Anders Vahlquist, Torbjörn Egelrud, Agneta Andersson
DOI: 10.2340/00015555-0915

We are very pleased to inform our readers that Acta Dermato-Venereologica is thriving. We receive more and more articles for consideration. Probably as a result of the rising impact factor (Fig. 1) the number of submissions per year has now risen from 300 (2008) to presently almost 600. Concurrently the number of published pages has increased somewhat but not to the same extent, meaning that the acceptance rate has fallen to presently 45%.
In our attempt to always present a stringent message easy to grasp we try to reduce the length of the submitted papers and convert full case reports into Letters to the Editor or Quiz cases. This also allows us to publish more papers. By and large we feel that the quality of the published material in Acta Dermato-Venereologica is getting better every year. Another reason for this is our fruitful collaborations with two research organizations, IFSI (International Forum for the Study of Itch) and
ESDaP (European Society for Dermatology and Psychiatry), both of which have Acta Dermato-Venereologica as their official journals. The number of papers on itch and psycho-dermatology has increased in our journal, and many good review articles have been published. We are very pleased to announce two new Sections Editors in this field: Professor Jacek Szepietowski, Department of Dermatology, University of Wroclaw, Poland, and Professor Gregor Jemec, Department of Dermatology, Roskilde University, Denmark. Both these distinguished scientists and clinicians have for several years served in our Advisory Board and as referees of many papers. We are grateful that they have now accepted to become Section Editors of our journal.
At the same time two of our previous co-workers, Assistant Professor Filippa Nyberg and Professor Harald Moi, have decided to step down after serving several years as Sections Editors. We thank them for all the good work they have done!
The Sections Editors take an essential part in the review process. A high standard of selected peer-reviewers and a swift processing of the submitted papers is a sine qua non for a scientific journal like Acta Dermato-Venereologica striving to be among the best in its field worldwide. To accomplish this and to assist the editors, reviewers and authors as much as possible when working with papers submitted to us, we have recently launched a totally new online system which is much improved compared to the older one. The new system is very user friendly and will help the authors to track their papers during the process and will also help the reviewers in their work. Please visit www.medicaljournals.se/adv and try it!
To increase the visibility of all papers published in Acta Dermato-Venereologica we are moving towards open access (OA), presently with only 6 months embargo. Being our own publisher and working on a non-profit basis we have the advantage over many other journals to swiftly change position and, if desired, convert Acta Dermato-Venereologica into a full OA journal with favourable conditions for the authors, including low publication fees. Time will tell when and how this is best accomplished!