Anders Vahlquist
DOI: 10.2340/00015555-0726

Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) statistics in June 2009 show, very encouragingly, that the impact factor of Acta Dermato-Venereologica for 2008 has risen to 2.456 and that, as a consequence, our journal is now ranked among the top nine dermatological journals in the world. The increase in impact factor (see Fig. 1 for a yearly comparison and Table I for a list of the 15 highest ranking journals) has been paralleled by a steady increase in submissions to Acta Dermato-Venereologica, from 309 papers in 2007 to a projected 425 papers in 2009. I regard both these changes as a sign of appreciation from our readers and contributors. This positive development could not have taken place had it not been for the dedicated work of the editorial office, lead by Mrs Agneta Andersson, and by all Section Editors, Advisory Board members and peer reviewers who have so generously and wholeheartedly supported the journal over the years. I would like to take this opportunity to thank two of the section editors in particular, Drs Susanna Puig and Håkan Mobacken, who after serving their term are now stepping down; their expert advice concerning many clinical case reports has been invaluable.
Another factor contributing to the success story of Acta Dermato-Venereologica is our close collaboration with two research societies, the International Forum for the Study of Itch (IFSI) and the European Society for Dermatology and Psychiatry (ESDaP), for which Acta Dermato-Venereologica is the official journal. As a result, a series of high impact papers on itch and psyhodermatology have been published recently. We look forward to continued and enlarged collaborations with both of these societies.
Acta Dermato-Venereologica is not just a scientific journal but also an educational forum. Browsing the journal for interesting clinical case reports is one way of learning more about our specialty. To further stimulate self-assessment in diagnostic skills in dermatology and venereology, the editorial board has launched a Quiz section, starting from the former issue (No. 3) of the present volume. Some of the reports in this section will be developed from papers submitted to the journal for publication, which are of good quality, but lack originality. Others may be submitted as original Quiz cases, as set out in the updated instructions for authors. In addition, Quiz papers are assigned a DOI number and can thus be searched in PubMed in the same way as regular papers appearing in the journal.
It is our hope that the new Quiz section, together with the many review articles in the pipeline, will further increase the readability of Acta Dermato-Venereologica, not least for the young dermatologists.