Editorial

The Zentralblatt für Neurochirurgie is being published since 1936 with the only interruption during World War II. On account of the efforts of Wilhelm Tönnes it was possible to establish the first neurosurgical journal in the world. The difficulties during World War II and during the post-war times are the reason why the Zentralblatt lost a lot of friends and benefactors. This journal is the organ of the ``Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie'' and of the ``Berufsverband Deutscher Neurochirurgen'' as well as the bulletin of the ``Deutsche Interdisziplinäre Vereinigung für Intensivmedizin'' (DIVI) and the ``Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurotraumatologie und Neuropsychologie''.

For the European scientific journals it is very hard to hold the field in an international area which is dominated by American journals. The higher the circulation, the better the result regarding the impact factor which depends on the frequency of article citations. On behalf of the medical faculties and other administrative congregations however this impact factor is falsly used as a scientific tool, whereas in fact it is been created in order to compare the different journals with eachother.

However the success of a scientific journal depends on the quality of its articles. Therefore the editorial board asks all members of the ``Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie'' to support their own journal and to use it as the organ of the ``Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie'' and of the ``Berufsverband Deutscher Neurochirurgen''.

A successful meeting of the Japanese and the German neurosurgical societies was held in Fukuoka in autumn of 2000. The editorial board has decided to publish the abstracts of this meeting in the Zentralblatt.

The editors herewith would like to return thanks to the reviewers of the journal who carefully read the incoming articles and made ciritical comments. We hope that a successful German scientific journal will be able to hold the field also in the future.

For the editors Prof. Dr. W. J. Bock

Für die Herausgeber