JBJS is pleased to highlight our Elite Reviewers. The Elite Reviewers Program recognizes our best reviewers for their outstanding efforts. All JBJS reviewers help us maintain the highest standards for quality orthopaedic publishing.
Name: Kodali Siva Rama Krishna Prasad
Affiliation: Prince Charles Hospital, Cwm Taf University Health Board, Merthyr Tydfil, Mid-Glamorgan, Wales, United Kingdom.
Years in practice: More than 20 years.
How did you begin reviewing for other journals and for JBJS in particular?
James Heckman was instrumental in establishing me as JBJS reviewer. We developed an intellectual bond, which continued in recent years with admiration for the dynamic leadership of Marc Swiontkowski for successful expansion and diversification of JBJS portfolio of journals. I am also fortunate to share excellent rapport with Editors of JBJS group of journals. I was highlighted by JBJS as a Top Reviewer for two successive years before achieving the current Elite Reviewer status.
I owe it to Greer Richardson for encouraging me as an International reviewer for Foot and Ankle International (FAI). Unusually he sent me two supportive complimentary e-mails regarding excellence of my first review for FAI, which boosted my indifferent initial confidence and laid the foundation for reviewer role for major international journals. Later I enjoyed an eventful close association with David Thordarson, who created the first and only International Assistant Editor post for me in FAI and then facilitated further listing as Editorial Board Member for active participation in Trans-Atlantic tele-conferences of the FAI Editorial Board.
I started as a reviewer for Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research (CORR), when Richard Brand was Editor in Chief. I developed during Seth Leopold’s tenure as I was selected as a Top Reviewer for CORR and subsequently designated as an International Associate Editor with inspirational glimpses of editorial dynamics in implementation of a different philosophy of direction and publication of contemporary orthopaedic research with emphasis on quality of evidence and insights. In addition, a chance meeting in London with James Scott, the then-Editor-in-Chief, heralded reviewer role on this side of the Atlantic for JBJS Br (later designated Bone and Joint Journal) with subsequent addition of Bone and Joint Research.
What is your top piece of advice for those reviewers who aspire to reach Elite status?
A perfect study does not exist and it follows that a perfect review is unattainable. Consistent efforts for excellence toward perfection as a hallmark of a review remain the ultimate aim. Conscious time limit, however, is not the main objective. It helps to expedite a review if the manuscript is read on the first day of acceptance with preliminary notations and certain undercurrents of thinking and analysis. At times, I follow it up with recent relevant literature review to clarify any doubtful issues and read the manuscript again after one or two days to draft the review in earnest. Knowing the particular journal well helps immensely. In my experience, the first draft of a review is not always the final draft. I would not submit a review until I am happy that it is comprehensive and certainly final. Recommendation also entails an element of balanced judgment. In the context of consistent efforts for uncompromising pursuit of excellence of reviews, the aim for Elite Reviewer status amounts to an incidental goal in the service of science and humanity as a team.
Aside from orthopaedic manuscripts, what have you been reading lately?
I regularly read classics and have a collection of several century-old Editions. It is a great pleasure to leaf through the great works of previous centuries. Recently I read a comparative work between Kalidasa and Shakespeare, arguably the greatest poets and dramatists in Sanskrit and English literature. Of late, I have become an admirer of John Greenleaf Whittier. I am also an avid reader of Victor Hugo, an illustrious French poet and novelist, whose prose even in translation sounds poetic. We had an occasion to visit the Residence of Victor Hugo in exile in Guernsey.
Finally, Keats remains a favourite poet. Pertinent to review of manuscripts, Keats’ famous first line of the first draft of Endymion was “A thing of beauty is forever a joy”, which he later modified to “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever”. This illustrates that even a greatest poet has to work on the first inspiration with an admittedly rare revision even after publication – highly relevant to a reviewer, particularly an Elite reviewer.
Learn more about the JBJS Elite Reviewers program.
