Five exciting years at the Journal of Hepatology – An open road to the future
Authors: Didier Samuel
Journal: Journal of Hepatology (2014)

This is my last editorial as Editor-In-Chief of the Journal of Hepatology. It has been a privilege and an honour to lead the Journal during these last 5 years. These years have been challenging and fascinating. The Journal has now an impact factor over 10 (10.401), breaking this psychological and scientific barrier and positioning the Journal among the top leaders of its specialty. This has been possible through the continuous work done by the previous Editors and in particular by the team of Prof Colombo who transmitted us the Journal in very good shape. With the strong support of EASL and the EASL Governing Board it has been possible to modify in depth the structure of the Journal. One of our first directions was to give the Journal a strong original identity with a new cover and fully redesigned Figures and Tables with a uniform colour style. Our aim was also to provide authors, with the help of the Editorial office in Geneva and our publisher Elsevier, a high quality service. We have tried to improve the attractiveness of the Journal by increasing the quality of the published manuscripts, through raising the level of the selection process, by pushing authors of manuscripts in revision to improve their manuscripts significantly, and after acceptance to improve the design of the Figures and Tables with the target to publish a high quality paper. We thus aimed at providing a very high quality service. The resulting drawback for authors, submitting their work to the Journal, is the high rejection rate, only 13% of submitted original manuscripts have been accepted in the last years. We have tried to select the best manuscripts, however I am conscious that due to the lack of space and to the high level of competition some very good manuscripts have unfortunately been rejected. To avoid this, we have progressively increased the number of accepted original manuscripts from 14 per month to 22 during my mandate. At the same time we have faced a dramatic increase in the number of yearly submissions of original papers from 1610 to 2100 (estimated projection 2014) (Fig. 1). We have also paid particular attention to provide you high quality updated reviews in the clinical and basic science field, where we have implemented new sections such as Snapshots, Clinical Applications of Basic Science, Frontiers in Liver Transplantation, Controversies, and International Hepatology to provide you with new types of reviews in various fields and to give our readers a wide overview of modern hepatology. The Focus, opening each issue of the Journal, has been a superb monthly piece of work, written elegantly by Daniel Shouval and Scott Friedman, giving us a high level of reflexion in hepatology. We have also worked to position the Journal on the new media. We have implemented a new website refreshed every 2 weeks by our web Editors, we have implemented a high quality app available on tablets and a new mobile website. EASL members have the possibility to receive either the online version or both, online and papers versions. Two thirds of our members have chosen the online only version, which explains why we aimed at increasing the quality and readability of the journal on our website and app. It should be emphasized that in total from both the Journal of Hepatology website and the Science direct website, the download number per year increased from 700,000 in 2010 to 1.3 million in 2014 (Fig. 2).Fig. 2Top right evolution of the impact factor over years (ISI) Top left Evolution of number of yearly submissions of original articles Bottom : Evolution of total downloads of Journal’s articles (sum of the download articles from the J. Hep. website and from Science Direct).View Large Image Figure ViewerDownload Hi-res image Download (PPT) A very important point for me is to develop the international stature of the Journal. We receive now papers from the entire world and publish papers from Europe, North America, Asia, and South America. Our international development will be represented by the international origin of the manuscripts published and also by our Editorial board, which is becoming more and more international. The constant increase of the international attractiveness of the Journal should be a priority. Whatever the efforts of the Editors, the scientific quality of a journal is directly linked to the quality of manuscripts submitted by the authors. More and more we receive excellent manuscripts as a first line submission. I am confident that the percentage of manuscripts, received first line and accepted, will continuously increase in the future. We are extremely grateful for the authors who believe in us, and this strategy is for both sides, the authors and the Journal, a win-win strategy. At this stage, I wish to thank all those who supported my team and me during this year. The EASL Governing Board through its successive general secretaries, Jean Michel Pawlotsky, Heiner Wedemeyer, Mark Thursz, and Markus Peck-Radosavljevic has always been very supportive. The EASL Governing Board understood the importance to support and develop the Journal who is the flagship of our society. I started this mandate by inaugurating the new central Editorial office held in Geneva. This has been extremely helpful and it has been a pleasure to work with high level professionals during these five years: the successive managing Editors Sonia Guimil, Simona Negrini, Joël Walicki, the editorial coordinators Adam Swetloff, Esther M.N. Dohmann, Ursula Loizides and our graphic designer Laurence Zulianello with the help of Andrea Puglisi as a freelance designer. I thank Francoise Laigle and Claire Mony for their constant help at my office. I wish to thank the Co-Editors Peter Galle, Chris Day and Richard Moreau for their constant support, their outstanding scientific expertise and their input in all strategic decisions for the Journal. I also wish to thank all the team of Associate Editors, special sections Editors, web Editors, statistical consultants; they have done an outstanding job. I am proud to have led such an outstanding team of Editors during these five years. Before closing this part of my career, I would like to wish the best to the new team of Editors lead by Prof Rajiv Jalan. They will have to further develop the attractiveness, diffusion, and visibility of the Journal at the international level. They will have to put the Journal at the top of our specialty. Many things still have to be done, in particular we have to face new ways of reading papers, promote the presence of the Journal on new communications media, further increase the scientific level, and develop the international image of the Journal. They will have to install the Journal of Hepatology as the Journal of reference in hepatology. I am confident they will succeed with the support of EASL. From my side, I will continue to follow this adventure as a reader and a supporter and will await each month the new issue with scientific gourmandise. As final words, I will say: C’était Bien!!