Nephrol Dial Transplant (1999) 14: 2071
© 1999 European Renal Association-European Dialysis and Transplant Association
Letter of presentation of the new Editor-in-Chief and the new Deputy Editor
The ERA–EDTA Council has elected us to take over, as of July 1 1999, the scientific direction of Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation. We are fully aware of the great honour, but also of the responsibility and workload that this task represents. It will of course be difficult to match the outstanding performance of our immediate predecessors, Professor Eberhard Ritz from Heidelberg, Germany, and Professor Hein Koomans from Utrecht, Holland. Fortunately, it will not be necessary to repeat the admirable pioneering work done by the first Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Professor Alex M. Davison of Leeds, UK.
Due to relentless efforts of our predecessors, NDT has become a well-known and highly esteemed journal of our speciality. It occupies a firm place among the major journals of nephrology, with a subscription number exceeding 5000 copies per month. Its particular focus is on clinical matters, including clinical and clinically oriented experimental research and continuing medical education. It has also become a platform for nephrological news worldwide. We are particularly pleased about the growing exposure of our journal to a readership and authorship from all continents.
Our aim is to maintain these general policies which have been successful from the outset, and which have progressively increased the journal's reputation. We intend not only to maintain established achievements, but to introduce new openings.
Given the indisputable advantages of electronic transmission, we have begun to work, in collaboration with our publishers, Oxford University Press, on an easy and broad access to the journal on the World Wide Web. In the near future, we aim to handle the article submission process through Internet. This in turn should allow us to accelerate the publication process. As in the past, we will be relying on the continuing good will and efforts of our highly dedicated reviewers from all over the world, and on the unfailing commitment of our Subject Editors and Editorial Board. We know that peer reviewing is a difficult and time-consuming task, especially when the referee is asked to make decisions on areas of research which are not always his/her own field. Clearly, the peer evaluation of original articles by clinical and basic research scientists is, and must remain, the cornerstone of medical science journals like NDT, in contrast with the increasing amount of unreviewed scientific information of all kinds. It gives us great satisfaction to work with motivated colleagues, whose assistance, alertness, and critical abilities are vital in the achievement of our common goal: to further the scientific value of original work published in NDT.
We know that it will be no easy task to run the journal, given the pressures of increasingly unlimited information from other sources. Nonetheless we are confident that there is a niche for our journal, as recently pointed out by Eberhard Ritz. It should be maintained and if possible extended, with the constant help of our contributors and readers.
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