The winner of the 5th annual MacLean–Mueller Prize (1998) is Dr. Ian D. McGilvray, general surgery resident at the University of Toronto, for his paper “Antioxidant modulation of skin inflammation: preventing inflammatory progression by inhibiting neutrophil influx” (see page 109).
This year the competition was particularly intense, which suggests that research by residents in our departments of surgery is alive and well. Winners to date represent the broad constituency of the sponsoring societies which is also very healthy. The Canadian Journal of Surgery encourages all residents in Canadian surgical programs to submit their best work for this award. Part of the judges’ mandate is to determine whether or not the papers submitted are publishable, independent of the competition. The quality of the submissions is such that most submissions are published on the strength of the judges’ recommendation. As with our regular submissions to the journal, if we have questions about the science or methodology, further advice is solicited. The non-winning manuscripts submitted for the competition are not identified as such at the time of publication since they usually appear an issue or 2 after the winning paper, which we publish on a very tight time line.
One of our concerns as coeditors is indeed the length of time from submission to publication. Although the review process and notification of acceptance can be achieved within a reasonable time frame, our major problem remains the backlog of manuscripts awaiting publication. At present the cost of publishing monthly is prohibitive. Upon examination, our backlog consists largely of case reports. There certainly are some virtues to case reports. However, even though the traditional format of “an ‘x’ or ‘y,’ with a review of the literature” is often a good exercise for the writer, it is of less value to the reader. Our images sections, consisting of either photographs or x-rays together with a short, pithy description, can function in most respects as case reports. Issues of patient privacy and consent as enunciated recently in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (1998;159[8]:997–1006) further detract from the desirability of publishing case reports. We will continue to increase our use of the letters section for case reports, where the message can be communicated in less than 2 typewritten pages with a single figure, but our priorities rest with our original articles as we encourage Canadian surgeons to publish in Canada with the Canadian Journal of Surgery.