Dear OARSI members
Happy New Year to everyone!
I hope that you all are doing very well, and everything is fine with you. In this message, I would like to summarize the works of the year 2022 and outline future plans for the Society.
COVID-19 has affected the yearly routine schedules and cycles of academic societies over the last 3 years. OARSI was no exception and, as you know, we had to cancel the annual congress in 2020 and held a completely virtual congress in 2021. Fortunately, in 2022, we were able to gather in Berlin and meet old friends and colleagues again. I expect that, with receding pandemics, we will go back to normal in the coming World Congress in Denver. I would like to remind you that a hybrid meeting is a very costly platform which requires double the expense of a normal meeting. This format of congress cannot be easily adopted in the future, unfortunately, for a society without big industrial sponsorship.
Our flagship journal, Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, reached the record impact factor of 7.507. This reflects the raised reputation of the journal among the researchers in our field. I’d like to express my sincere gratitude to our previous editor-in-chief, Joel Block, and his team for the hard work done to achieve this level of quality. As the OARSI president, I also encourage the current editorial team, headed by co-editors-in-chief David Hunter and Anne-Marie Malfait, to continue making great efforts to heighten the status of OAC. Another good news is that our open access journal, Osteoarthritis and Cartilage Open, was accepted for PubMed. This will significantly enhance the visibility of the journal and increase the citation from papers published in OACO. Many thanks and kudos to Henning Madry, the editor-in-chief of OACO, who has striven, without much editorial assistance, to bring OACO on the track!
Several initiatives were introduced in 2022 to increase our membership and enhance the global presence of OARSI, including the National Ambassador program, reduced registration fee for members from low to middle income countries, and holding OARSI-branded regional meetings organized by local hosts. These efforts are now underway and will be further promoted in 2023. I hope that these measures will gradually bear fruits in coming years. The year 2023 is a Year of Rabbit in oriental zodiac. The Rabbit signifies productivity, peace, and happiness in traditional thoughts. I hope that all of you achieve great success in science and find satisfaction in your personal life in the Year of Rabbit.
Lastly, I would like to express my deep appreciation to all previous and current members of the OARSI Board of Directors and committees as well as our staff for sparing no time and effort for the society.
See you all in Denver.
Gun-il Im, President of OARSI