The beginning of a new journey

Poh KK
Correspondence: A/Prof Poh Kian Keong, smj.editor-in-chief@sma.org.sg

SUMMARY
I take over the chief editorship of the Singapore Medical Journal (SMJ) in 2014 with much anticipation and a strong sense of responsibility. Professor Teo Eng Kiong had been preparing me for this role since June last year, enabling the ‘handover of the baton’ to occur seamlessly. For this, and for his immense contribution to the Journal, I am grateful to Prof Teo. An appropriate Chinese idiom that describes what we all need to do every now and then is “????” (y?n shu? s? yuán), which literally means “when drinking, one should think of the water source”. Prof Teo has been instrumental in bringing many important changes to the Journal during his four-year tenure as Editor-in-chief. He spearheaded a revamp in the Journal’s cover design and page layout, and introduced new article types, including the summary of the Ministry of Health’s Clinical Practice Guidelines. He also appointed specialty editors and assigned new roles to the editorial board members, which helped to significantly improve the processing time of submitted manuscripts. For the first time, the Journal acquired an impact factor, which was awarded in 2011. Also for the first time, the Journal introduced an article processing charge in 2013, as part of a viable economic model to support the administration of peer-review. It is clear that under Prof Teo’s leadership, the editorial board has expanded, and the Journal has become leaner and more impactful, yet maintaining its unique flavour. Prof Teo has also demonstrated highly effective leadership, an efficient working style and generosity to his staff. Although I had hopes that he would remain as Editor-in-chief for many more terms, I am immensely gratified that he has accepted my invitation to serve as advisor to help chart the Journal’s future.

Singapore Med J 2014; 55(2): 52; http://dx.doi.org/10.11622/smedj.2014014