New Sections, New Content in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery

The January 2025 issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (PRS) features some exciting new changes in content and presentation. Not only do these changes reflect the expressed desires of many of our Editorial Board members, they also emphasize, in an improved manner, some of the Journal's editorial core values. With over 40,000 total citations of PRS content each year in the past 4 years and our ranking as the third most-cited journal in all of surgery (after only Annals of Surgery and Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, American Volume), clearly, readers are not having difficulty finding, reading, and sharing PRS content. Our goal with the changes debuting in this issue is to make our content even more discoverable for subscribers, researchers, and writers alike. COSMETIC SECTION Starting in this issue, the Cosmetic section of PRS will be broken into 6 distinct subcategories: Cosmetic: Face Cosmetic: Breast Cosmetic: Body Cosmetic: Genital Cosmetic: Medicine Cosmetic: General To debut this new structure, content for each subsection is featured in this issue. Not every issue will contain content from each domain of aesthetic surgery and medicine. As submissions ebb and flow, so too will the lineup within this section from month to month. It is also not our intent to imply a hierarchy of importance based on the order of publication within the Cosmetic subsections. Cosmetic: Face will always be presented first, but that does not imply elevated importance over the domains that follow. The former, subsection-free Cosmetic section did have some benefits, including the flexibility to feature different topics at the top of the section. For example, the lead Cosmetic articles in the October 2024 issue—"A Pilot, Single-Blind, Randomized Controlled Study Evaluating the Use of Platelet-Rich Plasma for Hand Skin Rejuvenation"1 and "Health-Related Quality-of-Life Effects of Rectus Repair during Body Contouring Surgery in Postbariatric Patients: A Prospective Study"2—would have been featured in the Cosmetic: Body subsection, not at the top of the Cosmetic section, in our new organizational structure. That said, the benefits of the new structure outweigh that flexibility. We are excited about the new structure because it will clearly show our busy readers where they can find the content they want and engage our authors in the topical areas of research we are publishing. A few of the Cosmetic subsections warrant explanation upon their debut. The Cosmetic: General subsection perhaps needs clarification. It will include wide-ranging topics, from keloids and deep venous thrombosis to internet-based observation studies, anatomy, and ambulatory surgery topics. For example, in this issue, you will find "The Shifting Face of Aesthetic Care: A Systematic Survey of Independent Medical Spa Directorship and Practitioner Trends in Florida,"3 by Soares et al. To further demonstrate the power and breadth of this section, note that these previously published topics would have been published in the Cosmetic: General subsection: "Measuring Outcomes in Aesthetic Surgery by Board-Certified Plastic Surgeons," by Colwell et al.4; "Tracking Complications and Unplanned Healthcare Utilization in Aesthetic Surgery: An Analysis of 214,504 Patients Using the TOPS Database," by Sergesketter et al.5; and "The Use of Validated Visual Scales in Plastic Surgery: Where Are We Now?" by Alford et al.6 The Cosmetic: Genital subsection will feature genital surgical and nonsurgical techniques for cisgender patients. For example, in this issue, you can read "Genital Self-Image and Body Dysmorphic Disorder Symptoms in Patients Undergoing Central Wedge versus Linear Resection Labiaplasty: A Randomized Clinical Trial," by Minikowski et al.7 The previously published article "Lengthening Phalloplasty with Division of the Suspensory Ligament and Distally Based Fat Flaps in Penis Enlargement Operations"8 would have been published in the Cosmetic: Genital subsection. For details on all of the Cosmetic subsections, please review our topical sectional guide for authors, which can be accessed via our Information for Authors at https://journals.lww.com/plasreconsurg/Pages/Instructions-for-Authors.aspx#JournalSections. The list is subject to change as we face real-time examples and decide where to publish specific topics. HAND AND PERIPHERAL NERVE CONTENT To further increase the visibility of 2 unique and expanding areas of plastic surgery science and practice, PRS has split the Hand/Peripheral Nerve section in 2. Hand content will remain in its own stand-alone section, in the same slot that Hand/Peripheral Nerve previously occupied, with the same Kelly green color scheme. Peripheral Nerve content is now a subsection of the Reconstructive section, in the familiar orange color scheme. "Reconstructive: Peripheral Nerve" will fall between the Reconstructive: Trunk and Reconstructive: Lower Extremity subsections. As has always been the case in the Reconstructive section, every issue may not feature content from each subsection. The Hand section will cover topics such as arthritis, Dupuytren contracture, tendon repair and pathology, and the anatomy of the metacarpals, phalanges, carpus, and distal radius. One topical area that may need a bit of a spotlight is the carpal tunnel. Articles that focus on this subject will remain in the Hand section of PRS. So, for example, all of the following articles would still be published in the Hand section: "Impact of Adding Carpal Tunnel Release or Trigger Finger Release to Carpometacarpal Arthroplasty on Postoperative Complications," by Trinh et al.9; "A Logistic Regression Analysis of Factors Associated with Guarded Outcome after Carpal Tunnel Release in Symptomatic Carpal Tunnel Syndrome," by Chow et al.10; and "Time to Stop Routinely Prescribing Opiates after Carpal Tunnel Release," by Lalonde et al.11 The Reconstructive: Peripheral Nerve subsection will feature content covering the brachial plexus, migraine, nerve surgery, neuroma, the regenerative peripheral nerve interface, targeted muscle reinnervation, and more. Our creative authors often study unique topics that defy our rules for ready compartmentalization. These articles, such as "Genetic Correlations between Migraine and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome,"12 by Wiberg et al., will test our organizational skills. In such cases, we will weigh the authors' preferences and the current content needs of the Journal to determine the final sectional placement. These delineations, and more, can be reviewed in the above-mentioned topical sectional guide. NEW RECURRING FEATURE: PRS JOURNAL CLUB The PRS Journal Club has won several national publishing awards, including the APEX Awards for Publication Excellence 2024 top-prize Grand Award for Campaigns, Programs, & Plans13 and the best-in-category 2024 Folio: Eddie and Ozzie Award for Association/Nonprofit Social Media/Online Community.14 Led by our resident ambassadors to the Editorial Board and powered by our active Resident Advisory Board, PRS Journal Club is a globally interactive study module, podcast, and live discussion series. Historically, there have been 3 ways to join the PRS Journal Club every month: Read: With each issue of PRS, 3 new articles are selected as our Journal Club "picks" of the month. Each article is paired with additional reference materials, which we dub "classic pairings." By providing readers, residency programs, and practicing physicians with newly published content and cultivated related reading, we offer a ready-made Journal Club discussion for academic and clinical groups around the world. The club's shield logo is present on the featured articles in print and online, making the Journal Club easy to find. All materials are gathered into monthly collections on the PRSJournal.com and made free for anyone to read for 2 months. The Journal Club collections can be found at https://journals.lww.com/plasreconsurg/Pages/PRS-Journal-Club-.aspx. Listen: The resident ambassadors and a special plastic surgeon guest discuss the 3 Journal Club selections on our monthly PRS Journal Club podcast. The podcast encourages our resident ambassadors and listeners to connect with respected leaders in the field and solicit their expertise on the latest plastic surgery research. Listeners can find the latest episodes and links to subscribe via Apple Podcasts and Spotify on www.PRSJournal.com, under the "Digital Media" tab. Discuss: One Friday to Monday per month, the resident ambassadors moderate a question-and-answer session with the authors of a featured article on the PRS Facebook page (www.facebook.com/prsjournal). When the #PRSJournalClub discussion post goes live, readers pose their questions as Facebook comments, and throughout the 4-day period, the authors reply online to answer as many questions as possible. Lively discussions among coauthors, readers, and residents ensue. Each question-and-answer session gets nearly 100 questions, comments, and interactions, providing a platform for readers from multiple continents to engage with our authors and learn from one another. Now, thanks to the efforts of our 2025 PRS resident ambassadors—Christopher L. Kalmar, MD, MBA; Ilana G. Margulies, MD, MS; and Amanda R. Sergesketter, MD—there will be a fourth way to join the PRS Journal Club: Contextualize: In each issue of PRS, immediately before any Letters to the Editor and Viewpoints, our resident ambassadors will publish a brief editorial-style column that details the monthly Journal Club picks and associated classic pairings, and synthesizes and organizes these selections in a manner than cannot be communicated in any of the existing outlets. We are excited to see what this new output of the multiple award–winning PRS Journal Club will bring. 2025 AND BEYOND PRS is no stranger to change. The Journal has evolved with iterative adjustments and leapt forward with major shifts over its almost 80-year history. It is our wish that the content-based changes for 2025 will not only help our readers find the content they want to read, but also clarify for authors the topics PRS wants to peer-review and publish. We strive to help everyone contributing to the Journal to engage actively with the content of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. DISCLOSURE Dr. Chung receives funding from the National Institutes of Health and book royalties from Wolters Kluwer and Elsevier, and has received research funding from Sonex to study outcomes of carpal tunnel surgery. A. Weinstein has no financial interests to disclose. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors would like to thank Anna Wojtul, ASPS copy editor, for her constructive edits.