Report on Ultraschall in der Medizin/European Journal of Ultrasound (UiM/EJU) in 2006

Table of Contents

As the EFSUMB appointed co-editor of the UiM/EJU I have been asked to write a report on the journal for this newsletter. When given an opportunity to talk about something I care about - like the UiM/EJU - this usually ends up going on forever and ever, so I had to promise to keep it short.

In short, the year 2006 was another good year for our journal. For an extended short version please read on.

Electronic manuscript submission was introduced March 1 immediately resulting in an increase in submitted manuscripts. This of course means greater competition for the journal pages with a positive effect on the long-term quality of the journal and hopefully also the impact factor. On the negative side is that also some papers with potential merits must be turned down. From an editor's point of view the electronic submission system is a great improvement. It is easy to keep track of the submissions and all the documents relating to each manuscript. All correspondence is now performed electronically and this really speeds up the reviewing process. On this occasion I would like to thank everyone involved in the process, the contributors, the reviewers, my friends and co-editors and the Thieme group. It is a combination of effort that gives us the journal you are holding in your hands today.

As two of my co-editors, K. Seitz and G. Judmaier, reported in issue 05-2006 there has been a further increase in the percentage of English language papers. The majority of original articles and case reports are now in English. Editorials and CME-articles are always bilingual.

The Impact Factor of UiM/EJU for 2005 again showed an increase, and it is now 1.708. This was good news not only for those directly involved in the journal but also to all the contributors as well as our European ultrasound community. The Ultraschall in der Medizin/European Journal of Ultrasound - the official journal of EFSUMB - is now also the official journal of 9 national ultrasound societies (the German, Swiss, Austrian, Norwegian, Danish, Latvian, Flemish, Macedonian and Croatian). Hopefully even more societies will join in the coming years.

CME articles started appearing in issue 5 in 2006 and will be in every issue. The two CME articles in 2006 were about "Sonographic evaluation of acute appendicitis" and "Ultrasound of venous thrombosis of the leg", something that should be of interest to most of our members. The CME articles scheduled for 2007 will be equally interesting and exciting and they are something extra to look forward to in each new issue of our European Journal.

Michael Bachmann Nielsen

Co-editor of the UiM/EJU