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Editorial
Success causes growing pains
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  1. L B A van de Putte, (editor),
  2. on behalf of the editorial team

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    Speeding up submission to publication

    Since the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases became the official journal of the European League against Rheumatism (EULAR) in 1999, the journal has undergone a time of immense growth—for example:

    • Submissions have increased from about 450 in 1999 to an expected 1300 in 2005

    • The impact factor has doubled (at 3.827 it is now the highest of the European rheumatology journals)

    • Print circulation has more than tripled.

    As might be expected, this overwhelming expansion has not been without consequence: the major negative one being an increase in the acceptance to publication time. Measures such as a strictly enforced word count, effective web usage, and an acceptance rate of only 25% have yet to have the desired impact

    At the request of the editorial team, the journal’s owners (BMJ Publishing Group and EULAR) have agreed to increase the size of the next six issues of ARD significantly to reduce the publication lead time; in addition, the average page budget for the journal will be increased to sustain a reduced time to publication.

    We hope that you will continue to enjoy the journal and its greatly enlarged size.

    PS. Readers should also note that selected articles are published Online First—within days of acceptance—on ARD’s website (http://ard.bmjjournals.com/onlinefirst.shtml). See p 1034.