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publishing and we never took our eyes off of that.
T.S.: In your view, what qualities define an ideal peer reviewer in academic publishing?
Prof. Joseph A. Smith: Peer review is interesting because it is almost like that famous quote of Winston Churchill about democracy: “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others”. Well, I think the same is true about peer review. It's the worst process you could ever have, except for the alternatives. No one has really been able to come up with a better method to objectively assess and fairly develop the literature. But the problem with the peer review is that it is entirely dependent upon the reviewers themselves. Reviewers are not remunerated for their time. It does take a lot of effort on their part. Often, they are blind throughout the entire process. So, what motivates them? Why would anybody do that? Well, the reason is they share the same vision that I just described and that is they want to help make sure that the literature is the best that it can be, so that it can help our patients. Hopefully, they're motivated by an altruistic band and peer reviewers need to do everything they can to suppress their own biases. We all have biases. You may see a paper where neither you nor the authors like each other very much. Maybe there is a paper that presents results that you don't like very much. But all that should be irrelevant. The goal should be to publish the best papers and to do it in an objective and a thorough manner. It needs to be a fair process, because the authors spend a lot of time doing their work, writing up their paper. They deserve an objective and thorough review. So, the peer review has a lot of responsibility and I was very proud of the quality of the reviewers that we had and the number of people who would be willing to review. It's a very good thing for people in their career to participate as a peer reviewer.
T.S.: How critical is it, in your opinion, for practicing urological surgeons to engage actively in academic writing and research?
Prof. Joseph A. Smith: Not everybody is going to be doing research and not everybody will be writing papers. Not everybody should do research and write papers or else you just get diluted, instead of having useful papers. But it's extremely important for them to understand the literature, because yes, we all rely upon experts and the peer reviewers should be experts. But if you don't understand how to read a
paper properly and with the criticisms and limitations that exist, then it's almost like the fake news that we all get every single day throughout the world. You have to be perceptive enough to be able to truly understand the paper yourself. This is facilitated by participating in the process. So, I think it's very important for residents that they become involved in and understand the entire editorial and publishing process. I do think it's crucial to understand that: whether or not they choose to participate further after finishing their residency. I think this is another matter. If they can, that is great, but it's certainly not mandatory.
T.S.: You were among the early adopters of laser technologies in Urology. At that time, did you anticipate their widespread use in managing urolithiasis, benign prostatic obstruction (BPO), and bladder cancer?
Prof. Joseph A. Smith: No! My entrée in the lasers is kind of interesting. When I was a resident at the University of Utah and back on the faculty in my very first year after my fellowship, we had a retired surgeon who became interested in lasers. He was no longer active as a surgeon. I was a bit of an opportunist really. We had a laser center and everybody was trying to figure out what were these things good for and how could we use them in Urology. At the time, there was some interest in using them to treat bladder cancer and so that's what initially interested me. I did not predict in any way what would happen with them. Interestingly, Graham Watson, who is from the UK, came and spent some time with me in Utah, because he was interested in lasers for stones and he became very influential in developing that. I thought he was crazy. I thought there was no way these things were going to be any good for stones. But they were. That
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