The Bulletin in 2001.

Abstract

2001 is when the new millennium really starts, according to some. Whether we agree or not, issue 1, year 1, is a good place and time to take stock of the evolution of the Bulletin of the World Health Organization. With the support of our contributors, referees and readers, we have made considerable progress over the past two years. The rigorous selection procedures we introduced in 1999 have raised both the quality, and the quantity of material available to publish. The appearance and timeliness of the journal have been steadily improving as well. In both content and production, we are going from strength to strength. A great help in achieving this has been the special theme issues published throughout the year 2000 (see box). Leading experts on the selected subjects contributed to planning, writing and evaluating the material. The result has been an important contribution by the Bulletin to international thinking and planning in these areas. A hidden but formidable strength of the Bulletin is its peer reviewers, of whom the list for last year is published on pages 83-84. Each article that comes in is read first by a member of the editorial team, then by a member of the Editorial Committee. Then, if they think it has any potential at all for being publishable, it goes out to at least two referees, who carefully assess the validity of its methods and findings. If any of the authors of a given article are WHO staff members, both referees have to be non-WHO. Otherwise, one of the referees can be a staff member, but not both. The referees' comments are often highly perceptive, detailed and extensive. They are used by a subgroup of the Editorial Committee in deciding on publication, and are then sent to the authors to inform their future work. On behalf of the Bulletin, we would like to thank all our authors and referees very warmly for their invaluable support. This year we intend to do five more theme issues -- half as many as last year, so that we can speed up the publication time for the other excellent material we are receiving. In addition, we will be publishing smaller clusters of articles on selected topics. So far, ethics and the HIV / AIDS pandemic are on our list. Since there are few more important tasks than placing health at the centre of the debate on economic policy and development, health economics will continue to be a key topic for the Bulletin. The theme issues on globalization and poverty will provide an excellent opportunity for examining the issues involved. A promising source of cutting-edge analysis during 2001 will be the work of the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health, set up by WHO's Director-General at the beginning of last year. We will be following its work with keen interest. Readers may have noticed that the Bulletin is evolving in other ways as well, to provide a fuller picture of what is happening in public, health around the world. Our news section is expanding, both in the number of items covered and the amount of detail provided. …