The Journal of Hepatology: An international journal in a new era
Authors: Didier Samuel
Journal: Journal of Hepatology (2011)

The Journal of Hepatology, the journal of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), is entering a new era. Twenty-six years after its creation, the Impact factor (IF) has reached the level of 9.34. This achievement ranks our journal among the top four journals in the field of hepato-gastroenterology and the second in the field of hepatology; moreover, the gap between the top three journals and the Journal of Hepatology has been dramatically reduced. This is undoubtedly the result of the work done by previous editorial teams, and particular credit is to be given to the team of Massimo Colombo in Milano and our team. I also wish to express my thanks to the huge and high quality work done by my co-editors Peter Galle and Chris Day, and the whole team of associate editors and special section editors. The author thanks Sonia Guimil, former editorial manager, and Adam Swetloff who took actively part in the development of the Journal when I started my mandate, and set up the new editorial office in Geneva. I also thank the new editorial office, led by Simona Negrini, editorial manager, with Joël Walicki, assistant editor, and Laurence Zulianello, graphic designer, for the superb work done. With their help we will further improve the management of the submitted manuscripts and the development of the Journal. All improvements have been done with the continuous support of the EASL Governing Board and the successive Secretaries-General, Jean-Michel Pawlotsky, Heiner Wedemeyer, and Mark Thursz. When, 2 years ago, we took over the editorship of the Journal, we decided to substantially modify its layout with a new cover, and we conceived a new format with redesigned figures and tables. We also created new sections, such as Clinical Applications of Basic Science, Snapshot in Hepatology; a Focus section, delivered by two top international experts, Daniel Shouval and Scott Friedman; a section on International Hepatology, a Controversy section, and a special section devoted to liver transplantation named Frontiers in Liver Transplantation. With these sections, we want to offer our readers a full access to the developments of science outside our own field, to highlight their potential applications in hepatology, and to permanently integrate liver transplantation in the field of hepatology of the 21th century. We decided to deliver to you high quality reviews authored by top scientists, decorated with extremely accurate iconography and highlights on key issues. We will be more and more rigorous on the scientific quality of manuscripts, keeping our interest in both clinical and basic science. In 2012, we will continue to implement the new Journal website, easily accessible, interactive, with links to new media. To achieve this, we have appointed two web editors, Dr. Elisabetta Bugianesi and Dr. Andreas Teufel who will develop new Internet features for the Journal in close contact with our editors, the editorial office, and our readers. Moreover, we aim at increasing the interaction with our readers and authors. In December, we opened a contest for the best image in the field of Hepatology; the winner(s) will be chosen during the International Liver Congress™ in Barcelona and the image(s) published as a cover of the Journal. We will also ask our authors and readers to submit videos, scientific podcasts, and images for our new redesigned website. The most important thing for us is the scientific quality of papers and our editorial team is committed to select the best papers. It is sometimes painful for us to reject good quality manuscripts, which unfortunately did not win the scientific competition among received papers, but authors will be then rewarded when their accepted manuscript is highly cited. In 2011, we received 1800 original manuscripts and a total of 2200 manuscripts, which represents an increase of 200 manuscripts a year in the last 4 years. This reflects the impact of our Journal, the extraordinary development of the field of hepatology, and the scientific production of new emerging countries from Eastern Europe, Asia, and South America. Indeed, our Journal is not only the EASL journal but also an international journal deliberately open to all emerging countries and international scientists in hepatology. This is already reflected by the country of submission of papers in the last 2 years: from September 2009 to September 2011 we received 1365 papers from Asia, 1103 from Europe, 214 from English-speaking countries (UK, South Africa, Australia), 334 from the USA with an acceptance rate of 7%, 22%, 22%, and 18%, respectively. Our aim is to offer our readers the best in hepatology. We still have a long way to go but our team is confident that the Journal of Hepatology will become a leading international journal.