Primary care research in the postmodern world

A new editor’s first editorial is a place to thank, take stock and define some objectives. First, I would like to thank Roger Jones for his kind comments in the last issue. I am very aware that I succeed two highly distinguished academics in the discipline of primary care, Roger Jones and John Howie, in editing this journal. They have created a journal that is now well established as the only overtly international primary care journal, and steadily improved the journal’s profile and impact. Having devoted 14 years to Family Practice, I know that Roger will watch my efforts with keen interest, and I am sure that I will be relying on his advice in the coming years. I bring experience as an author, reviewer and active researcher. I have served on the Editorial Boards of Medical Decision Making and the Cochrane Upper GI and Pancreatic Disease Group, and as an editorial advisor at the British Medical Journal. As an editor, I should be concerned about ‘impact factor’. In fact, all the primary care specialist journals have much lower impact factors than equivalent journals in other specialties. This is a problem for our whole discipline, and I would like to see the impact factor of all primary care journals improve. I hope that by providing a journal where authors will want to see their work published, the impact factor will naturally follow. Being a ‘modern’ editor, I have resisted the urge to change the cover (for now), but have re-written the mission statement.