Post written by Michael B. Wallace, MD, MPH, GIE Editor-in-Chief and Fred C. Andersen Professor of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Chief of Gastroenterology and Hepatology: Sheikh Shakhbout Medical City, Abu Dhabi, UAE.

It has been nearly 8 years since our team assumed responsibility for the editorship of GIE, and it is now our turn to pass the torch to a new team.

As I reflect on the past 8 years, I feel a sense of pride, accomplishment, and most importantly stewardship. As I think about where GIE was 8 years ago and where it is now, I am very pleased to say that we took over a journal in a position of strength and pass the journal on in an even greater position of strength.

We are very indebted to the many previous editors of the journal, in particular Drs Glenn Eisen, George Triadafilopoulos, Mike Sivak, and Charlie Lightdale. All 4 of these editors provided highly valuable advice and guidance on how we can continue to build the journal.

Our vision 8 years ago, and the one that continues today, was to make GIE the premier source of information on the science and practice of endoscopy worldwide. We wanted to deliver impactful scientific articles, editorials, case reports, and other educational material, so that we can improve the care of patients who seek our services. We sought to select scientific manuscripts and other reviews that met 3 criteria: relevancy to physicians who practice endoscopy, novel information, and for original scientific articles, highly rigorous design and reporting.

A second major goal was to ensure the highest ethical standards for publishing including full disclosure of conflicts of interest and avoiding plagiarism.

Third, we wanted to deliver this content to all the world. Although the journal is based with the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, our audience is truly global.

Did we achieve that vision? I can confidently say that we did. GIE remains the highest ranked and largest peer-reviewed scientific publication in the field of endoscopy by nearly all measures.

Our editorial team reviewed more than 2000 manuscripts yearly and met every month to decide which ones should be published; we always applied those 3 criteria: relevance, rigor, and novelty. We constantly checked conflict of interest statements and plagiarism using newly developed tools to detect such unfavorable occurrences. We significantly expanded our reach such that the United States is now no longer the majority source of our articles, with extensive growth throughout the world, particularly in Europe and Asia.

Finally, we launched 2 new journals, VideoGIE and iGIE, to expand our scope.

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