European Urology

Editorials

Dear Reader,

It is a major honour and privilege to write to you today as the new Editor-in-Chief of European Urology.

Because of the 30-year long invaluable leadership of Claude Schulman, Founding Editor of the Journal, European Urology has become a referral point of major importance in the peer reviewed urological literature. His exceptional leadership has also rewarded the journal with the 2004 impact factor of 2.65 - a 20% rise over a one year period [1]!

The new Editorial Team now has the responsibility of expanding the role of the Journal even further in order to address the reader's request of being continuously updated on the most relevant scientific innovations in our field.

To be successful when faced with a difficult challenge, it is essential to have a winning team and I am sure I have reached that goal already.

Following the example of Pierre Teillac, Secretary General of the European Association of Urology, who has been successfully leading the Association since 2003 along with the strategic support of a newly formed Executive Committee (Per-Anders Abrahamsson executive committee member responsible for Science, Christopher Chapple executive committee member responsible for Education, Manfred Wirth executive committee member responsible for Communication and Finances), I have also re-organized the Editorial Board of European Urology.

The Journal now has four new Associate Editors who are all very well known to you as major leaders in their respective fields. Anders Bjartell from Sweden, Christian Stief from Germany, Tullio Sulser from Switzerland and Alexandre Zlotta from Belgium have been sharing with me the daily workload related to the increasing number of manuscripts which are submitted to European Urology for possible publication.

The newly instituted Editorial Board at Large of European Urology is exclusively composed of the most active reviewers which have been working for the Journal over the last several years.

A journal bases its success on the number of readers and subscribers, authors and of course reviewers. We felt that our colleagues, who devote so much time and energy to carefully assess the scientific quality of manuscripts submitted to the Journal, should be recognized and have the most active participation in the life of European Urology. Members of the Editorial Board at Large will be re-considered on an annual basis, to allow those who have been supporting the Journal most actively to achieve or maintain the most adequate visibility. I am sure you will note that the Editorial Board at Large members are coming from the five continents and this is a clear example of the interest that European Urology has attracted over its 30 years of life.

The Editors of European Urology will be supported by a newly composed and perfectly trained staff working at the journal's various editorial offices. Cathy Pierce is the new Editorial Office Manager in Milan. Patricia Bachmann, Liliane Di Maria, Beth Roby and Judith Carlen are the Editorial assistants who will support the Associate Editors in their demanding everyday duties.

There are a number of new and exciting features in European Urology that I would like to introduce to you today.

The cover is brand new and it combines the orange colour which has been a part of the history of our Journal with platinum as sign of the level of excellence we want to achieve in order to serve you in the best possible way.

Pictures shown on the front cover are descriptive of the “Case Study of the Month”, a brief report detailing an interesting case study with significant educational content for our readers. In each issue of European Urology we will publish a new case study followed by one multiple choice question that will provide credits for the continuing medical education system sponsored by the European Association of Urology and by the European Board of Urology (EU-ACME system). In the subsequent issue of the Journal, the discussion section of the case study and the correct answer of the EU-ACME question will be published. We hope that this new Journal section will contribute to continually attract and maintain your interest to European Urology as much as possible.

Innovations in European Urology will continue in the new table of contents. Each paper published in a journal issue will be of course detailed with its title, authors’ list and pages but in addition to this we have also included a short “take home message” that will allow the reader to have an immediate sense of the most important findings included in the article. The European Urology table of contents will also be widely distributed through email alerts sent to the massive email group of the European Association of Urology giving one further reason why we believe that this new implementation to the table of contents will be well received by our readers [2].

Full length editorials will be published ahead of review and original articles in every issue of the Journal as we are sure that they will capture the interest of our readers. These articles will come from recognized authorities who have been invited to openly express their view on a topic related to one or more articles published in the same issue of European Urology.

We are convinced that well written review articles on topics of timely importance are always well received by readers. We have already commissioned a large number of high quality review articles to the best experts worldwide and have been very positively impressed by the enthusiasm that has always accompanied the acceptance of our invitations. We will also welcome proposals for unsolicited review articles which will be carefully assessed by the Editors of European Urology. The submission will be sent for peer review and subsequently published if considered of interest to our readers.

Original articles will cover all fields of our specialty. The variety of the articles will of course depend primarily on our authors! We will do our best to attract the interest of the most active writers from all areas of Urology to provide you with the best diversified reading material.

Continuing Medical Education will also consider review and original articles published in European Urology. Three articles per issue will be accompanied by six multiple choice questions. A dedicated website has been developed to allow our readers to register and answer these questions and gain the subsequent credits. Details on the EU-CME system can be found in the new Information for Authors section published in this issue of the Journal.

We are aware that some manuscripts submitted for publication may contain information which is of particular interest and impact on the scientific knowledge of our readers. We have thus renewed the “Fast Track” publication system that will allow very special manuscripts to be peer reviewed within 72 hours following submission and to be published online within 2 weeks following final acceptance.

As we all recognize that surgery is an essential part of our specialty, we have developed a new section of European Urology called “Surgery in Motion” that will be composed of an original article describing an innovative surgical technique with a detailed report on its results and complications. In addition to this and of equal importance, a state-of-the-art DVD describing that particular surgical technique will be enclosed to the same journal issue. Markus Graefen from Germany will be the Editor responsible for this new and attractive section of European Urology.

We believe that young and talented writers should be given the maximum visibility in the Journal as they represent the future of our specialty. Original articles accepted for publication following the usual peer review process and having a Resident in Training as first author will be published in a section of the Journal called “Residents’ Corner”. The best papers published in this section will be recognized with a specifically dedicated award during the annual meeting of the European Association of Urology.

Letters to the Editors dealing with articles published in the last three issues of European Urology will be welcome. Those having clear importance for our readers will be published in the Journal with the article's authors reply.

The final part of the Journal will be devoted to 2 important sections. One will deal with interviews and the other with debates between 2 recognized authorities on topics of significant interest to our readers. Christine McKillop, a medical writer known worldwide, who also has a specific expertise in our field will be the responsible editor of our “Interviews” and “Open to Debate” sections.

We are very fortunate to count on the experience and undisputed scientific authority of Fritz Schroeder, who will act as Editor of the “Words of Wisdom” section of the Journal. Critical commentaries on important articles published in the most prestigious medical journals will be provided by eminent authorities and will be available in each issue of European Urology. Karin van Alphen will be the Editorial Assistant devoted to this new section.

The “family” of European Urology will also include the EAU-EBU Update Series which will publish educational reviews six times per year under the wise editorship of Fritz Schroeder.

Finally, the European Urology Supplements with the new impact factor of 2.7 will continue publishing proceedings of meetings or monographs. Both the Update Series and Supplements will also be adapted to conform with the new look of European Urology.

I can with no doubt promise you that the Editorial Board of European Urology will invest all its possible energies to provide you with the most updated and high level scientific information. It is clear to all of us that every Journal bases its credibility and interest on the manuscripts submitted for publication. We hope we will be able to attract the attention of the best writers worldwide in order to offer you articles covering all the fields in our specialty [3].

All of us in the Journal's Editorial Board are at your service and we are confident that we will reach all our objectives.

The first one among these is that you, dear reader, will consider European Urology as “Your” new “Platinum” Journal.