The first issue of the new-look European Respiratory Review will be published this month. In this new era, the Editorial Board and its new Chief Editor aim to build on the previous success that was achieved during the mandate of P.S. Burge as Chief Editor, to further enhance scientific content, and to establish and develop strong links with the flagship publication of the European Respiratory Society, the European Respiratory Journal (ERJ). To establish these links, the Review will provide a platform for the publication of high-quality review articles that might not otherwise be published in the ERJ, owing to the limited space that can be devoted to series and review articles in a journal mainly focusing on cutting-edge original research. In doing so, I hope the Review will be increasingly regarded as a fitting complement to the ERJ. In establishing the Review as a companion to the ERJ, this publication will take its place alongside the other publications of the European Respiratory Society without providing any overlap or competition: the European Respiratory Monograph provides more comprehensive overviews and Breathe adopts a more education-based approach, with articles accredited for Continuing Medical Education.
The format of the Review has been restructured significantly compared with past issues of the Review, which have mostly published sponsored content, allowing for the proceedings of specific symposia, conferences and workshops to be presented on a unified theme. The Review now encourages spontaneous submission of material from researchers, and publishes a wider variety of articles, while maintaining a platform for high-quality sponsored content as well.
The Review will continue to be structured around a “theme of the month”, but will also be flexible enough to allow the inclusion of other topics. Each issue will start with a number of editorials related to the theme of the month, usually commenting on recent cutting-edge research developments in areas related to the topic in question. Besides the present editorial, another commentary will also introduce the first theme, that of pulmonary hypertension 1. In addition to this, an editorial written by Shovlin et al. 2 on the difficult question of embolisation of pulmonary arteriovenous malformations in pulmonary hypertensive patients is also included. These will be followed by the European Respiratory Update, which will provide in-depth coverage, summarising the recent developments and key research on that month’s theme from the past 1–2 yrs. The Update in the March issue is written by Souza and Jardim 3, from the University of Sao Paulo. Following the Update, a number of other related review articles further expanding on the topic in question will be included. This month’s issue includes a review article by Xu and Jing 4 on the subject of high-altitude pulmonary hypertension. In a new feature for the Review, I am very keen to publish case reports, in order to highlight specific aspects of the theme under discussion; I also encourage the submission of more comprehensive case reviews and case series on subjects that will be of interest to the respiratory community. There are two such case reports presented in the present issue of the European Respiratory Review: one detailing a rare pulmonary manifestation of Crohn’s disease, presented by Warwick et al. 5, and another by Montani et al. 6 on fatal rupture of pulmonary arteriovenous malformation in pulmonary arterial hypertension complicating hereditary haemorrhagic telangiectasia. Of course, the Review will continue to publish sponsored material, providing coverage of symposia and workshops organised around topics relevant to the theme. This issue contains a series of articles addressing topics such as pulmonary hypertension in children 7, pharmacological treatment options for chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension 8, inhaled prostanoids 9 and novel vasodilator therapies in development 10 in pulmonary hypertension.
All the articles comprising this new format for the European Respiratory Review will undergo intensive peer review so that the highest scientific standards are maintained. In order to achieve this task, and because the Review intends to publish work from all over the world, I have built a new editorial board with international members who have a wide range of specialties who also will work closely with the new ERJ Chief Editors, A.T. Dinh-Xuan (Paris, France) and V. Brusasco (Genoa, Italy). Also aiding in the peer-review process is the ability for authors to submit manuscripts using the online Manuscript Central submission site (http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/err). This will facilitate the review process, and enable the editorial board to quickly assess the quality of the submitted manuscripts, ensuring that there will be no delay in the decision process and enabling a fast revision and/or acceptance process.
Following on from the current issue on pulmonary hypertension, I have scheduled the following topics for upcoming quarterly Review themes. Three main topics will be prioritised in 2009 (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, forum on pulmonary hypertension, and severe asthma). Potential topics for 2010 are: pulmonary fibrosis, venous thromboembolic disease, respiratory intensive care, cystic fibrosis, sleep-related disorders, rare pulmonary diseases and sarcoidosis. Potential authors with review articles in mind (or in the pipeline), or with interesting case reports or case series, are invited to use this submission tool and put your work forward for publication in the European Respiratory Review!
The above changes undoubtedly represent an exciting venture for the Review, which will build on its previous successes. One advantage of publishing your work in the Review is that the articles are freely available to all web users, as the website on which they are hosted is open access, and has been since June 2007 (http://err.ersjournals.com). In the period from September to December 2008 there have been approximately 15,500 visitors to the online site, with 43,500 pages being viewed from users in more than 150 countries. The top five most-read articles have amassed a total of more than 11,300 full-text downloads 11–15.
With the new format of the European Respiratory Review enabling a wider variety of material to be published to a very high level of scientific quality, I hope to build on encouraging statistics such as these. In time I hope to significantly increase the visibility of the European Respiratory Review by being indexed on several of the databases and, ultimately, by gaining an impact factor.
Statement of interest
None declared.
- Received January 5, 2009.
- Accepted January 8, 2009.
- © ERS Journals Ltd
