Matko Marusic: Life of an editor

Abstract

In this charming booklet, Matko Marusic, the founder (1991), Editor-in chief (1991-2009) and Editor Emeritus (since 2009) of the Croatian Medical Journal (CMJ), tells a story of how he made this new medical journal a good and reputable international journal. The first part of the booklet “The first five years”, the author explains, with great deal of humor, his efforts to acquisite new contributions, and how he pre-review the submitted manuscripts. I this part, he lists the most common mistakes, errors and omissions in the submitted manuscript, and explains how to deal with these. The roles of the reviewers, the co-editor-in-chief and entire the editorial staff are also explained, regardless the acceptance or rejection of the manuscript. The final acceptance does not mean that the authors and the editors are now revealed: the author’s duties regarding the proofs and editors’ duties regarding printing are also listed. The second part of the booklet “The second five years” is devoted to the “Instructions for authors” – the efforts of the journal to make them clear, understandable and helpful to authors – all in accordance to the CMJ’s author-friendly policy. In the third part entitled “The first ten years” the author explains that the success of the CMJ is due to the constant, persistent, diligent and honest job of not only himself, but also of his coeditor-in chief (Ana Marusic), whose enormous contribution M. Marusic acknowledges with great gratitude. Finally, in “The end article”, the author explains the causes of his decision (the sweet-bitter one, as he emphasizes) to take leave, after 17 years, of his position as editorin chef of the CMJ. His unsuccessful effort to protect the editorial freedom and independence led to this decision. This conflict originated from the CMJ retractions of several plagiarized articles of Asim Kurjak, whose plagiarism was detected by the editor of the British Medical Journal. Although the international scientific community tried to convince the leadership of the Zagreb Medical School that the CMJ acted according to the highest international standards of the editorship and publication ethics, the pressure was so intense that Matko Marusic left his position