ABC Travelling Fellows 2008 Diary

First installment: London Monday 28 April

The British and Irish fellows (Dominic Meek, Kevin Mulhall, Rob Pollock and Alasdair Sutherland) met at the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery offices in Buckingham Street in central London. We had all appreciated that the ABC fellowship is funded jointly by the British Orthopaedic Association and the Journal, but it was stressed to us that we were to be ambassadors not only for our home countries generally, but also for the journal specifically.

The current editor, James Scott, and his immediate predecessor Frank Horan gave informal talks on the history and work of the journal, the review process and the greatly expanded web presence. Alistair Ross talked on the controversies surrounding level of evidence classification and fraud in publishing, and Richard Villar described the amazingly detailed process of primary editing, of which the journal is justly proud.

With the briefing over, we moved, via hotel check-in, to the Athaneum club for a dinner with: former fellows, Mike Bell (ABC 1988), Pete Kay (ABC 1998), and Aresh Hashemi-Nejad(ABC 2006); from the BOA: Steve Cannon (BOA president) + Mrs Cannon, along with David Adams, BOA chief Executive; from the journal James Scott, current editor, and Frank Horan, past editor, along with Richard Villar and Alistair Ross. We were given plenty of advice from past fellows and instructions from our sponsors, none of which helped to calm the nerves! A pint on the way home and sharp to bed as there is still much preparation to do before the flight and meeting the remaining fellows.