“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” Albert Einstein
Our journal, the Annals of Hepatology (AH), appeared first in 2002 with only four issues published in that inaugural year. AH was founded and promoted by one person, Prof. Nahum Mendez-Sanchez, our Editor-in-Chief. Since 2010, AH has published bimonthly expanding the number of issues. That year, AH received its first respectable impact factor, this was a major step forward towards enhancing our academic profile. During the last 5 years the AH impact factor has increases slightly (Figure 1). The number of manuscripts published since 2002 has continued to increase steadily, being presently three times higher than in 2002 (Figure 2). Among the published articles, almost half were original research papers, 15% case reports, and 13% concise reviews (Figure 3). Due to the increasing reputation of AH among hepatologists worldwide, the high submission rate of manuscripts almost overwhelming and created problems in terms of available space in the printed journal. To overcome these challenges, we substantially improved the reviewing process resulting in a lower percentage of accepted papers, which is presently less than a quarter of all submissions (Figure 4). As we receive many more good quality manuscripts, worthy of publication, we decided to adapt the printed AH, an online and open access format. This will offset present space limitations, increase the number of published articles, and allow online availability of the article soon after its acceptance. Such an approach will meet the expectations of future contributors of highly qualified manuscripts, that their articles will be rapidly available online, read by clinicians in a timely manner, and more quickly cited. Concomitantly, we will buttress the quality of accepted papers by a stringent but fair reviewing process. We hope that this will increase the impact factor of the journal, our desired aim. As in the past, we also will inform authors soon after initial editorial assessment, if the submitted manuscript does not meet the expectations of the journal, wich will facilitate submission elsewhere without delay.
What other changes do we have in mind to improve the attraction and quality of the journal? In 2017, we will restructure the AH sections. New sections will be included such as Editorials for the most interesting manuscripts, Viewpoints for any important topic in hepatology, public health, research, ethics, health policy, or health law, and Opinions for contributions representing expert opinions, providing hypotheses, or discussing controversial issues in hepatology. For these categories, potential contributors will be invited but unsolicited spontaneous submissions are also welcome and will be considered. All section articles will undergo the peer review process by at least two reviewers in a similar way as other submitted manuscripts such as original reports, concise reviews, or case reports. However, case reports will only be considered if relevant new information is presented that merits publication. Finally, we will publish one or two supplements each year on the most important topics in the field of hepatology.
We are pleased that Annals of Hepatology has acquired an international reputation, as the readership, authors, peer reviewers, and members of the editorial board come from many countries around the world. Annals of Hepatology is an academic, non-commercial, non-profit, independent journal, without any financial or economic association with regulatory agencies, or industry. We are confident that AH will further increase its quality and reputation and contribute to resolve some of the clinical challenges of worldwide liver diseases.
