Unfinished business

Being an editor is both a privilege and a thankless task. One of the privileges is the opportunity, through editorials, to express somewhat personal views in a relatively unrestricted manner. A guest editor or I write and sign all editorials in Injury Prevention; in other journals editorials are written collectively while others have few or no editorials. Personally, I treasure the opportunity to write these little essays because I hope they may influence the thinking and actions of some readers. Some of my editorials have dealt with basic journal-related topics,1 others have discussed papers in that issue2 and occasionally these editorials have addressed personal thoughts such as the need to thank mentors and colleagues before they die.3 The present editorial highlights a few problems on a long list of items that requires more discussion and then some action. They represent “unfinished business”.

THE ROLE OF PUBLISHING

For much of my life as a researcher I had the naïve notion that doing a good study and getting it published in a good journal was a major step towards enhancing prevention. Over the years I’ve come to realize that doing so is actually quite a small step in that direction. Hence, the first item of unfinished business is finding ways to make publications a stronger element in achieving our goals. I doubt if anyone has any simple solutions but I expect part of the answer will included equal elements of attracting the media and other advocacy strategies.

I don’t want to be misunderstood: To say that having a paper published does not achieve the ultimate …