Good News for Our Old Journal

There is no better evidence for the esteem of a scientific journal than the number of high-quality manuscripts submitted to its editorial office. Experimental and Clinical Endocrinology & Diabetes receives a constantly increasing number of very good articles from all over the world and, due to our limited space, the rejection rate for the contributions is already above 50 %. Therefore, a principal decision had to be made: should the rejection rate be further increased, or should our journal appear more frequently?

Founded in 1928 by L. Asher, Bern, and A. Biedl, Prague, our journal represents the oldest endocrine periodical in the German-speaking parts of Europe. Since the sixties of the last century, the journal was edited largely from East Germany. In 1983, its name was changed from “Endokrinologie” to “Experimental and Clinical Endocrinology”, and also the language from German to English. The Johann Ambrosius Barth Verlag in Leipzig, in which our journal appeared first and is still published today, represents one of the oldest, continuously existing publishing houses in Germany, established in the 18th century. After the fall of the iron curtain and the German reunification, Experimental and Clinical Endocrinology has become the Official Organ of the German Society of Endocrinology in 1993, with Professor Karlheinz Voigt, Marburg, as its first Editor-in-Chief in this new function. By expanding its title to “Experimental and Clinical Endocrinology & Diabetes”, it serves also as Official Organ of the German Diabetes Association since 1995. The impact factor rose from 0.1 in 1993 up to over 1.6 in the following years. In 1995, 6 regular issues appeared annually, and additional 2 - 5 supplements. In 1999, the number of issues per volume was increased to 8 and now, starting with Vol. 112 (2004), Experimental and Clinical Endocrinology & Diabetes will appear 10 times per year. The Editors-in-Chief, Professor Martin Wehling and I are very grateful that both the German Society of Endocrinology and the German Diabetes Association, and also the J. A. Barth Verlag, belonging to the Thieme Publishing Group since about 3 years, agreed to increase the number of issues from 8 up to 10 per year. We all hope that our journal will further flourish and increase its impact on the scientific community. It has been one of our intentions to keep, or to bring again, endocrinology and diabetology even closer together. Their position should be strengthened as an acknowledged and established discipline of internal medicine, especially in academic and other bigger departments of Internal Medicine. Such issues have been addressed by us in a recent editorial (Exp. Clin. Endocrinol. Diabetes 2003; 111: 1).

The quality of any scientific journal depends crucially on the expertise and the commitment of its Editorial Board, its associated editors, field editors and referees. Without their continuous efforts and help it would have been impossible to publish a high-ranked journal like Experimental and Clinical Endocrinology & Diabetes.

After so many good news there is also some bad news for our journal: Professor Martin Wehling, my Co-Editor-in-Chief in the last 3 years, has been offered an excellent new research position in Sweden starting from the beginning of 2004, and therefore resigned from his duties in our journal. We thank him for the excellent work he has done in these 3 years for Experimental and Clinical Endocrinology & Diabetes. A successor of Professor Wehling will hopefully shortly be designated. In the meantime, I will have to act as sole Editor-in-Chief and I ask you all for assistance in our common efforts to further improve the quality of Experimental and Clinical Endocrinology & Diabetes.

Helmut Schatz, Bochum, Editor-in-Chief