The birth of an official journal of Indian Arthroscopy Society

Indian Arthroscopy Society (IAS) is the national organization of arthroscopic surgeons of India. It was formed on January 01, 1983, with only 11 founder members under the guidance of its patron, Dr. Dinesh Patel (USA). The major impetus to the spread of arthroscopy in India occurred, thereafter, and the subspecialty has grown leaps and bounds to its current state.^[1] This society has an ever-growing list of active and associate members which are around 3000 now and may be considered as one of the biggest society of its own kind, in the world. This society is best known for its extraordinary work of nurturing and training young arthroscopic surgeons across India. However, the IAS lacked one major thing in their portfolio, i.e., their own journal. Several attempts have been made in the past to start an official journal of the IAS, but it could not be conceived till recently. The IAS executive committee took a decision to seriously consider starting a journal, by electing an editor-in-chief, in 2019. I was fortunate to get elected for this coveted post. I knew very well that starting a new journal from the scratch would be a challenging task, but due to my experience of about a decade in doing editorial jobs for various journals such as Indian Journal of Orthopedics and Journal of Clinical Orthopedics and Trauma, I could make a start in the right direction, within a short span of time.

We launched the first-ever official journal of IAS, by the name of the Journal of Arthroscopic Surgery and Sports Medicine (JASSM), with a new publisher, called Scientific Scholar. We created a robust editorial board, by incorporating some of the top names in the field of Arthroscopy and Sports Medicine from within India and abroad.^[2] The editorial board has been carefully chosen to represent the top arthroscopic specialists specializing in various joints and also the big names in the regenerative medicine and cartilage preservation. We have decided to start this journal on a biennial basis, with its first issue publication in July 2020. Dr. Vikas Khanduja (Cambridge, UK) was kind enough to agree to our request of being the guest editor of this inaugural issue of JASSM. He is a Consultant Orthopedic Surgeon specializing in both the arthroplasty and sports surgery aspects of hip and knee surgery and has a particular interest in arthroscopic surgery of the hip and knee.

The interest in the field of arthroscopy is increasing globally and exponentially in the recent past, including in India. Although the Arthroscopic Surgeons of India are doing all types of arthroscopic surgery of various joints, but were lacking disproportionately in publishing and sharing their work. It was perhaps due to the lack of a dedicated and specialty arthroscopy journal from India. However, some of the publications from Indian authors did find a place in the National and International journals, equally from the teaching government institutions and nonteaching private hospital specialists.^[3]

We strongly believe that the JASSM would fill in the void of a specialty arthroscopy journal from India (and Southeast Asia) significantly and provide an ample opportunity for the arthroscopic surgeons from India and abroad to publish their research in it. This journal will accept all types of articles related to Arthroscopic Surgery, Regenerative Medicine, Joint conservation, and Sports injuries. We are hopeful that through this Journal, the authors from across the globe would be able to share and showcase their research to the arthroscopic surgeons and sports medicine specialists. We shall ensure a speedy and fair peer review and decision making on all the submissions.

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