Abstract
My warmest Aloha to all our readers around the world. As we begin to move out of our current pandemic and into a more normal academic and clinical environment, I urge all of you to remain vigilant and stay safe. There is still a lot to learn about COVID-19 and its newest variants. I urge all our readers to get vaccinated when available that is our best strategy to put an end to this pandemic. On a brighter note, I am pleased to report that Bariatric Surgical Practice and Patient Care's impact factor has increased by 43% since 2019. Submissions to Bariatric Surgical Practice and Patient Care are up 63% over last year with 75 article submissions as of the end of May, compared with 45 during the same time in 2020. Bariatric Surgical Practice and Patient Care's downloads are up by 5% with ∼5600 full-text downloads in the first half of 2021. I am very excited about the growth of the journal, and I enthusiastically give credit to my editors, editorial board, authors, and subscribers. It is my mission to make Bariatric Surgical Practice and Patient Care the go-to source for up-to-date information to help care for our bariatric patients.
The (2020) Olympic Games in Japan will once again bring the world together. The Olympics will showcase the best and reward years of hard work with gold medals. As editor-in-chief, I have the privilege of communicating with many authors around the world and I do feel our submissions are the best of the best. Many of you have been asked to be reviewers and I do appreciate all your hard work.
We strive to accept the best research and articles, thus only a third of articles that are submitted get published. We are revamping our review process to get articles published in a timely manner, but we do rely on our reviewers submitting reviews on time. With that, I wish everyone a safe and healthy summer. The Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopy Surgeons (SAGES) annual meeting will be held live in Las Vegas, and I hope to see some of you there.
Sincerely,
Editor-in-Chief, Bariatric Surgical Practice and Patient Care
Professor of Surgery
Associate Chair Clinical Affairs
Division Chief, General Surgery
Associate Program Director
John A. Burn School of Medicine
University of Hawaii
1356 Lusitania Street, 6th Floor
Honolulu, HI 96813
USA