The second year in Barcelona

Article Outline

• Copyright

Although the structure of the journal has remained the same during this year, the Editors have suggested that two new sections be incorporated, both of which have already been included in this issue. The first section is called Milestones in Liver Disease. The aim of this section is to discuss an outstanding study which represents a milestone or a breakthrough in the development of our knowledge of the liver and liver diseases. The studies included would have been published some years ago. The selected articles are discussed by experts in the field and are analyzed with an historical perspective. There is no doubt that this section will be very interesting for young investigators.

The second section is called Beyond the Journal and is aimed at the discussion of articles on liver diseases which have been published recently in other journals. The authors commenting on these articles will have made a relevant contribution in the field discussed. Two Associate Editors are responsible for this section, Guadalupe Garcı́a-Tsao for clinical papers and Ronald Oude-Elferink for basic papers.

I welcome Guadalupe Garcı́a-Tsao, Detlef Schuppan and Dominique Valla as new Associate Editors. I am convinced that their work will be excellent. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Johan Fevery for his work as Associate Editor during these 2 years. His support and comments have been invaluable.

The Bridge, which has been very well accepted by the readers, and was previously headed by Andrés T. Blei has been taken over by Jürg Reichen who has carried on the outstanding work.

The policy of the journal in accepting papers has remained the same. The number of papers submitted in 2001 has been around 1000 and the acceptance rate is similar to the last year at around 25%. This policy has been possible because of the fantastic task performed by the Associate Editors and the Reviewers, most of whom belong to the Editorial Board.

During the year 2001 the Journal of Hepatology has maintained a similar impact factor, rising slightly from 3.71 to 3.76. This value is a consequence of the excellent work performed by the Editor-in-Chief, Gustav Paumgartner and their Associate Editors and Editorial Staff in Munchen. The position in the field of Gastroenterology and Hepatology of our journal is number 5. This is because, on this occasion, a ‘review journal’, Seminars in Liver Disease, has greatly increased its impact factor.

The year 2001 has brought the implementation of the technological changes that we began to plan back in 2000. The Journal is now on-line (http://www.jhep-elsevier.com) with access to back copies of the Journal from 1995 right up to the present issue. Articles appear in the website within 4 weeks of acceptance. With an easy search facility articles can be found via author, keyword, abstract or titles making this an excellent resource for research. Another attractive feature of the On-line Journal has been the free access, which will come to an end in February this year. These technological changes will continue with the introduction of an electronic manuscript processing system, which will mean that authors will be able to track their papers through the whole process from submission to publication. The length of time between acceptance and publication will be lowered even more, giving the Journal of Hepatology the edge on publishing papers reporting new developments within the field of Liver Diseases. Moreover, we are very pleased to inform you that the time required from acceptance to publication is 3–4 months.

We are very happy with Elsevier as Publisher, particularly Koos Admiraal and his team and with Majella Darcy in Ireland who is responsible for getting the journal together and printed each month. I am also very grateful to Helmut Hummelbrunner for his work with the On-line Journal in the Production and Development Department. Finally, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the Reviewers for their excellent work with the enormous task which the review process represents, since, without their collaboration, the high scientific quality of the journal would not be what it is.

The Editors hope that all these new developments, together with the changes introduced in the last year, will improve the role of the Journal of Hepatology as an international scientific and educational vehicle among hepatologists around the world.