. Furthermore, Cambridge will manage the PDM website. Members of WADEM will have free access to the archived material.
Other than the pagination, the functions of the Editorial Office will remain the same. Dana Schmidman will remain the Production Editor. She will continue to do her excellent job of moving the editorial processes along, organizing each issue, and will continue to be the main contact for all references to journal business and movement of manuscripts through the editorial process. She will continue to be the “go-to” person.
The content of each issue and all final decisions relative to manuscripts remains the prerogative of the Editor and/or the Section Editors. The Editorial policies of the Journal will continue to be established, reviewed, and supported by the Editorial Board, independently from the WADEM.
The appearance of PDM and the frequency of publication will remain the same. If the number of submissions for publication continues to increase, more frequent publication may be required. In addition, it is likely that the number of theme issues and supplements will increase. In addition, we are encouraging discussions in the Letters to the Editor section of PDM – this is the place to discuss what you read.
All-in-all, this change represents a major step forward for this publication, and we are pleased and proud to be a member of the Cambridge family. Thus far, working relationships with this superb publishing house have been excellent. We hope that you will be pleased with the growth and changes as is the staff of PDM and the Board of Directors of the WADEM.
A note of gratitude to a very special person without whose dedication and commitment, the Journal may not have survived. Sondra Lehman has been the Production Editor at the printer-end of this Journal through two different print houses. She has worked with us through some difficult times, and has gone out of her way, sometimes on very thin ice, to make sure that the Journal made it – sometimes when it seemed impossible. She has contributed mightily to our cause, and all of us that have had the pleasure to work with Sondra offer her our deepest thanks. We will miss her professionalism and her dedication to our cause, and we hope that she will remain close to us all.
In many ways this move to Cambridge University Press is a major step forward for the science of disaster and emergency health. Prehospital and Disaster Medicine has become a mainstay of the disaster and emergency health scientific literature, and hence, of the emerging science. This is due largely to your faith and commitment to the success of PDM. We are looking forward to being with our new family, for its ability to distribute the information to a wider audience, and for helping to bring us into the modern era.
And step by step, since time began, I see the steady gain of man.
Whittier,
The Chapel of Hermits
There is nothing permanent except change.
Heraclitus
Roger’s Students’ History of Philosophy, Ia,15
