The European Respiratory Review: mature, expanding and targeting new challenges

BUILDING ON SUCCESS

Readers of the European Respiratory Review (ERR) will be pleased to see that the first issue of 2013 continues the noble task of providing up-to-date knowledge in respiratory medicine, with diversified and high-quality scientific content. As incoming Chief Editor, new captain of the ship [1], it is my pleasure to note that this ship is healthy and proudly moving forward. With the tremendous momentum of our friend and colleague Professor Marc Humbert from the University of Paris (Paris, France), Chief Editor of the ERR for the past 4 yrs, and the outstanding work of the European Respiratory Society (ERS) Publications Office, the ERR has built on the previous success and has become a major platform for the publication of high-quality review articles [2]. Since the restructuring of the ERR in 2009, all published articles are peer reviewed [2]. A proportion of reviews published in the ERR are sponsored articles [2], with full transparency and the necessary analysis of demanding external reviewers and an independent editorial board, as for all published articles.

A landmark was achieved in July 2010, with the indexing of the ERR in Medline/PubMed, facilitating full visibility of content to the community. As all ERR articles are free to access from the first day of publication, authors are assured full and rapid dissemination of knowledge, as illustrated by the exponential increase in the number of visits to the ERR website (http://err.ersjournals.com) and the number of downloaded ERR articles worldwide [3]. As an illustration, the top 10 most read articles since November 2010 have totalled more than 76,458 full-text downloads [4–13]. Together, the recently launched ERS publications app, the ERR website optimised for smartphones and tablets, the social bookmarks for Twitter and Facebook, and the twitter feed @ERSpublications, contribute to increasing the visibility of ERR articles.

Part of the fleet of ERS publications [1, 14], the ERR provides quarterly updates on medicine, science and surgery for all respiratory medicine professionals, and will continue to be primarily focused on clinical respiratory medicine. In recent years, the ERR has published a number of outstanding review articles on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, pulmonary hypertension, venous thromboembolic disease, interstitial lung disease, tuberculosis and cancer. Indeed, in a world of ever growing knowledge, complexity and diversity of publications, summarising the most relevant and recent research findings, together with up-to-date clinical science, is required more than ever. The ERR will continue to publish state-of-the-art reviews (updates), focused review articles, editorials, correspondence and book reviews.

EXPANDING AND TARGETING NEW CHALLENGES

What then is changing in the ERR in 2013? The topics of invited reviews will be broadened progressively to better cover all aspects of respiratory medicine. The editorial board is pleased to welcome new international members, some with expertise in areas such as oncology, sleep medicine, infectious diseases, rehabilitation, intensive care medicine and systemic diseases; topics that have been slightly less represented in past years although they correspond to a significant part of professional activity for many chest physicians. The ERR also aims to publishing proceedings of high-quality scientific meetings including, but not limited to, those endorsed by the ERS, as well as reports and supporting documents of ERS task forces, which will be actively sought.

The format of articles published in the ERR is also evolving (table 1). In addition to regular reviews and updates, review articles will now include Thematic review series, the first of which on “Topics in thoracic oncology” is published in the current issue [15]. Clinical year in review articles, three of which are published in this issue [16–18], are authored by respected speakers at the eponymous symposium during the 2012 annual ERS Congress, and focus on the most recent advances in clinical medicine. Cutting edge mini-reviews and Case-based educational reviews, based on a small number of real-life illustrative cases [19], will be published in future issues. A section of Images in respiratory medicine will be initiated, with eye-catching figures and a short educational comment.

Furthermore, the links between the ERR and the flagship publication, the European Respiratory Journal (ERJ), will be tightened. The transfer of manuscript submissions from one journal to the other has already been made easier and faster, and the ERR editorial board will work closely with the ERJ Chief Editor Professor Marc Humbert and Professor Anh-Tuan Dinh-Xuan, now ERJ deputy editor, who are also members of the ERR editorial board [3, 14, 20]. Correspondence articles referring to previously published ERR articles and Letters to the editor, corresponding to very short reports or to highly-selected case studies that harbour educational excellence or particular relevance for diagnosis or management, now have distinct formats, in line with the ERJ.

Last but not least, one further objective of the ERR, which we hope will be reached during my 3 yr editorial mandate, will be to apply for indexing by ISI and obtain an impact factor, as a further step to pursue the ultimate goal of publishing the best review content in respiratory medicine in the ERR.