Editorial

In this issue we have the privilege to announce that the societies of Pediatric Surgery from Poland, Hungary, the Baltic States, and Slovakia have chosen the European Journal of Pediatric Surgery as their official journal and scientific organ. From a European point of view, we are happy that the increased exchange between Western and Eastern European scientists, which has become possible during the past decade, is now finding its expression in a growing group of Eastern European societies that become affiliated to our journal. It is a great pleasure that Prof Kaliciński - in close coordination with Prof Lodziński - has agreed, as a former representative of Surgery in Childhood International, to contribute his experience and cooperation to this journal by acting as an associate editor for his country. We have been grateful that the negotiations between the representatives of both journals took place in an atmosphere of deep mutual understanding, willingness to cooperate and clear perception of our common aim: fostering the development of pediatric surgery in Europe.

We believe that the enlargement will provide the European Journal of Pediatric Surgery with an important stimulus for the future.

We would also like to thank Prof. Michael Höllwarth for having agreed during the pre-negotiations for the new European Association of Pediatric Surgeons and at the first newly constituted general meeting in May 2003 in Tours to recognize the European Journal of Pediatric Surgery as the organ of the new EUPSA, that is, of the new European Pediatric Surgery Association. Indeed, it would be absurd to wish to hamper the goals and objectives of a periodical which was founded with the aim of representing European pediatric surgery and which covers a spectrum ranging from pediatric traumatology and pediatric urology to neurosurgery and other medical specialties by the formation of a European association of pediatric surgeons. The European Journal of Pediatric Surgery is an advertisement for European pediatric surgery and has an international circulation. The spectrum of pediatric surgery in Europe is a broad one and is often more comprehensive than that in Anglo-American countries; if pediatric surgeons do not wish in future to find themselves limited to visceral surgery or to become a mere part of one of many other medical specialties, then it is urgently necessary to extend this broad basis. The recent developments at the annual general meeting of the German Medical Association in May of this year clearly revealed this threat. On that occasion all German medical specialties laid claim to areas of pediatric surgery and in the regulations governing the training in their respective fields provided for the possibility of treating all age groups. A specialist field is only entitled to be considered a medical specialty if it has acquired a corresponding scientific basis for such a specialization and publishes its results in its own scientific periodical.

Of course, pediatric surgery is in the first instance a skill and skilled work is a prerequisite for the regional or supraregional reputation of any hospital. The publication of case studies may be of interest here.

What is crucial, however, is basic research as this alone defines the scientific content of a medical field and helps it become recognized internationally. The pioneer achievements of leading pediatric surgeons such as Ladd, Gross, Dennis Browne, Ombredanne, Duhamel, Rehbein, Prévot, Hendren and Peña provide just a few examples of this. What is crucial and enables a scientific periodical to grow and flourish is therefore not a list of names of well-known personages in the Editorial Board nor the number of pediatric surgery associations which have chosen a periodical as their official organ of publication but the active collaboration of the individual members of the Editorial Board. If the members choose to send their best works to other periodicals for publication, if they appear to consider their activities on the Editorial Board as just another feather in their cap but do not actively collaborate, then a periodical cannot thrive.

Many authors submit their articles based on the respective impact factor of a journal because that is important for their career. The scientific index of a periodical, however, is decisively linked to the periodical's circulation and dissemination and to the quality of the articles submitted. It should therefore be in the interest of every single member of the various European associations of pediatric surgery to raise the standard of their periodical and to ensure that its circulation increases. The current extension of the circulation of the European Journal of Pediatric Surgery is an excellent opportunity for this.

Sceptics stress the fact that in future electronic media will replace periodicals and that the future belongs to e-journals run by scientific associations. This may be true, but electronic journals will still need high-quality scientific articles written in perfect English. Such journals, for example German Medical Science, also attach great importance to publishing only top grade articles. E-journals also hope to achieve an international, worldwide circulation with widespread resonance and they too are governed by impact factors. While electronic journals doubtlessly have the advantage of being able to publish their articles much faster, such an advantage must been seen in perspective once you consider that the decisive delay when publishing an article is not a result of the slow delivery by post but results from the fact that many manuscripts require extensive corrections, may be incomplete or require additional amendments, that authors are tardy in carrying out the necessary amendments and corrections, that the English of articles by non Anglo-American authors may need editing, and the lengthy process of publication itself with its corrections and revisions by the editor and the publisher, the checking of galley proofs and of the mock-up, the compilation of individual issues and finally, the actual printing process. In addition, there is the fact that electronic media such as German Medical Science represent a large number of scientific specialist associations; German Medical Science, for example, represents 146 medical specialist associations. The individual associations with their specific specialist journals are only represented at a second level. We can therefore assume that with electronic medical science institutes large new editorial departments will be set up, which will be able to make use of the Internet to ensure a wide circulation and make use of the unlimited possibilities of publication while curtailing the delivery time by post.

But the number of publications will always be limited by their quality and the standards, which currently determine the quality of a periodical, will remain. For this reason we would like to take the occasion created by the expansion of the Editorial Board of the European Journal of Pediatric Surgery to call on all its readers and all members of the Editorial Board to actively collaborate in the periodical. At the same time we wish to thank all long-term members now retiring for their great interest and extensive assistance, an assistance which has continued even beyond the end of their active professional life.

Cologne - Paris - WarsawA. M. Holschneider August 2003Y. Revillon P. Kaliciński