Professor Martin Ritzén on his time as co-editor: 'I went back on my promise and never took over after Rolf'.

Abstract

Professor Martin Ritzén has been engaged with Acta Paediatrica since the 1980s (Figure 1). It was then that he was published for the first time in the journal. Since then, he has followed its development from paper manuscripts with corrections in red pen, all the way to the transition to ‘online’. His involvement nearly led to a position as editor-in-chief. In 1970 I came home after a year as a fellow at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where I had quickly learned the fundamentals of clinical paediatric endocrinology and made valuable contacts. A lab in the newly built Clinical Research Laboratory was then there waiting for me. My research at that time was more preclinical and was published in other journals. My first publication in Acta wasn’t until 1980. Associate professor -- later professor -- Carl Gustaf (C.G.) Bergstrand at that time took care of the basic work at the journal as associate editor and presented all suggestions to Rolf. Bergstrand did thorough work -- one got paper manuscripts returned with his handwritten notes in the margins. Like a corrected school report! I think it was 1988. Rolf Zetterström, editor-in-chief since a long time back, recruited me as associate editor when Bergstrand resigned and instead became an honorary editor. The chairman of the foundation, Stig Sjölin, a few years later wanted me to promise that I would take over as editor-in-chief when Rolf would one day decide to end his editorship. He didn’t do that for a very long time. I went back on my promise and never took over after Rolf. During my first year, Almqvist & Wiksell was Acta’s publisher. It had an office on Old Bridge Street, in the Stockholm city centre, where I went for some time each week. Manuscripts were presented to me in folders, which became thicker with every revision. All correspondence happened through ‘snail mail’. Later, Rolf and I came to sit in neighboring offices, and I often got the honor of participating in sandwich lunches with Rolf and four other senior professors. At those lunches, many unofficial glimpses into Karolinska Institute’s history were exchanged. Rolf was familiar with it all! Without doubt it is the transition to digital manuscripts and the correspondence between the editorial office, authors and reviewers. The paper bundles vanished. Because it has kept its character as a journal of general paediatrics, primarily aimed at clinical paediatricians. Many other paediatric journals have chosen to focus on narrow subspecialties.