The Milestones in hepatology section is a relatively new section of this journal [1] aimed to publish articles about relevant and outstanding contributions either factual, human, technological and even social-philosophical aspects, e.g., social policy, to the field of Hepatology. As indicated in the description of the type of articles, it covers important advances and contributions, milestone discoveries, biographical notes of influential clinicians and basic scientists that reveal to us from the “nuts and bolts” of major discoveries or major profound and important advances in the progress of this specialty.
Although we haven’t publish many articles in that section yet, we have received many letters from readers around the world about the first article published in Milestones in Hepatology (“The Royal Free Hospital school of hepatology…”)[2] praising both the journal and its authors. We have also received many suggestions about both topics and renowned hepatologists whose contributions might be included in that section.
With all the above, we thought we should revise our section goals and agreed that it would help to review what leading journals in the field have done in that respect. We looked at the type of articles they accept and the subjects or themes those articles have dealt with from a selection of leading journals in the field. The selection included Hepatology, Journal of hepatology, Journal of Gastroenterology and hepatology, Canadian Journal of hepatology, Gut, Gastroenterology, Gastroentrologia y Hepatología, Canadian Liver journal, Liver international, Hepatology research, Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, and Hepatology International.
We found that there have been “Milestone-type” articles in many of those journals covering a variety of subjects from the history of hepatology to the life and contributions of famous hepatologists as well as some “Milestones in hepatology” per se articles [3].
Journal sections for these articles have had different titles. However, we must admit that many of these articles have not been regarded as milestone texts by some editors. The titles of those sections were: Milestones [3], Special articles [4], Sounding board, Supplements in part or as a whole [5], Masters’ perspective [6], Reviews [7,8], Letters [9], Editor's corner [10], Commentaries [11], Reminiscences, Key developments [12], Special category manuscripts and many Editorials [13].
We found a diverse collection of subjects covered in those Milestone or Milestone-like sections, including history of Hepatology (the journal) [13], history of a national liver foundation [14], history of hepatology in a particular country (Spain) [9], history of particular liver units [2,4,5,15,16], history of hepatology in particular states or provinces –4,16), milestones in a specific liver pathology, i.e., hepatitis, Wilson's disease [8,9], history of a national association for the study of the liver [11], and many other topics.
Finally, as to why should there be a section of Milestones in Hepatology in our journal, perhaps part of the answer is in the publications themselves about those historical facts, scientists, doctors and hepatologists’ discoveries, life stories and contributions, those important advances in the field and other materials that are important to the field. We, as modern Galens, like to know who we are, where do we come from, and, moreover, the same questions about our specialty. We plan to do a survey in the next future to ask our readers and members of the societies and associations that participate with Annals of Hepatology about their opinion on this question.
For all the reasons mentioned above, we want to invite writers, specialists and scholars from the different fields of medical sciences together with our esteemed hepatologists to contribute to this section and share with our readers those special pieces of knowledge that contribute to building the corpus of our specialty.
