The Editorial Committee of Anales de Pediatría is conscious of the responsibility entrusted to it by the Council of the Spanish Association of Paediatrics (AEP) and feels it has the duty to offer both an annual account of its actions, previously outlined in two editorials1,2 and put into practice over the course of the year, as well as the results of these actions. We think it appropriate that the presentation of this account should coincide with the Annual AEP Meeting. Aside from reviewing the process of manuscript evaluation from January 1, 2014 to April 30, 2015, the report includes information on the implementation of the recently introduced, new editorial standards, the bilingual publication, the contributions of reviewers, the changes in the Editorial Board, the awards, and the dissemination of funded paediatric research.
Processing of manuscriptsNumber of manuscripts, characteristics and acceptance rateIn 2014, a total of 671 manuscripts were evaluated: 233 original articles (35%), 87 scientific letters (13%), 20 editorials (3%), 125 letters to the editor (19%), 14 special articles (2%), 29 AEP articles (4%), 101 images in paediatrics (15%) and 62 brief reports (9%). This last type of manuscript has been discontinued with the introduction of the new editorial standards and has been replaced by the scientific letters section. The number of manuscripts evaluated in the first four months of 2015 was similar to that for the same period from the previous year. There was an increase in the number of original articles submitted from 34.7% to 42.3%. Invited Editorials written by nationally and internationally recognised experts have increased, whilst letters to the editor have decreased. The rejection rate for 2014 as a whole was 56%, and in the first months of 2015 it rose to 65%.
Publication timesPublication time consists of two phases: the time from receipt to editorial decision and the time from acceptance to publication.
The first phase or review process has been the object of special attention, since it is one of the main concerns of authors. They want to see their work evaluated and published as quickly as possible. Comparing 2014 to the first four months of 2015, the amount of time necessary to complete the first phase decreased considerably. This phase or evaluation process from receipt to first editorial decision decreased from 18.5 days in 2014 to 13.2 days in the first four months of 2015. The time from receipt of the manuscript to assignation of an editor decreased from 1.6 to 1.5 days. The time from editor assignation to the invitation to peer review was reduced from 3.6 to 3.5 days. From invitation to peer review to the first editorial decision, the time shortened from 13.3 to 8.2 days.
Once accepted, manuscripts pass straight into the electronic production process leading to the generation of the PDF and publication in an “ahead of print” version on the Anales de Pediatría website (www.analesdepediatria.org). They simultaneously appear in the PubMed database where they can already be cited. This helps make them rapidly available for consultation by potential readers and increases the chances of citation by other authors. The average duration of this production process has remained at 8.4 weeks, something we hope to reduce in the very near future.
Bilingual publicationSince its introduction in June 2014, over 100 manuscripts have been published in both Spanish and English. At the same time, a gradual increase has been observed in the number of manuscripts received in English, most of them from Spain.
The articles have been translated after the production of the PDFs in Spanish, and as a result, the online version in English has appeared with a time lag of approximately 30 days. Our aim is to gradually reduce this interval so that by the end of 2015, we have both versions edited and electronically published simultaneously on the first day of each month.
The introduction of the bilingual publication has also entailed providing direct access to the English edition on the Anales website (www.analesdepediatria.org) via a link identified by a flag in the top margin of each page. The electronic contents list, also in English, provides direct access to the items just published.
More and more users are accessing the contents of the journal via the links to the English edition. Data available from ScienceDirect indicate that PDF downloads increased by 88% in 2014, compared to those for the previous year. This means that the journal has acquired greater visibility, which we interpret, in part, to be a consequence of now offering a bilingual version. The number of visits to the site in 2014 was 1,187,029 and in the first quarter of 2015, it reached 388,094. The visitors are mainly from Spain and Latin America, especially Mexico, and there has been an increase, albeit modest, from the United States.
Contribution of reviewersThe work of our peer reviewers deserves special attention. This Editorial Committee wishes to express its gratitude for their selfless contribution and unwavering commitment, which have been vital to the editorial process. Much of the credit for the progress in publication times and in the quality of the journal goes to them.
In recognition of their invaluable work, their names are published each year. Those for 2014 and the first four months of 2015, almost 400 in all, are presented at the end of this issue.
Editorial boardIn recent years, Anales de Pediatría has had the privilege of having some of the most distinguished paediatricians in Spain on its Editorial Board. Now that some of them are leaving, it is time to express our appreciation for the work they have done.
With this restructuring of the Board, we wish to introduce a culture in which its members play a more direct role in the decisions that affect the journal's editorial policy. To help reach this goal, annual meetings, coinciding with the AEP Congress, will be held with the Board. It is also hoped that Board members will continue to act as reviewers. The new Editorial Board is published in this issue.
AwardsThe Editorial Committee has agreed to maintain the Jerónimo Soriano Award for the best article published in the journal each year, and in order to raise its prestige the presentation will be held during the opening ceremony of the AEP Congress. In 2014 the Jerónimo Soriano Award was presented to a multicentre study performed by the hospitals belonging to the SEN1500 neonatal network.3 The winner of the Award in 2015 is a study in which researchers from Spain, Germany and Sweden participated, with financial support from the Health Care Research Fund of the Carlos III Health Institute and the Andalusian Public Foundation for Research Management.4
In addition, a proposal has been made to the Executive Committee of the AEP to found the Juan Rodríguez Soriano Award, which will recognise the article that has made the greatest contribution to the journal's impact factor in the last two years. The Award would be named after Professor Juan Rodríguez Soriano in honour of his research career, the wide readership of his work and the large number of citations it has received, added to the fact that he was Editor-in-Chief of Anales de Pediatría for the period 1995–2000.5 The Award would come into effect in 2016 and be presented at the opening ceremony of the Conference.
Anales and the challenge of disseminating funded paediatric researchPublishing in high-impact academic journals has become the main objective of researchers and R&D institutions. Moreover, managing to publish the results of funded research is a challenge for any journal.
Of the manuscripts published in 2014 and the first four months of 2015, 13.5% and 12.4%, respectively had received financial support. The majority of this funding came from public sources and on a competitive basis, with the main funding body being the Health Care Research Fund of the Carlos III Health Institute. Despite its vital importance, this information cannot be obtained from bibliographical catalogues for Anales, making this element, which is so important to authors and funding agencies, difficult to retrieve automatically.
Through this annual report, the Editorial Committee aims to share information on the journal's activity in order to progressively improve its quality, clarity and distribution, so that all members of the AEP look on Anales de Pediatría as their medium of expression.
Please cite this article as: Lurbe i Ferrer E, Alsina Manrique de Lara L, Rodríguez Fernández LM, Solís Sánchez G. El espacio de los editores: anuario de Anales de Pediatría. An Pediatr (Barc). 2015;82:375–377.
