The Publications Committee has met twice during 2006. The first meeting which was held at Heathrow Airport London was the first at which the full new committee was able to get together. We had a lengthy update on the recent developments in the European Journal of Ultrasound particularly with online submission. The Journal has been looking at a number of ways of improving the format of the Journal to further improve the impact factor which continues to rise slowly. A number of initiatives were discussed to encourage societies to subscribe en bloc to the Journal including personal approaches to the Presidents of the societies.
The website continues to evolve with relatively minor changes. It was decided not to make further major investment in this at the moment although this will inevitably be required in the next few years.
The second meeting of the committee during the Euroson congress in Bologna in September noted the new lay out of the European Journal with CME papers at the commencement of each issue. There was a lengthy discussion about whether the organisers of future Euroson Congresses should be encouraged to include a years subscription to the Journal as part of the registration fee. It was suggested this might commence with the Romanian Congress in 2008. There were further discussions about the content of the Newsletter. As well as each member of the Publications Committee volunteering to submit one article a year which has already commenced, it was agreed to encourage commentaries and technical notes from all member of EFSUMB which would be appropriate for the Newsletter.
Dr David Pilling
Chairman EFSUMB Publication Committee
