Tendinopathy Theme Issue of BJSM

Following the success of the tendinopathy issue in 2007, BJSM will publish ‘Tendinopathy Theme Issue’ in 2009. This edition will concentrate on clinical perspectives of diagnosing and managing tendinopathy.

Specifically, we are looking for papers that have direct or inferred clinical application that will help clinicians manage patients with tendon injury. We encourage you to submit original papers as well as novel opinion pieces based on clinical experience and scientific evidence.

Submissions close August 15th, 2008

Enquiries to Jill Cook: jill.cook@deakin.edu.au

Clinicians the world over have appreciated the concussion consensus meetings in Vienna (2001) and Prague (2004).

Journal citations, conference discussion and personal anecdote suggest the output from this meeting might be one of the major advances in sports medicine over the past decade.

The 2008 Concussion Conference will be hosted by FIFA and takes place in Zurich on October 30. It is open for free papers and you can register for just 100 USD.The expert panel will refine the guidelines for both simple and complex concussion, focus on the pressing issue of paediatric concussion and further explore ways to increase knowledge translation.

Special The Issue of BJSM – Guest editor - Professor Steven Blair

Leading international authors have agreed to contribute to this issue as part of the battle against physical inactivity. This is a terrific opportunity for you to publish your original research alongside wonderful perspective pieces from these authors. Any questions, feel free to email editor Karim Khan - karim.khan@ubc.ca.

Rationale — Why a special theme issue?

Research on the health benefits of regular physical activity has accumulated rapidly over the past few decades. There is now compelling evidence that physical activity has substantial health benefits for all. Physical activity prevents many of the major chronic diseases, delays loss of functional capacity, and extends longevity. The benefits of physical activity accrue to the young, adults, and older adults; to people with chronic disease and those who are healthy; and to people of all sizes and shapes.

Despite the now overwhelming evidence for the health benefits of physical activity, we have been slow to develop and implement broadly based public health strategies to increase and maintain activity in the population. One notable area of concern is clinical medicine, where, despite lipservice, physical activity interventions are rarely prescribed. To rectify this problem, we encourage clinicians to pay more attention to promoting physical activity during patient consults.This special issue of the BJSM reviews the current state of the science and provides practical recommendations as to how clinicians can implement effective physical activity interventions.Deadline for submissions to this issue: 1st August, 2008.

Right now BJSM has double blind review — we ask authors to anonymize their papers, reviewers’ names are shrouded in secrecy. BJSM is the only BMJ publication that has this policy.

Is it time to adopt BMJ approach and have open review? Do you believe the evidence that ‘big name’ authors have papers accepted more readily? Do you believe that there are personal and corporate pressures that influence reviewers? Fiona Godlee, editor of BMJ commented on this in 2002.

Let us know on the blog as we reconsider this policy at BJSM.

I am very excited and most grateful that 6 international leaders in sports and exercise medicine have agreed to serve as Senior Associate Editors in Chief – Babette Pluim (Netherlands), Jill Cook (Australia), Liza Arendt (US), Steven Stovitz (US), Roald Bahr (Norway) and Timothy Noakes (South Africa).

This senior leadership group and I will take the first 5 months of the year to catch up with the hardworking Editorial Board and engage all those who wish to contribute to the Journal.The new Associate Editors and the expanded Editorial Board will be listed in the June issue of BJSM.

To contribute to the direction of BJSM, I encourage you to provide input either in person (e.g., The RendezVous Conference in Las Vegas (March 25-29), my visit to various UK centres in early May) or on email (karim.khan@ubc.ca).

The BJSM vision that aims to reflect the diverse interests of the world of sport and exercise medicine will be on the web by June 1^st.

We aim to make the BJSM the premier clinically-relevant original data journal and online community. BJSM is one of the ‘specialist journals’ of the BMJ publishing group. The mother ship – the BMJ – aims to ‘help doctors make better decisions’.

BMJ editors ask 3 questions about manuscripts that are submitted:

1. Is it new?
2. Is it true?
3. Will it change what doctors do?

Given the expertise, resources, and brand recognition of the BMJ, it seems that team BJSM might do well to follow that game plan in the first instance. Thus, we will focus on clnically-relevant health and human performance.We’ll aim to accept and solicit material that is new, true, and has the potential to change the things you do.

We hope this Blog helps us engage a global community to find answers.

Exciting times!