Acta Anaesthesiologica Taiwanica 54 (2016) 103e105

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Acta Anaesthesiologica Taiwanica

journal homepage: www.e-aat.com

Editorial view

Journeys and journals east and west

platform where academics could publish their work (the first inde-
pendent Department of Anesthesiology in Taiwan had been
founded only six years previously). It was published in Chinese.
Keywords: Around this time, industry overtook agriculture as the primary
anesthesia;
bibliometrics;
engine of productivity in Taiwan. Together with the government’s
editorial; strategy of heavy investment in education, this facilitated a number
Far East; of young Taiwanese physicians pursuing advanced study of anes-
journalism thesiology in the United States.11
Prominent among them was Professor Takyu Lee [李德譽],
whose tutelage under K. C. Wong, Chairman of Anesthesiology at
the University of Utah School of Medicine, turned into a close per-
This is the second1 in a series of editorials and articles documenting
sonal and professional relationship lasting many years and was
a self-evaluation and strategic reorganization of Acta Anaes-
connected to Professor Wong spending much of his later career
thesiologica Taiwanica (AAT), to be re-named Asian Journal of
furthering education in anesthesiology in China and Taiwan.12e14
Anesthesiology effective March, 2017.
Lee served as AAT’s editor-in-chief from 1994e2002 effecting a
major pivot toward modernization and internationalization of the
Taiwan's impressive economic and sociocultural development journal: He made it bilingual, personally devoting untold hours to
has been invigorated by transmission of knowledge, trade, assis- polishing the English of submitted articles. This leap resulted in
tance, and related intercourse between Taiwan and the West, attracting several paper submissions from countries outside
and–post World War II–particularly with the United States.2e5 Taiwan, including mostly “mid-level” academic producers from In-
Embedded in this success story dwells that of the also impressive dia and the Middle East, but also a few from Germany and the UK.12
development of Taiwan’s healthcare system, including that of the field Prof Ho, who had studied on a fellowship at the University of
of anesthesiology. Having long played catch-up with the advanced Chicago after his medical residency, undertook the editor-in-chief
world economies, Taiwan–along with several other Asian nations position in 2003, further upgrading AAT by transforming it into
and regions–today stands recognized in many respects as counting an English-only journal and aiming directly and persistently at
among them.6e8 A 2008 article published in the “Observations” section achieving “SCI status” (by inviting recognized scholars to write re-
of The BMJ titled “Humbled in Taiwan” and headlined “Taiwan’s highly view articles on hot or controversial topics, and reorganizing the
efficient system of national health insurance should humble and numbers of published articles by type), an endeavor at which he
inspire the United States” emblemizes this dramatic gap reduction.9 today matter-of-factly deems a failure. Nevertheless, his efforts
Yet Taiwan and the rest of Asia in general lags behind the West in
the production of high-quality academic research and professional/
clinical literature, with the United States producing more such pub-
lications, and citations thereof, in anesthesiology than any other
country, followed by European nations, Canada, and Australia.10
With the Taiwanese Society of Anesthesiologists, our founding or-
ganization, marking its 60th anniversary this year, we take a look
back at the work that has taken AAT from its inception in 1962 as
the second or third specialized medical journal in Taiwan–“Depend-
ing on who you ask”, according to former Editor-in-Chief Professor
Shungtai Ho [何善台])–to its current status, and we acknowledge
and draw lessons from those efforts as we seek to further elevate
AAT’s stature and its power to contribute more substantially to the
progression of anesthetic medicine, including perioperative medi-
cine, pain medicine, and critical care medicine worldwide.11
In its earlier years, AAT represented a significant achievement,
conferring a point of pride in an underappreciated and relatively
Figure 1. Getting stonger. AAT's increase in impact, 2005e2015.
unseen specialty, materializing a place for pioneering Taiwanese Adapted from “Acta Anaesthesiologica Taiwanica”. ResearchGate. Researchgate.net.
clinicians and researchers to disseminate much-needed informa- Web. [Accessed 10 November 2016] <https://www.researchgate.net/journal/1875-
tion and guidance to peers, and serving the nascent field as a 4597_Acta_Anaesthesiologica_Taiwanica>.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aat.2016.12.001
1875-4597/Copyright © 2016, Taiwan Society of Anesthesiologists. Published by Elsevier Taiwan LLC. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
104 J.L. Reynolds, W.-Z. Sun

Figure 2. Stepwise Anglicization. Top: Cover of AAT (then Acta Anaesthesiologica Sinica) from 1961, published in Mandarin Chinese. Bottom: Pages from a 2003 issue, published in
Chinese and in English.
Journeys and journals
resulted in setting the journal on an increasingly ambitious path
and dramatically improved its impact factor. He also worked,
both as editor-in-chief and earlier during his service as president
of the Taiwanese Society of Anesthesiologists, to introduce greater
separation between the journal’s editor-in-chief position and the
board of the society. He also extended the term of the editor-in-
chief position, granting greater editorial independence and more
time for editors-in-chief to develop and execute on their goals
(Figure 1).11
The key contributions by the previous two editors-in-chief,
then, involved making administrative changes, transforming AAT
into an English-only journal, and diversifying submissions from au-
thors outside Taiwan (Figure 2).
We've taken a look back, hopefully arming ourselves with infor-
mation about what has worked to raise AAT to the position it enjoys
today. In forthcoming articles, we will share our explorations into
strategies that can help us steer the journal toward reaching its po-
tential tomorrow. This will involve redefining ourselves as an Asian
journal instead of a Taiwanese one, defining more precisely what
that means, and examining what, as an Asian journal, we can
uniquely offer and how increased collaboration with colleagues in
medical publishing around the world might create synergies in
support of our shared and most fundamental projects: To improve
the work, health, productivity, and well-being of anesthesiologists
and allied professionals, their patients and other stakeholders, and
to more deeply integrate these efforts on a global scale.
Conflicts of interest
All authors declare no conflicts of interest.
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James L. Reynolds, Globalization Editor
Acta Anesthesiologica Taiwanica, Taipei, Taiwan
Wei-Zen Sun, Editor-in-Chief*
Acta Anesthesiologica Taiwanica, Taipei, Taiwan
Department of Anesthesiology, College of Medicine, National Taiwan
University, 7 Chungshan South Rd, 10002, Taipei, Taiwan
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: þ886 02 2312 3456x66522; fax:
þ886 02 2394 9681.
E-mail address: wzsun@ntu.edu.tw (W.-Z. Sun).