Editors message

Abstract

To take over the steering wheel from an experienced skipper is a challenge for the new one. What course should be taken in order to go towards old and new destinations? For me as new Chief Editor of our 86 year old journal, it is a pleasant first task to thank the old skipper, Prof. Per Olof Janson from Gothenburg, for his invaluable contributions during the many years he has guided Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica in its mission to provide good science to Nordic obstetricians and gynecologists and to the international scientific community, who consult and respect the journal. It is also time to praise the oarsmen, the Associate Editors, who keep up the forward drive of the boat. Competent back-up comes from the Board of the Nordic Federation of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the member societies in the five Nordic countries, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. I look forward to working with them, the Editorial Office in Gothenburg and with our international medical publisher, Taylor & Francis, in Stockholm and Oslo, particularly as we go to electronic submission and manuscript handling this summer. The journal stands on an old foundation of publishing a broad range of articles covering fundamental aspects of obstetrics and gynecology as well as subspeciality topics. I plan to extend on this and introduce new items to enhance readability of the journal. The issues will start by an Editors’ Message highlighting contributions and news of specific interest. More wide-ranging medical news will be added in due course, both from the Nordic and international scene. This will broaden the journals’ medical outlook and often take it beyond the traditional scope of obstetrics and gynecology to women's health in a general sense. The editorial team will strengthen its working ties for this purpose. Input from the readers and from leading centers and institutions in our countries will be necessary, as will the role of our international contributors. World-wide aspects of obstetrics and gynecology are vital to the success of Acta as an international publication. Changes come in gradually as Acta adjusts to sail with the winds and tides, as it indeed has done. In Acta clinical science, allied to basic research, should blend in with reviews and commentaries which the Editorial Board solicits from those known to contribute from a basis of authority, experience and scientific prowess. Basic research articles must have a clinical bearing. To the point writing should be our hallmark as we move forward in a faster and changing world. Lastly it is of vital importance that Nordic researchers choose Acta as their prime target for publication to a greater extent than hitherto. We strive to raise the impact factor in order to succeed among the sister journals. It is understandable when authors submit some prime work to broad-based journals such as Lancet, BMJ, JAMA or New England Journal of Medicine, which have a world-wide impact. Any author will consider it a life-time achievement to publish there. However, among clinical sciences journals in obstetrics and gynecology Acta should not be a lesser choice for Nordic and international contributors than the British or American journals. In an electronic google-world of large publication databases and alert-e.mails reading becomes universal and less dependent on specific journals. Still it is good to have at least one journal to grasp on a quiet evening or good afternoon at home or during work, feel the pages glide through your hands as you absorb matters that you want to be acquainted with, for your own sake and that of your patients. That is the joy of reading which few of us really want to exchange for the computer screen. In the Nordic countries this journal should be Acta and if we please our international readership at the same time, it adds value to the up-keep of frontline science, news and debate to which we contribute.