On the Fast Track to a new ACFAS Journal

It was a bummer of a first year in practice. Not for the reasons you would think, but because I was so strapped for time with the requirements of the "real world" that I could not read through every foot and ankle publication as I had during residency and fellowship. I remember having to pick and choose journals to review, but over time, needed to whittle them down to only the publications covering high levels of evidence-based medicine. As time went by, I could only skim the publications for pertinent information, usually by reviewing the abstract, the figures and tables. Then I only reviewed the abstract conclusions. Critically reviewing the foot and ankle literature was no longer fun and instead was an unwelcome chore. So now it's different, right? I've fully rebounded and have time management mastered, allowing me to review an ever-growing journal offering specific to foot and ankle surgery. Not quite…if anything my time management has continued to degrade. So why another journal and why be the Editor-in-Chief? We'll start with the latter. I started my American College of Foot & Ankle Surgeons (ACFAS) life in 1993 with the ACFAS student chapter, progressed to a Resident Member, Associate Member, then Fellow Member, followed by volunteering for committees/task forces/white papers/skills courses, became an elected member of the Board of Directors, then proceeded through the Executive Committee ranks including ACFAS President from 2014 to 2015, and have continued my involvement since, as deemed appropriate, by the leadership of the College. Why share this? I made it clear to the ACFAS leadership I would decline this position if it meant not extending the opportunity to serve in a leadership role to another member of ACFAS. I have served the College in leadership roles and my role now is to facilitate, mentor and promote the College, not be in charge of an important segment of the College's educational offerings. I accepted this role because I believe I can help generate some momentum until the position can be handed off to a member of the next generation of foot and ankle surgeons. This brings us back to the question, "Why another journal?" Simply put The Journal of Foot & Ankle Surgery (JFAS) has outgrown itself. JFAS’ history is interesting—it started in 1964 as the American College of Foot Surgeons Journal. In 1967 it became the Journal of Foot Surgery and in 1992, JFAS was born. Throughout its existence, JFAS has involved 12 Editors-in-Chief. The ACFAS Board of Directors, Council for Journal Management, and Editor-in-Chief D. Scott Malay, DPM, MSCE, FACFAS have managed to create a magnificent journal full of publications from around the world that have withstood the rigors of scientific peer-review. However, this has come at an expense, specifically, JFAS is now so daunting that it simply cannot be read cover-to-cover without cutting corners like I shared with you earlier. JFAS can no longer represent the only scientific journal for the College and also cannot be managed by one editor. Hence the development of a Deputy-Editor position, held by a favorite professional educator of mine, Hiro Shibuya, DPM, MS, FACFAS. Segue to Foot & Ankle Surgery: Techniques, Reports & Cases (FASTRAC), the new Open Access sidekick to JFAS. FASTRAC performs a double-blind review on all submissions through involvement of an internationally diverse editorial board. We have enrolled allopathic, osteopathic and podiatric physicians specializing in foot and ankle surgery. Symbolically, editorial board members’ training periods cover the decades from the 1960s up to and including the 2020s. These are the same decades JFAS has been in existence. As FASTRAC grows, the editorial board will grow with it. By being Open Access, FASTRAC permits authors to own the copyright in their publications. Government- and institution-funded research (paid for by tax payers and funders who require publication in Open Access journals) may now, with FASTRAC, be submitted to an ACFAS journal. I've always been upset when I see "new" research published without proper reference to the poster or manuscript presented at the ACFAS Annual Scientific Conference. To combat this, we will publish the scientific and case report posters presented at the College's Annual Scientific Conference that receive an award, starting with 2020′s posters. Now the world will have direct access to this information, and it will forever be referenced and discoverable through PubMed once the journal is indexed in PubMed Central, which will take about a year, and will be retroactive. We will have a heavy focus on case series, case reports, surgical techniques, video submissions, invited commentary, industry-sponsored publications, and hopefully letters to the editors challenging the published materials and making recommendations for growth. We've all heard that, "Surgery is an inexact science and it is more often art than science." With FASTRAC we are in art class, and it's okay to eat glue and draw on the walls to see what sticks and works best. Ultimately, my goal is to simply generate something interesting foot and ankle surgeons can digest when they want, in a timely manner, to learn something new or reflect on their experiences with the same pathology and challenge us. Most of all, I want to produce an enjoyable work the ACFAS membership will be proud to read in its entirety. Collectively, we will make certain FASTRAC is innovative, impactful and nimble to align with the goals of our members. Stay tuned and visit.fastracjournal.org to find out how we're doing! Be well, Tom Declaration of competing interest The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC-ND

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