Passing the baton

R. A. Watts

I took up the baton as Editor on the 1 July 2002, but this is the first issue fully edited by the new team. My predecessor David Scott leaves the journal in good shape, for which I am deeply grateful. David was instrumental in developing the editorial office at the BSR, the name change, and most recently the introduction of online submission and reviewing. These developments have enabled the journal to become stronger and truly international. Our submissions are increasing and the geographical spread is widening, with 68% of papers coming from outside the United Kingdom.

The world of journal publishing is rapidly changing, and where it will be in 5 years time is very difficult to predict. Electronic publishing, however, is here to stay. The enthusiasts initially believed that paper would have disappeared by now, but now they realize that there is a place for both. The advent of radio and television has not resulted in the disappearance of newspapers but rather in their evolution. Electronic publication has the advantages of speed, global reach, capacity for large volumes of data and interactivity, whereas print is easier to read, more attractive and portable.

Speed of publication is vital to the long-term health of the journal. To aid this we plan to move to online publication ahead of print early this year. Our target is to publish an electronic version identical to the printed version within 10 weeks of acceptance. At present there is a backlog of papers which will affect the time it takes for papers to appear in print. We are taking a number of steps to address this: we are asking referees to be more critical of papers, to enable us to further raise the standards papers have to reach to be accepted; as you may notice we are publishing two bumper issues at the start of this year to clear some of the backlog; and we have made some formatting changes to maximize the space we do have. We will also work hard to minimize the time taken for the review process. The target for the interval from submission to initial decision is 4 weeks, with 90% of papers having a decision within 6 weeks.

With this issue I would like to welcome my new editorial team and I look forward to working with them over the next 5 years.

The journal style is being broadly maintained. The observant, however, will notice new cover illustrations. These are planned to change annually and we hope to use images from papers published during the previous year. Some minor stylistic changes have also been made to the layout of papers. Rheumatology has a very broad readership reflecting the diversity of interests within the rheumatology church. We hope to reflect the readership by maintaining the balance between clinical and basic science. We aim to produce a journal that is current and readable.

We always welcome feedback on aspects of the journal and we can be contacted through the editorial office at the BSR.