Charting the Next Chapter: The Road Ahead for the International Journal of Paediatric Orthopaedics
Editorial | Volume 12 | Issue 2 | May-August 2026 | Page: 1-2 | Mandar Agashe
DOI- https://doi.org/10.13107/ijpo.2026.v12.i02.266
Open Access License: CC BY-NC 4.0
Copyright Statement: Copyright © 2026; The Author(s).
Authors: Mandar Agashe [1]
[1] Department of Paediatric Orthopaedics, Director, Agashe Paediatric Superspeciality Clinic, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
Address of Correspondence
Dr. Mandar Agashe
Department of Paediatric Orthopaedics, Director, Agashe Paediatric Superspeciality Clinic, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
E-mail: mandarortho@gmail.com
Editorial
It is both a privilege and a responsibility to take over as Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Paediatric Orthopaedics (IJPO). I would like to begin by placing on record my deep gratitude to Dr. Jayanth Sampath, whose six years of dedicated stewardship gave this journal its identity, credibility, and steady growth. The strong editorial foundation he leaves behind is the platform on which we now build.
As I look ahead to the next three years, three themes will define our journey: relevance in the age of artificial intelligence, competitiveness amid a rapidly expanding field of specialty journals, and a structured push toward international indexing.
Staying relevant in the age of AI. Artificial intelligence is transforming how research is conceived, written, reviewed, and consumed. Rather than viewing this as a threat, IJPO must position itself as a thoughtful adopter — using AI-assisted tools to strengthen peer review quality, detect plagiarism and data manipulation, and speed up manuscript handling, while firmly safeguarding the human judgement and ethical oversight that no algorithm can replace. We will also encourage authors to engage critically with AI’s growing role in paediatric orthopaedic research and practice, through invited reviews and structured debates on the subject.
Standing out among emerging journals. The paediatric orthopaedic literature landscape is more crowded than ever, with new regional and subspecialty journals competing for the same pool of quality manuscripts. Our response will not be to chase volume, but to sharpen identity — prioritising manuscripts with genuine clinical relevance to low- and middle-income settings, encouraging multicentre Indian and South Asian collaborative studies, and building thematic issues around underrepresented areas such as neuromuscular disorders, limb deformity correction, and untreated or neglected paediatric trauma. A journal’s relevance is ultimately earned through the quality and originality of what it publishes, not merely its frequency.
The path to indexing. Perhaps the most tangible goal of my tenure will be to work systematically toward indexing in Scopus, DOAJ, and ultimately PubMed. This is not a matter of a single application, but of consistent, verifiable quality over time: timely publication schedules, rigorous peer review, complete ethical documentation, robust editorial governance, and full compliance with international publishing standards. I intend to work closely with the editorial board, reviewers, and the Paediatric Orthopaedic Society of India to ensure every issue reflects the standards these indexing bodies expect, so that when we apply, our application reflects years of consistent practice rather than a last-minute effort.
It is fitting that my first issue as Editor-in-Chief already reflects much of what I hope the journal will stand for. This edition brings together ten articles spanning the breadth of our subspecialty — from musculoskeletal infections and clubfoot to tumours and non-unions — offering readers a genuinely comprehensive snapshot of contemporary paediatric orthopaedic practice. Equally significant is the geographic spread of contributions, with authors writing from Africa and Nepal alongside India, a reminder that the challenges and innovations in our field are not confined by borders. This diversity of both content and contributors is exactly the direction in which I hope to steer IJPO — a journal that is international not merely in name, but in the voices it publishes.
None of this is achievable without the continued trust of our authors, the rigour of our reviewers, and the guidance of our editorial board. I look forward to working with this community over the next three years, and I invite members, authors, and readers to share their ideas as we shape this journey together.
The story of IJPO’s next chapter is one we will write collectively.
| How to Cite this Article: Agashe M. Charting the Next Chapter: The Road Ahead for the International Journal of Paediatric Orthopaedics. International Journal of Paediatric Orthopaedics. May-August 2026; 12(2): 01-02. |
