Editorial

“In order to see clearly, a change in the line of sight is often sufficient.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Dear Sir, Dear Madam,
Dear Readers,

In 1993, during my presidency of the Gerhard-Küntscher Circle and with active support from the then members of the Board, I founded the journal “Osteosynthese International”.

The following targets were pursued:

Creating a communication forum To bestow the Gerhard-Küntscher Circle, later Gerhard-Küntscher Society, with a scientific profile To enable open, specialised discussion about all questions that concern trauma surgery and new developments therein, with a special emphasis on intramedullary osteosynthesis.

The members of the Board took on the function as editor, the journal was the official organ of the Gerhard-Küntscher Circle and was published by the Mayer publishing house in Erlangen. In the first volume there were 2 issues and subsequently 4 issues per year.

The founding of this journal was the final act after long-lasting discussions and planning but, most of all, it was a visible expression and sign of the friendly unanimity and determination of the members of the Board. It was also the source of subsequent permanent differences in the scope of board meetings even through to today.

Apart from the new publication of the journal in this period of my presidency, the book “Recommendations for treating fractures of GKK” was published by Georg Thieme publishing house.

H. C. Nonnemann / Berlin, K. Klemm / Frankfurt, E. Beck / Erlangen, I. Kempf / Strasbourg and myself were the motors, who were confronted with a rapidly increasing number of members from all over the world, i. e., an increasing internationalism, which had to be accounted for. Later R. Schnettler then still in Frankfurt, T. Heinz / Vienna, A. Barquet / Uruguay and lastly P. M. Rommens / Leuven joined us.

“Osteosynthese International” became the journal in accord with the congress meetings of GKK named after a proposal by H. C. Nonnemann who, as the long-standing, successful President, organised the first international congress of GKK in 1986 in Berlin and called it “Osteosynthese International Berlin 1986”.

While the burden of producing the manuscripts lay with the respective authors, the organisation of the journal was on my shoulders alone and those of my secretary as well. Publications were possible in the 3 official languages of GKK, German, English and French, respectively. A synopsis of the work to be published in German, English, French, Spanish and Russian was also discussed. If the latter possibility had been realised, then we would have accepted publications in every language, assuming that a long synopsis in the above-mentioned 4 other languages was first submitted.

The quality of the accepted manuscripts was so good that, in 1997, the renowned publishing house Johann Ambrosius Barth - formally the Mecca of scientific publications in the German language - showed an interest in our journal and eventually took over its publication.

Four issues per year were published and the papers were published either in German or English. The composition followed the principle that 2 issues were published on free subjects and 2 issues were published as so-called special subject issues with an emphasis on a particular topic that were organised and compiled by renowned members of GKK.

I received special committed support from R. Schnettler, now in Gießen, for whom “Osteosynthese International” was a special concern, and from Gabriele Kamper, our secretary.

Interestingly enough, the GKK members' meeting nearly unanimously decided to combine membership with the obligatory purchase of the journal but this decision was not accepted by individual members or not complied with. The number of subscribers did not keep pace with the rising quality of the published papers, which were chosen by a peer review procedure.

In 2002 J. A. Barth publishing house was taken over by Georg Thieme Verlag, Stuttgart. The task to secure the journal's economic basis - which could not be tackled by GKK alone - led to a co-operation with the international AIOD. Now there were 2 societies behind this journal. In order to document the journal's solidarity with the concerns of trauma surgery and trauma care the journal was renamed “Osteosynthesis and Trauma Care”. It was now the official organ of the Gerhard-Küntscher Society (GKS) and the Association Internationale pour L'Ostéo-synthese Dynamique (AIOD). The responsibility to maintain the independent character of the journal by the editor's balanced composition was incumbent on me, accepted as the Editor-in-Chief by both sides.

Since the efforts to register the journal in Medline and the Journal Citation Report (the latter being the basis for the Impact Factor) were not rewarded with success, the societies have been discussing ways to change the journal's format and scope.

After many years of enthusiastic and devoted work, which I conducted for the cause of trauma surgery and the GKK and which I would not have wanted to miss under any circumstances, I would like to say good-bye to you, my friends:

To the journal To the GKK To the AIOD To the authors, whose manuscripts were accepted or rejected To the subscribers and readers To every single named past and present publisher.

I would like to thank all who have supported the idea of the journal, as well as those who have actively opposed it, and would like to wish the new publishing team and the journal “Osteosynthesis and Trauma Care”, as well as the scientific societies and the publishing team all the desired success in the future as a reward for their efforts.

Vienna, June 2007

o. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. mult. Vilmos Vécsei