A Letter from the Editor-in-Chief

Dear friends and colleagues,

2020 is a very difficult year. The spread of COVID-19 has deeply affected our  lives.  Due to the pandemic, all scientific meetings have been canceled or replaced by virtual congresses although useful, webinars and e-conferences, have dramatically reduced the possibility to discuss informally and exchange ideas and comments with colleagues on relevant scientific issues. In this context, peer-reviewed open access scientific journals, such as Mini-invasive Surgery (MIS), can play an even more significant role in keeping the international scientific community updated and  in promoting the free dissemination of knowledge.

With the end of the year approaching, it’s time for us to take stock of the last year and to start making plans for the coming year.

First, I want to express that I am proud as the Editor-in-Chief of MIS. This young journal has greatly improved over the past year as the result of a huge common effort.  I’m very grateful to our professional editorial team, as well as to our authors and reviewers for their hard work. I’d also like to express my appreciation to all the Associated Editors (Riccardo Autorino, Yuman Fong, Farid Gharagozloo, Igor F. Palacios) and to all the Editorial Board members for their constant help since joining the journal. My personal gratitude goes to OAE and to Jane Lee, the Managing Editor in charge, together with Lijun Jin, the publisher, and all the Management Team, for their commitment. This year we published several special issues focused on different aspects of minimally invasive surgery. I sincerely appreciated all the Guest Editors for their excellent work in selecting and publishing high-quality articles.

Thanks to your collective efforts, MIS has progressed tremendously since its initial issue published in 2017.  From the very beginning, our team strove to realize the goal of developing a high-quality journal.  I have to acknowledge all our reviewers for their commitment in selecting papers of a high scientific level. I’m equally grateful to our authors, who  I encourage  to keep supporting me by sending their best articles. I warmly welcome the new Youth Editorial Board, which I’m sure will be the key to elevating the rank of the journal by increasing the numbers of papers and generally improving the level of MIS. Their contribution will be fundamental for the dissemination of our journal.

Looking to the future of MIS, I would like to share with you some news and projects for 2021:

• The website has been completely updated recently. The new homepage of the journal has been launched and  it will be implemented next year.
• We are also trying to propose MIS as Official Journal to some well-renowned surgical mini-invasive association and I'm sure that every one of you will give his contribution in achieving this goal.
• We are looking forward to your participation in a series of webinars to be jointly hosted by our editorial department and many outstanding experts and scholars.
• Our journal is also encouraging young scholars to join us to form a strong Youth Editorial Board;  Joining the Youth Editorial Board is a unique opportunity to be part of inspiring and ambitious young leaders in the journal of MIS.

Finally, I strongly encourage you all, to contribute original research papers.  By submitting original articles on every aspect of Mini-invasive Surgery we will enhance both the reputation and the citation index of the journal.   

Again, I'd like to congratulate and express my gratitude to everybody for the tremendous commitment. I wish you and your loved ones a happy holiday season and a prosperous, peaceful and healthy new year. 

I hope 2021 will be bright for all of us.

Thank you
Giulio Belli