We are very pleased to bring to our readers this issue of the Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine, which has been expanded to 320 pages comprised of 60 articles. This editorial provides an explanation.
The Journal has been and continues to be exceptionally successful in attracting a progressively increasing body of contributors, matched by an ever-increasing circulation in both the print and online versions of the Journal. We are appreciative of this impressive support from our contributors and readers, but our success has generated a significant challenge. As a direct consequence, we have been accumulating an enormous number of papers awaiting publication in print, although accepted and published in the “Early Online” version of the Journal. This has been occurring despite an ever-rising threshold for rejection with the current rate exceeding 60%. This obviously is a serious matter, as we fully understand the importance of timely publication of scholarly work. We have had many discussions and brain storming sessions amongst the two Editors-in Chief and Managing Editor on this critical issue, discussions also occurred at the Board level, and several steps were taken which are briefly summarized below.
In 2005 our page budget was 80 pages per issue. After the 2007 Board meeting, in order to accommodate the anticipated larger volume of papers, it was raised to 90 pages per issue, then to 108 pages in 2010, with a temporary increase to 195 pages from July to December of 2010. However, even with these significant measures the backlog has continued to grow. After many discussions at various levels, our publishing house, and specifically our Managing Editor, Ms Didi Peng, very generously came with the offer of further escalation of the page budget to 320 pages starting with the June 2012 issue and continuing through December 2012. The goal is for the journal to significantly reduce its backlog of articles by the end of this year and start with a manageable backlog in 2013. We are very pleased and appreciative of the support we receive from our publishers, especially from Didi, for it is so essential in maintaining the Journal’s impressive momentum. I am personally grateful to her and to my esteemed friend and co-chief editor, Professor Gian Carlo Di Renzo, for being such wonderful and effective colleagues.
We also would like to reaffirm our appreciation and gratitude to our editorial board, reviewers, contributors and readers for their continuing support that is central to fulfilling our mission.
Correspondence: Dev Maulik. E-mail: [email protected]