In 2018, Anales de Pediatría turned 50. As the editorial team, we wished to review what had transpired during this half century, for which purpose the Paediatrics History Committee produced a special article1 summarising the most important milestones of the journal. The goal was to highlight the development of Spanish paediatrics in those 50 years with the history of Anales as the main narrative thread. We also published an Editorial where the last three editors-in-chief2 expressed our perspectives on the progress of the journal and thanked everyone that has contributed to this upward evolution.

Last year we addressed bioethical dilemmas concerning scientific publications, which, while well-known in the scientific field, had not appeared to directly affect Anales de Pediatría. The identification of a plagiarised version of one of the articles originally published in our journal led to an investigation that revealed several instances of publication fraud through the publication of translations to English of articles originally published by Spanish paediatricians in journals such as Vox Paediatrica, Acta Pediátrica Española, Revista Pediatría de Atención Primaria or Anales de Pediatría. These translations were published in international online so-called predatory journals. These appalling discoveries led us to the commission of a special article3 reviewing the fundamentals of this growing form of bioethical fraud and the threats faced by the medical journal field, as well as to the writing of an editorial piece4 in which we recounted the events and reflected on the ethics of scientific publishing.

The total number of manuscripts submitted to Anales increased from 640 in 2017 to 769 in 2018, which was the highest number in the past 9 years (Fig. 1). The acceptance rate went from 25% in 2017 to 23% in 2018. As for the type of manuscripts (Fig. 2), we found that the distribution was very similar compared to the past 4 years, with a sustained increasing trend in the number of original articles. Fig. 3 shows the trends in the number of original articles and in the corresponding acceptance rates. The number increased significantly compared to 2017 (from 280 to 389). The distribution by type of article of the works published in 2018 was the following: 72 originals (70 in 2017), 36 scientific letters (28 in 2017), 22 letters to the Editor (17 in 2017), 19 special articles and AEP articles (16 in 2017).5

Figure 1.

Annual changes in the total number of received and accepted manuscripts, years 2010–2018.

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Figure 3.

Annual changes in the total number of received original article manuscripts and the percentage accepted, 2010 to 2018.

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Figure 2.

Annual changes in the percentage of original articles, scientific letters and letters to the editor submitted to Anales from 2010 to 2018.

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Figs. 4 and 5 represent the first response time in manuscript processing, with times that were very similar to those of previous years.

Figure 4.

Mean time elapsed to first response (2010–2018).

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Figure 5.

Mean manuscript processing time from acceptance to publication (2010–2018).

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The visibility of Anales de Pediatría continues to increase, which suggests that the journal is perceived favourably by its readers, whose numbers increase every year. Compared to 2017, the number of visits to the Anales de Pediatría website increased by more than 200000, approaching 3 million (Fig. 6), with visits made most frequently from Spain (26%) and Mexico (21%). This was also the case of the visits to the journal made through the ScienceDirect database , with an increase of more than 200000 visits and 80% of visits made from the United States (Fig. 7). The total number of visits exceeded 4 million for the first time (Fig. 8).

Figure 6.

Visibility of Anales de Pediatría. Number of visits to the website (www.analesdepediatria.org) (2010–2018).

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Figure 7.

Visibility of Anales de Pediatría: number of visits through ScienceDirect (2010–2018).

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Figure 8.

Visibility of Anales de Pediatría: total number of visits (2010–2018).

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Taking into account that most of our readers access the journal online, we have redesigned its digital platform to try to make it more appealing and user-friendly. Each article features the number of times it has been consulted, which allows the reader to quickly get an idea of which articles are read most frequently.

As we do every year, we present the full list of the peer reviewers that have collaborated with Anales de Pediatría in 2018 (Table 1) to express our deep appreciation for their work. Once again, we must highlight the crucial role of peer reviewers in the successful running of the journal. The increasing number of submissions to evaluate required the engagement of more reviewers, whose work is essential in selecting the highest-quality works and in their improvement with their discerning suggestions.

The authors of the manuscripts make it possible for us to achieve the mission of the journal by increasing scientific knowledge and facilitating improvements in the care delivered to the paediatric population. We are aware that we reject a high percentage of articles due to the increasing number of submissions. We hope that authors can understand the situation and encourage them to continue to submit manuscripts to our journal, which will be evaluated with due consideration.

In our quest to adapt the journal to the emerging forms of communication through visual media, we have added the possibility of submitting video. We hope that this new way of submitting work will be well received by both the authors and our readers.

The Anales de Pediatría award to the best original article published in the journal was given to: “Antonio Carrascosa, Diego Yeste, Antonio Moreno-Galdó, Miquel Gussinyé, Ángel Ferrández, María Clemente, Mónica Fernández-Cancio. Índice de masa corporal e índice de masa triponderal de 1.453 niños no obesos ni malnutridos de la generación del milenio. Estudio longitudinal de Barcelona. An Pediatr (Barc) 2018;89:137–43”.

The Juan Rodríguez-Soriano award in recognition to the article that has most contributed to the impact factor of the journal in 2017 was granted to: “K. Calvo Campoverde, M.T. Giner-Muñoz, L. Martinez Valdez, M. Rojas Volquez, J. Lozano Blasco, A. Machinena, A.M. Plaza, Reacciones de hipersensibilidad a antiinflamatorios no esteroideos y su tolerancia a fármacos alternativos. An Pediatr (Barc) 2016;84:148–153”.

The support that Anales de Pediatría receives from the Board of Directors of the Asociación Española de Pediatría (Spanish Association of Paediatrics, AEP) is key to attaining its objectives. One more year, we feel compelled to highlight the efforts exerted to maintain free publication in the journal for the authors as well as free access to all readers. This is one of the main reasons why the visibility of the journal continues to increase year after year. We believe that manuscript authors, most of whom are members of the AEP, greatly appreciate that their articles, once published in Anales de Pediatría, are read by millions of paediatricians and physicians worldwide.