Radiography (2009) 15, 1

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EDITORIAL

A focus on special editions

Over the past decade, Radiography has led the way inpublishing articles on advanced and developing practice. Infact, there have been over 60 articles covering both diag-nostic imaging and radiotherapy. Advanced practice wasthe first theme to be covered by a special on-line issue in2006. Following hot on the trail is the special on-lineconsultant edition1 published at the end of 2008 which isavailable on Science Direct (www.sciencedirect.com).Members of the Society of Radiographers can access thespecial edition through the Society of Radiographers’ website. This special edition with its focus on consultantpractice is timely and recognises the great deal of interestthere is on the subject. The edition has been produced asa result of much hard work by the guest editors, Bev Snaith,Judith Kelly, Peter Cantin and of course the authors. PeterHogg, my predecessor as Editor-in-Chief also playeda major part in compiling the special edition, a task forwhich I am very grateful. The special edition bringstogether a number of leading articles on consultant prac-tice. The edition is well balanced with both original andreview articles covering leadership, research, educationand clinical case studies as well as discussing advancedpractice in the USA and the antipodes. In support of thespecial edition, Professor Audrey Paterson, Director ofProfessional Policy at the College of Radiographers haswritten a robust guest editorial2 in this issue that focuses onconsultant practice and associated matters. Without anydoubt radiography as a profession has made a tremendousleap forward and no one can deny the advancement ofradiographic practice over the past decade. But radiog-raphy must now build on this and thoroughly embedconsultant radiographic practice into healthcare delivery inthe United Kingdom. This will surely provide greaterstability, leadership, aid recruitment and retention in theprofession.

The facility for publishing on-line special editions isadvantageous in bringing together a series of related arti-cles on a single subject area. It is important to stress thatall contributions to special editions are peer reviewed asare all submissions for the regular issues. This remains a keyfact in maintaining the journal’s integrity. To date threespecial editions have been published and apart from the

1078-8174/$ - see front matter ª 2008 The College of Radiographers. Pdoi:10.1016/j.radi.2008.11.010

two referred to above the MRI special edition was publishedin 2007.3 Also Brian Bentley is continuing with his series ofhistorical articles reviewing the early editions of the orig-inal Radiography, his latest offering covers 1937. This iscurrently in-press and will appear as an on-line article indue course.

It is our intention to continue to publish special on-lineeditions at appropriate times. Two proposals have alreadybeen brought to my attention, one focusing exclusively onradiotherapy and oncology and the other with a focus oneducation. By the time this edition is published theproposals will have been considered by the Editorial Boardat its January meeting. I am sure there are other topics onwhich readers would like to see a special edition. Indeed, ifthere are suggestions out there please contact me withyour ideas. You may wish to make a contribution as anauthor or even as a guest editor, if so I would definitely liketo hear from you.

One final item to report is that Patrick Brennan, who hasbeen one of our review editors for the past five years,completed his term of office at the beginning of the year.Patrick has made a significant contribution to Radiographyduring that time and his input as an editor will be sorelymissed. A special thanks to Patrick for his majorcontribution.

References

1. Advanced and consultant practice in radiography. Radiography2008;14(Suppl. 1):e1e96. Available from: <www.sciencedirect.com>.

2. Paterson A. Consultant radiographers e The point of no return?Radiography 2009;15(1):2e5.

3. MRI and Contrast Agents. Radiography 2007;13(Suppl. 1):e1e102. Available from: <www.sciencedirect.com>.

Richard PriceHead of School of Health and Emergency Professions

University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield, HertsAL10 9AB, UK

E-mail address: radiographyjournal@sor.org

ublished by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.