Asian Journal of Arthroscopy – Insights

Sachin Tapasvi, Parag Sancheti, Ashok Shyam

Volume 1 | Issue 1 | April – Jun 2016 | Page 1-2

Author: Sachin Tapasvi [1], Parag Sancheti [2] , Ashok Shyam [2],[3]

[1]  Orthopaedic Specialty Clinic, Pune Maharashtra.
[2] Sancheti Institute for Orthopaedics & Rehabilitation, Pune, India
[3]  Indian Orthopaedic Research Group, Thane, India

Address of Correspondence

Dr Ashok Shyam
AJA Editorial Office, A-203, Manthan Apts, Shreesh CHS, Hajuri Road, Thane [w], Maharashtra, India.
Email: editor@asianarthroscopy.com

“Technique, Technique, Technique”, although Dr David Hungerford quoted the above for arthroplasty surgery, the same applies to Arthroscopy. Surgical technique and skill are unique to Arthroscopy almost as if it is a distinct area of expertise. No other subspecialty of orthopaedics has such minimal overlap with general orthopaedics, in terms of surgical techniques. One of the major goals of Asian Journal of Arthroscopy (AJA) is propagation of arthroscopy techniques. ‘Training by Publication’ is one the founding pillars of AJA. We want to bring the best techniques and procedures to our readers. These techniques will be in form of articles, pictograms and videos with basic premise of ease of learning. The readers should be able to understand the principles of the surgery, the critical steps and also learn new tips and tricks. They should be able to execute steps on the surgery and possibly embark on the learning curve to master the technique. Although more work is needed in terms of envisioning the formats of the article, this remains the mail goal of AJA and in times to come we would look for ways and means to do this more effectively. Currently the Journal has a technical note/video technique section with guidelines to submit a video article. We will also be running pictograms or Photo-articles which will be more pictures and less text (something like a comic strip but with much more smiles for arthroscopy surgeons!). ArthroMedia is a special section on the AJA website which will host multiple media items like videos, powerpoints, PDF and other documents related to surgical skills and surgeries. This will be compiled from contributions of editorial board, reviewers board, authors and also from our readers. This section will be open for submission to all and will compile the best training content. We invite all of you to submit your content to ArthoMedia and help us build this portal.

Why the new Journal when there are already existing journals of Arthroscopy?
There are two main reasons; to produce a body of literature that is clinically relevant and to make this knowledge freely accessible to all. Journals have shown trend to move towards a more rigid framework of scientific publications, meanwhile losing the mail focus of scientific publications. Journals are meant to directly influence and improve patient care. Charging for downloading articles imposes another limitation on dispersion and use of knowledge. AJA intends to counter these two issues by creating a journal that is intelligent, interactive, and clinically relevant and at the same time completely Open Access. The entire format of the Journal will be one of ‘Integration’ with basic science, molecular research, clinical trials, clinical research, case based discussion, evidence based medicine, expert opinion and patients perspective, all aiming together to ‘Translate’ into betterment of Arthroscopy strategies and surgeries. Although the Journal will focus on Asian studies, it will be open to submissions from all across the globe.
The Journal will be open access, peer reviewed and will have three issues every year. It will be published in both online and print formats. The Journal is the official Arthroscopy Journal of the Orthopaedic Research Group. The Research Group has affiliation to Ebscohost and is a member of Crossref. Thus primarily the journal will be indexed with Ebscohost and will have a doi (digital object identifier) for each article. Within due course we aim to index the journal with all major indexes including Pubmed and Science citation index.

What is unique about AJA?
The most important unique point of AJA is that it is a Surgeon Initiated Journal. The entire concept of the journal, the designing of website, manuscript portal and guidelines are all made by a team of surgeons. The team will be self-publishing the Journal and there will be no external publisher involved. All the rights of the journal is with the editorial board and the core team of AJA and no rights belong to any external body. This gives us a lot of flexibility and helps the journal to adapt rapidly to changing needs of the readers and authors. The journal decisions can be taken rapidly and since the entire process is controlled by the AJA team, the quality of peer review and content will be excellent. With no constraint of a corporate publisher, we can lay down our own rules and regulations and provide best of services to the Arthroscopy community
We believe AJA is an ambitious project and has much potential to evolve along with the evolution of Arthroscopy Surgery. We have great plans for AJA and we hope for great co-operation from the Arthroscopy community. Please do send your suggestions, opinions and comments to us at the editorial email. AJA is a journal “By the Surgeon, for the Surgeon, and of the Surgeon” and together we can take it to great heights

Dr Sachin Tapsvi | Dr Parag Sancheti | Dr Ashok Shyam

Dr. Sachin Tapasvi

Dr. Parag Sancheti

Dr. Ashok Shyam

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