Readers may be surprised to find in this issue of The British Journal of Surgery a recent paper from the prestigious American journal Surgery, which is published in full in the format employed by Surgery. We have printed this paper as part of a joint experiment between Surgery and The British Journal of Surgery, to publish one paper from each other's journal for nine issues out of twelve in the next year, after which we will reassess the success of the venture. The Editorial Boards of Surgery and The British Journal of Surgery decided upon this policy to encourage the subscribers to both journals to investigate the contents of the other journal, and thereby promote both journals. The officers of The British Journal of Surgery feel that important work published in UK and European journals is inadequately reviewed by authors in the USA and they hope that this small step may have some effect in encouraging more personal subscriptions in the USA and wider reference to papers published from abroad. The British Journal of Surgery has expanded considerably over the last few years; it is now published in India, and the Spanish edition, published in Spanish and marketed in Spain and South America, appeared for the first time in January. We hope that this sample of the excellent material published in Surgery will interest .our increased international readership.
The papers to be published in The British Journal of Surgery are selected by the Editors from selected manuscripts from Surgery and will be published in full, with no editorial alterations. Correspondence concerning these papers should be addressed to the Editor of the appropriate parent journal and the reference must be quoted as a paper from that journal. The 'Publishing Agreement' of both journals has been modified to insert a clause requesting permission from authors to allow this joint publication if their paper is selected; further consent from authors will not be sought after the paper has been accepted, provided they have agreed to this clause.
We would welcome correspondence concerning this venture.