And the journey continues on the IJDVL highway…

It’s an honour and a privilege to be appointed editor-in-chief of the Indian Journal of Dermatology, Venereology & Leprology (IJDVL); a journal with unquestionable repute and illustrious history of over 87 years.¹ I am truly excited to be embarking on this new role and wish to express my gratitude and appreciation to the leadership and the selection committee for entrusting me with this responsibility. I deeply value this opportunity and responsibility of nurturing and increasing the visibility of IJDVL during my editorship.

I would like to thank my predecessor Dr Saumya Panda who has worked tirelessly for six long years for IJDVL² and for ensuring a smooth transition for me. My thoughts about the editorial policies as of now are in alignment with those of Dr Panda and his team, and I plan to continue with the existing article categories and submission guidelines, introducing changes as and when necessary.

I would also like to express my appreciation for our managing editor, Dr Rajeev Sharma, whose experience of over a decade with the past three editors will be of immense help to me. I am confident and proud of the restructured editorial team which is a perfect blend of highly experienced and new enthusiastic associate editors, deputy editor, content editors, section editors, and assistant editors. I am fortunate to have the enviable support of both the national and international advisory board members in this new venture. I look forward to working with our excellent editorial and publishing staff.

I believe in embracing changes and new initiatives in such ventures. As a result, the journal cover page has acquired a new look to match the IADVL logo. The COVID pandemic has made the medical community increasingly aware of the power of social media.³ Social media has emerged as a powerful and effective tool to improve dissemination of reliable scientific information to a wider audience, promote behaviour change, increase visibility, and involve younger audience. It also helps readers engage more with the journal, act as a portal for feedback, and be a networking platform for new researchers to collaborate nationally and internationally. We have dynamic social media editors and we plan to be more visible on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Linked In. We also plan to publish a series of podcasts accompanying each new issue that will feature interviews with the author of original/ review articles discussing the essence of their research and other interesting themes as they emerge.

Timely publication of the submitted manuscript following an unbiased and high-quality, robust peer review is crucial as medical knowledge and clinical practices evolve rapidly over time. It is important to ensure the faith of our authors who kindly choose this journal to publish their work. We assure you that the editorial team will strive to work in tandem to expedite the process of publication, a much-anticipated change. We have been promised unflinching support from the publishing team in making this happen.

Once again, the entire editorial team, expresses our gratitude to all the authors that choose IJDVL to showcase their research work. We acknowledge and sincerely appreciate our worthy reviewers for their continuing honorary and dedicated services that are vital to the success of the journal.

IJDVL has proved to be a reputed journal with a strong foundation and I am confident that with continuous and collective efforts, we shall sustain and build upon the exemplary legacy of IJDVL.

Long live IJDVL! And Long live IADVL!