Reflections from the editor in chief: Our journey to a journal

On December 6, 2021, as part of the strategic planning session during our winter meeting, the Competency & Credentialing Institute (CCI) Board of Directors voted to develop a peer-reviewed journal that would become the official journal of CCI. This open-access journal, Excellence and Credentialing in Health Care (ECHC), is the result of that vision. CCI is a nonprofit credentialing body dedicated to perioperative nursing. Credentialing encompasses all activities involved in obtaining and maintaining health care–related licensure and/or specialized education and training required for professional practice, including licensure for advanced practice professionals as well as certification for specialized knowledge and skills within the scope of the basic professional license.[1]Health care encompasses those who provide medical care to individuals and communities, both nationally and internationally.[2] Nurses earning perioperative credentials administered by CCI receive ECHC as a benefit of certification. The scope of ECHC is to publish open-access, peer-reviewed, evidence-based information, research, and dialogue from national and international authors about excellence in credentialing activities and clinical practice for health care professionals—while maintaining the highest standards of journal integrity. As a new journal, ECHC does not yet have an impact factor and is not yet included in PubMed Central or MEDLINE. As soon as the required application criteria are met, we will submit the appropriate applications, and once accepted, indexing will be retroactive. The mission of ECHC is to promote excellence in credentialing and health care while supporting CCI’s mission to improve patient outcomes through competency assessment and lifelong professional development.[3] To ensure the highest ethical standards, ECHC adheres to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors Recommendations for Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals[4] and is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics, following their guidance on integrity and ethical publishing. The launch of ECHC represents more than just the creation of a publication—it reflects CCI’s commitment to advancing the science of credentialing, supporting professional growth, and contributing to improved health care outcomes worldwide. This is only the beginning of our journey, and with the support of our authors, reviewers, and readers, ECHC will grow to become a trusted resource and thought leader in health care and credentialing.Conflicts of interest statement The author declares no conflicts of interest. Funding source None.