Goodbye from Barcelona!

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The final year in Barcelona, and with this being the last editorial from our office, it is with pleasure that I co-author this with Pere Ginès, Xavier Forns and Nicki van Berckel who have dedicated so much of their time and effort in making Journal of Hepatology the journal it is today.

With each of the annual editorials we have always given a futuristic perspective but at the end of an Editorship a retrospective position is required in order that we may reflect on the progressions and successes of the past 5 years. Whilst the journal has been based in Barcelona, the world of publishing has changed enormously, where initially we had only the printed journal, we are now handing over a journal where ‘e-publishing ahead of print’ is the norm. The world of the online journal and e-publishing has become almost more important than the printed version (I still like reading the glossy hard copy!) and although our online journal has undergone two makeovers during this time it can be considered one of the best in the field of Hepatology. Having a journal online not only allows us to source published work at the click of a button but as an author there is great pleasure in seeing the e-version online within a month of acceptance, this in turn makes the availability of the latest information all the more immediate. By offering a large content for free, everyone has access to the fruits of our research, which promotes new interest in young researchers who have not yet the means to subscribe to the journal. We are currently working on ensuring that every paper ever published under Journal of Hepatology appears online, from 1985 to the present day, making Journal of Hepatology online one of the best research tools and the leader in the hepatology field. The success of this has been due to the dedication and hard work of Pere Ginès along with the team at Elsevier.

Another leap forward in the technology area has been the way manuscripts are processed by journals and we are very pleased with the way Scholoarone has helped us keep abreast of these new technological advancements, making it easier for the authors, reviewers and general administration of manuscripts which pass through Journal of Hepatology each year. The implementation and smooth transition of the online processing system was made easier with the help of Nicki van Berckel. This has been all the more valuable as we now receive more than 1200 manuscripts per year, with an expected increase to 1400 by the end of 2004. Without the online manuscript processing system it would be nearly impossible to handle that many papers without hiring extra staff. This is a considerable increase from when we took over the journal, as in 2000 we received just under 1000 manuscripts in total. So what exactly has been the workload over the past 5 years? We have received a total of 5500 papers of which we have published 1500. We have reduced our acceptance rate of original articles to 20%, which will probably be cut further in future years. We have published 1000 original papers, 60 review articles (excluding the supplements), and 120 editorials along with case reports, letters and images each month. We have introduced new sections such as Milestones in Liver Disease and Beyond the Journal. Milestones in Liver Disease has been a real pleasure highlighting ‘old’ research which has had a remarkable impact on how we view, treat and continue our research. Beyond the Journal has been a section which has opened up other areas of research to those who would may not have always read the original paper, especially those significant basic science papers which hold future importance for clinicians. The introduction of the Bridge was an idea to bring to the fore the most interesting articles each month. During this time it has been superbly penned by Andrés Blei, Jürg Reichen and Ulrich Beuers, each of whom has imparted their experience, wit and personal insight making this a highly enjoyable intro to the Journal each month. What has been the biggest change in the last 5 years? Undoubtedly the field of liver transplantation. Last year we decided to reflect this and give it a higher profile by introducing a short review on a particular aspect of liver transplantation each month and a commentary in the Beyond the Journal section. The results have been the receipt and publication of more and higher quality research papers in the field. The importance of this area cannot be underestimated. It is with fervour that I would like to see this section grow even further, and so I encourage submissions from groups actively working in this field. The regular publication of the special issue on the management and therapy of liver diseases has also been a resounding success and we will publish our last contribution at the beginning of 2005. It has been our policy not to publish more regular supplements as these normally end up by being vehicles for the publication of pharma research and although an economically attractive proposition it would have meant giving up our autonomy, something that was regularly discussed and rejected at our editorial meetings.

Currently there is only one real way to measure the success of a journal and that is via the Impact Factor which now stands at 5.283. We have seen a jump of nearly two points over the past 5 years, much of which has been due to the previous editor, Gustav Paumgartner and his team in Munich, not to forget the fantastic work and support of the Barcelona team—my appreciation and thanks is given to this wonderful team of Associate Editors: Andrés Blei, Ulrich Beuers, Hubert Blum, Jordi Bruix, Erik Christensen, Johann Fevery, Guadalupe Garcia Tsao, Jenny Heathcote, Masamichi Kojiro, Mario Mondelli, Massimo Pinzani, Ronald Oude Elferink, Jürg Reichen, Didier Samuel, Detlef Schuppan, Dominique Charles Valla and Diego Vergani, all of whom have given over so much of their time and experience to achieve this. The future Impact Factors will also reflect the work of the Barcelona Editorial Team, with the influence of their work still being seen in the Impact Factor for 2007 that will appear in 2008.

Another feature to mark the success of a journal is its perceived value and one of the most striking features of Journal of Hepatology is its dogged independence in relation to the pharma industry. In recent years the influence of the pharmaceutical industry cannot be ignored, it relates to all aspects of life; political, economic, the funding of institutions/people/research. In addition, it does not help that we are frequently being confronted with the rising costs of healthcare and research and therefore we are encouraged to help in the reduction of these costs by partnering ourselves with industry. All is well and good as long as we are allowed to maintain our independence when reporting the results of a particular trial. As editors of the journal this has been brought home all the more often as it has been difficult to fight off becoming aligned with the pharma industry who have frequently targeted us to promote certain research work. Considering this, I think we have achieved a very high level of autonomy, which grants us an independence, which should not be taken lightly. It has been the strict editorial policy, that no paper be published without full declaration from the authors regarding their relationship with the pharma industry. In this we have to accept the words of our colleagues but we hope that the declarations we print are honest. We are not here to malign the industry as we are also realists and no journal can be a financially viable medium unless it receives advertising and sponsorship from this very source, but our belief is that in no uncertain terms should a journal's integrity be marginalised by bowing to certain tactics. Our main objective has been to bring the most up-to-date and unbiased research, both positive and negative, to the very people who need it in order to help them manage their patients. Have we achieved this? We believe the answer is yes, but it has not been an easy road.

Journal of Hepatology is a society journal which has benefited from the support of the society but this has been a two way partnership and EASL has also benefited hugely from the success of the Journal by the increase in membership and the visibility that it receives via the Journal. We have taken a loss making entity and made it into a highly profitable one. The Journal is EASL's Flagship and I would like to extend my appreciation for the support of the various scientific secretaries, at the helm of EASL during my editorship, helping me to help them.

The only low during the past five years has to have been the passing of Dame Shelia Sherlock. For those of us who were honoured to know her personally and professionally it meant the end of a great era. She will always be considered as one of the true leading lights of hepatology where she was unique in her encouragement and dedication to young investigators. For those of us who were fortunate enough to work under her, she was our mentor and leader, in turn I hope we have imparted some of her wisdom and ideology to those we have gone onto lead. The founding of Journal of Hepatology is one of her legacies to the field of Hepatology. In her footsteps as Editor in Chief she was followed by Jean Pierre Benhamou and Gustav Paumgartner, therefore my nomination to take on this position was a great honour but also a daunting task that I undertook with a good deal of intrepidation. Both of my predecessors had built upon the work of the previous one and it quickly became apparent the ease with which a journal and its reputation could be ruined, but to maintain and build upon its success was indeed going to be a very hard mountain to climb. Now in retrospect, we encountered some very testing hurdles but the pleasure of the past five years as Editor of this Journal is difficult to formulate into words. I believe the key to this success has to be due to the incredible team behind me. How do I begin to show my appreciation of this team and their work?

Without being able to share the responsibility and the day to day work with Pere Ginès and Xavier Forns, I would not be handing over such a journal to Massimo Colombo and his team in Italy. The Associate Editors, each of whom have shown great wisdom and dedication in phenomenal amounts can never be understated. The reviewers who are frequently called upon to share their expertise are part of the workings of a journal which quite often go unrecognised, but without them no journal can exist. In this final year we can count a reviewer base of over 1000 reviewers. The 100 or so members of the editorial board have helped enormously in this area by their very active reviewing and by bringing in new reviewers to the journal. They have also encouraged their colleagues to submit their best research work and continually offered new ideas to keep us from going stale. If space allowed I would name each personally but even I am restricted on my word count! The editorial office, Gemma Lopez, Roser Poblet and Nicki van Berckel are the backstage hands to ensure that the process runs smoothly. The final cog in the wheel has to be the publisher, Koos Admiraal and his team at Elsevier who bring us the journal each month, with an extra special acknowledgement going to Majella Darcy, responsible for the production of the journal each month. To everyone I would like to extend my greatest thanks and personal appreciation of the work each has performed.

All that is left is to thank the authors and the readers who of course also give the journal its ranking as one of the most prestigious Hepatology journals. I pass the helm of this superb journal to Massimo Colombo, Roberto di Franchis and Mario Mondelli, who we are certain will do a magnificent job. Good luck and happy sailing from the Barcelona crew.