Page 58 - IFSO-History-Book-Digital-File

aspects of the surgical treatment and management of obesity, including original research articles,
review papers, case reports, Letters to the Editor, videos, technique innovations, perioperative
management, long-term outcomes, surgical complications, and the psychosocial dimensions of
obesity and its treatment.
Despite its maturation and growth, the young journal was functioning at a significant financial loss.
RCO was ultimately sold to International Thomson Publications, and then sold again to
Lippincott-Williams & Wilkins [2]. Unfortunately, the journal continued to run at a loss, and in
September 1999, Lippincott-Williams & Wilkins decided to cease publication of the journal. Instead
of letting the journal fail, Deitel purchased it himself and assumed full control of its publications and
operation. He successfully saved the journal from bankruptcy, and it subsequently became
financially successful.
Deitel was the owner, Editor-in-Chief, and publisher of the journal. From his private office he
performed all of the functions needed to publish a proper journal, including the manuscript review,
copyediting, issue design, printing, advertising, poly-bagging, mailing, and subscriptions. He
personally edited over 2,500 articles, many requiring time-consuming, skillful English language
correction. Lastly, he abstracted every article, dating back to the first issue in 1991, and put them all
on the internet so that they were available online for all subscribers.

The first publication in OBSU was an editorial written by Dr. George Cowan, predicting the future of
MBS [3]. Over time, the number of manuscripts submitted for consideration for publication steadily
increased. In 2004, a rift developed over control of the Editorial Board between Dr. Deitel and some
senior members of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery (ASBS, now the American Society for
Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, ASMBS), the largest national society member of IFSO, closely
aligned with IFSO's North American Chapter (IFSO-NAC). The ASBS leadership did not think that the
owner of a peer-review journal should have publishing influence over the Editorial Board. Ultimately,
both sides agreed to sell the journal to the ASBS; yet, both sides could not agree on the price. The
ASBS decided not to purchase OBSU, and instead, to create its own MBS journal. OBSU remained
the official journal of IFSO but the North American and Brazilian chapters of IFSO ended their
relationships with OBSU and created a new journal, titled, Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases.

Since the founding in 1991 of OBSU, the field of MBS has grown exponentially, driven by several
factors. Most notably, the successful conversion from traditional open-access surgery to
laparoscopic surgery played a key role in broadening OBSU’s base of interest. Other significant
improvements included the enhanced efficacy of MBS operations and the popularity of the sleeve
gastrectomy, which became the most commonly performed MBS procedure in the world [5]. Wider
interest in MBS also resulted in an exponential increase in the number of research manuscripts
submitted to OBSU and an increase in the number of its publications. In addition, there was also
improvement in the quality of the manuscripts submitted to the journal, as demonstrated by the
voiced opinion of readers, and by increased subscriptions, and an enhanced impact factor (IF) of 3.4.
In 2005, Springer Nature, the second largest scientific publisher in the world, with thousands of
highly ranked journals and books, purchased OBSU. This move guaranteed the long-term success of
the journal. Springer Nature has been its publisher ever since.

At present, the journal is quite large. Over 1,000 manuscripts are submitted yearly for peer-review
assessment. The journal also reviews surgical videos and conducts interviews of authors regarding
recently published manuscripts. Currently, OBSU has over 500 clinicians reviewing submissions. To
handle the growth in global submissions the Editorial Board was enlarged to 80 editors, and the
number of Associate Editors, was expanded from 29 to 50.

56