I am pleased to present the fourth and year‐end issue of JGH Open. In this short period of time, we have been able to publish monthly issues of the JGH Open. All this is due to the hard work of our diligent editorial staff and the associate editors.
I am also pleased to present a series of “leading articles” written by key opinion leaders from the Asian Pacific region, in their respective field of expertise. Jaw‐Town Lin is an eminent professor from Taiwan who has held the positions of Dean and Professor for a long time at the top‐ranked National Taiwan University, Taipei, and is now a Professor Emeritus in the same university. He was also the President of the highly successful Asian Pacific Digestive Week Federation (APDW) 2016 held in Taipei and a board member of the APDW Federation. He co‐authors an excellent article on “Eradicating Gastric Cancer” with Professor Yi‐Chia Lee, who is also from the National Taiwan University, and both draw on their extensive experience for the eradication of Helicobacter pylori in the local Taiwanese population for gastric cancer. Gastric cancer is very much an “Asian cancer” and Taiwan, similar to many countries in East Asia, has a very high incidence rate of gastric cancer. Through the effort of Taiwanese researchers, two population‐based screen and treat programs for H. pylori eradication to reduce the incidence of gastric cancer have been implemented, first in the Matsu Islands and second in the Changhua County, Taiwan. In the second program, this is incorporated with colorectal cancer screening by stool testing.
I have also invited several other “Key Opinion Leaders” to submit articles in the coming year 2018 and I hope these leading articles will prove to be an added attraction to the journal.
Meantime, I look to your continued support for our fledgling journal. I hope that JGH Open will be able to achieve PubMed Central listing by the first quarter of 2018.