The European Respiratory Review: farewell from the editor with confidence for the future

A success story

As my third year as Chief Editor of the European Respiratory Review comes to an end, it is time for me to pass this responsibility onto a new team. It is also time to look back at what has been accomplished and what challenges are faced by the Review.

In an era when the number of medical publications and journals continues to increase, it is a necessity for physicians to have access to up-to-date and synthetic reviews on medicine. The European Respiratory Review is indexed in a range of databases, including MEDLINE/PubMed, and is free to access. As the review journal of the European Respiratory Society (ERS), the Review provides up-to-date knowledge covering many aspects of respiratory medicine. As announced in my incoming editorial [1], the Review has expanded in recent years, with an increase in the diversity of topics reviewed. The number of articles published in the Review has also increased. The Review continues to publish a balance of both non-sponsored and sponsored reviews, all of which are peer reviewed.

The format of the reviews has also diversified over the past 3 years, with the introduction of case-based reviews [2] and of mini-reviews. A subset of the mini-reviews published focus on basic science or translational topics while others cover the proceedings from respiratory medicine conferences. The latter are specially written by distinguished invited speakers who have presented during the Clinical Year in Review sessions held at the ERS International Congress or during the ERS Lung Science Conference. Comprehensive reviews (European Respiratory Updates) continue to be published on a variety of topics (e.g. connective tissue disease, interventional bronchoscopy, childhood tuberculosis and the impact of climate change on respiratory disease). Thematic review series have also been introduced in the Review, with four series published in 2013–2015 on thoracic oncology [3], pulmonary rehabilitation [4], acute respiratory distress syndrome [5], and asthma [6]. The Review also publishes ERS task force reports and supportive documents [7–12], as illustrated in this issue, which contains a comprehensive statement on the multidisciplinary respiratory management of ataxia telangiectasia [13]. In addition to the core review articles, the Review publishes editorials, letters to the Editor, correspondence and images in respiratory medicine.

As all articles published in the Review are free to access and to download, the number of visits to the website is the best metric to measure the visibility of the content to the community and the dissemination of knowledge. Over recent years, the number of visits to the Review website (err.ersjournals.com) and the number of downloaded articles has steadily increased (fig. 1). The most frequently downloaded articles cover the main topics of interest for respiratory clinicians, including asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, tuberculosis, obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome, venous thromboembolic disease, and also rare conditions that have witnessed tremendous progress in their management recent years (e.g. cystic fibrosis, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and pulmonary hypertension). As a consequence, articles in the Review are increasingly cited in international journals.

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FIGURE 1

Trends in a) the number of visits to the European Respiratory Review website (err.ersjournals.com) and b) the number of articles downloaded.

This progress has been achieved through combined effort and it has been a privilege to work with a dedicated international editorial board, numerous external expert reviewers and the ERS publications office. All of whom were generous with their time and are heartily thanked. As we could not do it without you, we are grateful to all who contribute to the Review, and also welcome your feedback via the Editorial Office.

The future is unwritten

Editing the Review has been an incredibly enriching and exciting experience. As my time as Chief Editor is coming to an end, the future of the Review holds further promise. It is now time to hand over the editorship to my friend and colleague, Sergio Harari, from the San Giuseppe Hospital, University of Milan, Italy, and I am confident that during his mandate we will witness ever increasing progression in the quality of the Review. Progress and development of ERS publications is evident, as illustrated by the steadily increasing impact factor of the European Respiratory Journal [14], the recent launch of ERJ Open Research [15] that aims to publish excellent original research, as well as the active life of Breathe and the European Respiratory Monograph.

It is a great pleasure in a farewell editorial to be so optimistic about the Review for the years to come. The future is unwritten, and we (readers, authors, reviewers, publisher, and editor) are here to work together to continue this noble task and to write the future of the Review together. I wish Sergio Harari and his editorial team a very successful mandate. The Review is here for us all, and will continue to develop and to accompany respiratory physicians in their practice for the many years to come.