“I never think of the future - it comes soon enough.”
Albert Einstein
It is always amazing when we look back and realize how fast the time goes by. Annals of Hepatology is crossing its nine years of publication, it began as many projects only like a dream and during this period it not only materialized but has been published in a continuous way. Through its 8 volumes, 30 numbers and 2 supplements, we have been able to show and to share with the medical community the main advances in the hepatology science, it is also a journal where scientists from all over the world can publish new insights and results of their clinical and basic work.
But Annals of Hepatology goes beyond, it is now the Official Journal of the Mexican Association of Hepatology and the Latin American Association for the Study of the Liver, it is a valuable tool to facilitate and spread communication between friends and colleagues.
In addition I must share with you an unique and joyful happening, this year Annals of Hepatology finally will get the impact factor. As you know this factor was created in the biomedical research field in order to measure a journal’s value by calculating the average number of citations per article over a period of time. It was initially developed to help libraries decide which highly-cited journals to subscribe to. However, at present, it is being misused to judge the quality of a researcher or medical scientist as well as the quality of the work done. It contains serious sources of errors and flaws, resulting in strong biases against culture-and language-bound medical subspecialties.1
Despite all the contradictions around the impact factor, it is necessary and we hope Annals of Hepatology will get a good evaluation. Even we know perfectly you cannot determine someone’s impact in the future from where they publish today. On that basis, God would have an impact factor of zero. He did his best work a long time ago; it has never been repeated by anyone; and all His ideas were published in a book, not in a peer-reviewed journal!!2
In order to refresh and as an answer to the changing scientific environment we have decided to modify the editorial committee as well the associate editors and reviewers who by the way also needed some rest. I would like to express my deepest and sincere gratitude to all their work and high professionalism, without them Annals of Hepatology could not exist. For the new members my honest welcome, there is a lot of work that has to be done and with your collaboration it will be lighter.
Another change is the editorial house, now Annals of Hepatology will be published by PROYECTOS EMANUEL, we hope this will help to increase the input of this journal.
During this period,Annals of Hepatology has been included in several important databases, such as Index Medicus/MEDLINE, IMBIOMED, Index Copernicus, EMBASE, EMNursing, Comendex, GEOBASE, SCOPUS, Free Medical Journals, Periodica (UNAM), Chemical Abstracts Service, SIIC Data Bases, Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) and the National Council of Science and Technology of Mexico.
The web site www.annalsofhepatology.com is a commonly visited site both for students and health professionals in order to get in an easy and free way the published articles.
After this brief reflection of eight years, now we must ask what is next? Although Einsten didn’t like to think about the future (see the upper phrase) we must do it. All the human work can be improved and I think for the future improving the quality and clinical relevance of Annals of Hepatology must be our main goal and our main challenge. Let’s enjoy the future which comes soon enough.
