Volume 64 - 2001 - Fasc.2 - Editorial
News from the Editorial Board
Five years agO. when Jean Henrion and myself became Editor in Chief and Deputy Editor, respectively, our wish was to continue the progressive metamorphosis of Acta Gastroenterologica Belgica into a completely English speaking journal. This allows the possibility to any Belgian doctor to get her/Iiis clinical or basic research published in Acta, which is covered by the Excerpta Medica database (EMBQSE) since 1990 and therefore appears in Current Contents and Medline researches. Much more, through this international spreading, we also received a lot of contributions from Europe and Asia. This means that we have to critically review all these contributions before they are released in the international literature, and weight their originality compared to what is published in other Journals. It is the role of the reviewers and the Editorial Board, and make sense to the fact that not all the articles can be accepted for publication. The rejection rate for original articles and case reports approaches fifty percent in Acta Gastroenterologica, underlining the severity of the Board. Thus, I would like to deeply congratulate and thank the Associate Editors and all the reviewers who contributed to the selection of the papers, this means, they guaranty the quality of the Journal. Besides, I also want to thank Belgian experts in the field of Gastroenterology and Hepatology who organized outstanding meetings and symposia on special subjects. Beside the hard administrative work inherent to this kind of organization, they were able to collect and manage manuscripts from internationally renowned experts for publication in Acta Gastroenterologica. I profoundly hope this "Belgian way of spreading knowledge" will continue for the future. This does not mean that Acta Gastroenterologica is, currently, working fine or has a bright future. The new elected Editorial Board, Pierre Deprez and myself as Deputy Editor and Editor in Chief, respectively, will have a lot of work for the 4 following years. The reviewing process is still hampered by an unacceptable time delay, the mean of which being 4 months. By adopting some pre-review requests to the reviewers and increasing the role of computer and electronic management, it will certainly be possible to reduce this delay by half over the next years. We lack much epidemiological information on digestive diseases in Belgium, which is the basis for discussions concerning the management of our patients on a medical, administrative and governmental point of view. I hope that with the help of the different Belgian Societies and Associations involved in Gastroenterology, Acta might become the cornerstone of such a major information. One of the main concern of the Editorial Board will be the absolute necessity for the Journal to set up its integration in the increasing electronic community of the intemet. The aim of this will be ease of access, international spreading and rapid communication as, currently, most renowned International Journals are moving to. We all hope Acta Gastroenterologica Belgica will survive and still grow through your contributions. Olivier Le Moine Editor in Chief. Acta Gastro-Enterologica Belgica, Vol. LXIV April-June 2001
