Australasian Journal of Plastic Surgery: first edition

It is with great pleasure that we welcome you to the first edition of the Australasian Journal of Plastic Surgery (AJOPS). This is the beginning of a wonderful legacy of collaboration and scholarship for our local Specialty, which in time will further develop the global reputation and respect our Australasian Plastic Surgeons have always had. For over a century we have punched way above our weight division in this part of the world. From the earliest beginnings of the Specialty, revered New Zealanders Sir Harold Gillies, Sir Archibald McIndoe and Sir William Manchester helped lay the foundations. More recently we have the world’s most cited Plastic Surgeon (Australian Ian Taylor) and the number one cited institution in the world (The Royal Melbourne Hospital).1 Therefore it is past time that we had our own local journal. In addition to our past reputation, much great content from our local conferences never goes on to be published. Hopefully we can provide a timely pathway to foster high quality, peer reviewed, local research, to make it into print. Open Access Online platforms enable the relatively quick publication of research without the huge costs and time delay of traditional print journals. In time we will gain an impact factor and reputation that we can all be proud of.