I would like to thank the European Respiratory Society (ERS) for entrusting the Chief Editorship of the European Respiratory Review (ERR) to me over the last 5 yrs. During this time the ERR has gone from strength to strength. The ERR content is varied and covers articles from symposia and reports from workshops and scientific meetings. Over the past few years it has also provided a showcase for individuals who have been awarded prizes at the Annual ERS Congresses. The awardees are invited to write a short article about their institution, area of expertise, how their work relates to their research and how this may impact on the wider community. A wide spectrum of topics has been covered by the awardees, from the study of inflammation in zebrafish larvae to the prediction of asthmatic attacks from mathematical modelling of past peak flow monitoring. At an environmental level several articles have covered the impact of traffic management schemes on childhood wheezing, and how different measures of cold impact on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) admissions. There are a wide range of basic science topics which reflect the prizes available to basic scientists.
Each issue covers one particular topic which depends, to a large extent, on the current areas of commercial development within the pharmaceutical sector and on the topics covered in the ERS workshops. Over the past few years eight issues have covered the broad topic of COPD and the management of this disease, five issues have been based on asthma, three on infection and pneumonia, two on allergy and one each on smoking, lung cancer, somnology, interstitial lung diseases, pulmonary hypertension and histopathology.
In 2005, the ERR as a whole was evaluated. Not only was the journal cover redesigned but all the articles became available to view and download on the Highwire platform. Access to material was free for ERS members and available to institutional subscribers. The articles were also available as pay to view articles to all other users. However, the publishing model changed in June 2007 when the ERR became an open-access journal, which allowed all the articles to be viewed and downloaded free of charge to everyone. As figure 1⇓ shows this had a dramatic effect on not only the number of articles being read but also on the number of visitors to the ERR website.
Data to show the number of full text downloads of a European Respiratory Review article each 3-month period for 2006–2008.
The readership of the ERR shows a diverse geographical spread, with people accessing the journal from all over the world, including the USA, UK, Australia, India and South America. During the first few months of the year 2008, over 180,000 people have visited the website with over 85,000 full articles having been downloaded. The main point of writing and publishing is for material to be read, and I am pleased to see this is now being achieved.
As a Chief Editor it has been nice to be free of the pressures of an impact factor. I have not attempted to develop this but, instead, have tried to provide a journal which is easy to read by publishing separate, related short articles rather than amalgamating articles into one document that is hard to digest.
I have now come to the end of my term as ERR Chief Editor and would like to thank those who have contributed to its success, particularly to the ERS Publications Office. The ERR would not have been produced without Vicky Moore, the ERR's secretary, or the Editorial Board, Gerard Silvestri, Helgo Magnussen, Monica Spiteri, Donald Sin and Stephen Spiro, who have been involved in the strategic development of the ERR, as well as editorial duties such as refereeing.
Marc Humbert has been appointed as the new Chief Editor and I wish him well with the future development of the European Respiratory Review.
- © ERSJ Ltd
