A new era for the Journal of the South African Veterinary Association

Abstract

Many things have changed in the world since the Journal of the South African Veterinary Association (JSAVA), or rather the Journal of the South African Veterinary Medical Association as it was called then, was established in August 1927.

The first volume was only published in 1930, hence the 93rd volume being published in this 95th year of its existence. It was during  Prof. HPA DeBoom’s second term as editor in 1972 that the association changed its name to the South African Veterinary Association (SAVA) and the journal followed suit. It was felt that the use of the archaic and tautological additional adjective “Medical”, which was often a source of confusion to the outsider, should be discontinued. I was quite surprised to learn that it was only under the editorship of Dr Joseph van Heerden, from 1987 to 1995, that peer-review was introduced for the first time. Prior to that, the review and editing of submissions were the responsibility of the editorial committee. It is difficult to imagine that, back then, paper copies of a manuscript were typed out on a typewriter, before being submitted in triplicate and distributed to reviewers by post.