The European Thyroid Journal (ETJ) is now entering its third year of publication, and I am happy to report the journal is doing rather well. Last year we received more submissions than in the first year of publication, and consequently the rejection rate has gone up to 57%. In 2013 we published 3 Editorials, 3 European Thyroid Association (ETA) Guidelines, 9 Reviews (3 on basic, 2 on translational, and 4 on clinical topics in thyroidology), 18 Original Papers, and 4 Letters to the Editor.
To evaluate how the journal is appreciated by its readership, a questionnaire was given to participants of the annual meeting of the ETA in Leiden in September 2013. It turned out that reviews and guidelines were the most-liked sections. I also find the authoritative reviews very appealing, and the vast majority of the respondents found the guidelines quite useful for their own practice. I would like to add that the ETA Guidelines are freely accessible to everyone via the publisher's website: www.karger.com/etj. All other ETJ papers are also freely accessible if you are an ETA member (go to the membership section of www.eurothyroid.com) - a good (and economically very sound) reason to join the ETA if you are not already a member. The survey also found that the respondents liked (ranked by frequency): ETJ being the official ETA journal, no submission or page charges, the short interval between submission and first decision, and the broad spectrum of topics. One person, however, did not like the cover of the print version of ETJ.
I would like to thank our 2013 reviewers (see list below) for their thoughtful comments - they really are the guardians of the quality of our published papers. It is against this background that I would like to draw your attention to the issue of open access to published papers. Of course, we all support such policies when feasible. However, we are presently seeing an explosion of free access journals, and many of them, unfortunately, are purely commercially driven and willing to publish anything - even against the advice of reviewers - as long as the authors pay the requested page charges (often in the order of USD 1,000 and more). Such developments seriously undermine the very principles of open access journals, and you should be aware of the bad sides of some of these electronic commercial journals. This issue was elucidated very well in a recent commentary in the New England Journal of Medicine [2013;368:791]. Therefore, if you are asked to contribute to one of these journals, think twice: ETJ is most likely a better choice in view of the absence of page charges and the presence of qualified feedback from reviewers (which almost always does improve the quality of your paper).
Together with the Associate Editors Josef Koehrle, Luca Persani, Peter Laurberg, and Furio Pacini, we are anticipating that the third volume of ETJ will be even more attractive than its two predecessors.
Wilmar M. Wiersinga
Editor-in-Chief, European Thyroid Journal
Acknowledgement to Reviewers 2013
Takashi Akamizu, Wakayama
Maria Alevizaki, Athens
Stine Linding Andersen, Aalborg
Alessandro Antonelli, Pisa
Lior Appelbaum, Ramat Gan
Fereidoun Azizi, Tehran
Luigi Bartalena, Varese
Paolo Beck-Peccoz, Milan
Bernadette Biondi, Naples
Peter Bisschop, Amsterdam
Karin Boelaert, Birmingham
Anita Boelen, Amsterdam
Steen Bonnema, Odense
Georg Brabant, Lübeck
Thomas Brix, Odense
Laurent Brunaud, Nancy
Robertas Bunevicius, Palanga
M. Capezzone, Siena
Philippe Caron, Toulouse
Francesco Celi, Bethesda
F. Cetani, Pisa
Luca Chiovato, Pavia
Jerome Clerc, Paris
Veerle Darras, Leuven
Colin Dayan, Cardiff
Annamaria De Bellis, Naples
Wouter de Herder, Rotterdam
Brigitte Decallone, Leuven
Michael Derwahl, Berlin
Caterina Di Cosmo, Pisa
Helle Doessing, Odense
Salvatore Domenico, Naples
Henning Dralle, Halle/Saale
Hemmo Drexhage, Rotterdam
Leonidas Duntas, Athens
C. Eloy, Porto
Murat Erdogan, Ankara
Valentin Fadeyev, Moscow
Henrik Fagman, Gothenburg
Ulla Feldt-Rasmussen, Copenhagen
Helena Filipsson Nyström, Gothenburg
Eric Fliers, Amsterdam
Laura Fugazzola, Milan
Claudio Giani, Pisa
Oliver Gimm, Linköping
Ronan Glynn, Dublin
Hans Graf, Curitiba
Martin Grussendorf, Stuttgart
Laszlo Hegedus, Odense
George J. Kahaly, Mainz
Josef Koehrle, Berlin
John Komninos, Athens
Knut Krohn, Leipzig
Piotr Lass, Gdansk
Francesco Latrofa, Pisa
John Lazarus, Cardiff
Thera Links, Groningen
V.A. Livolsi, Philadelphia
Dominique Luton, Paris
Claudio Marcocci, Pisa
Stefano Mariotti, Monserrato
Enio Martino, Pisa
Michele Minuto, Pisa
Francoise Miot, Brussels
Birte Nygaard, Herlev
Jacques Orgiazzi, Lyon
Furio Pacini, Siena
Ralf Paschke, Leipzig
Simon Pearce, Newcastle upon Tyne
Inge Bülow Pedersen, Aalborg
Robin Patrick Peeters, Rotterdam
Hans Perrild, Copenhagen
Petros Perros, Newcastle upon Tyne
Robert Philibert, Iowa City
Micaela Piccoli, Modena
M. Plateroti, Villeurbanne
Kris Poppe, Brussels
Eduardo Pretell, Lima
Samuel Refetoff, Chicago
Anne Lene Riis, Aarhus
Henry Alexander Ross, Nijmegen
Domenico Rubello, Rovigo
Gottfried Rudofsky, Heidelberg
Matthias Schmidt, Cologne
Matthias Schott, Düsseldorf
Maria Segni, Rome
Ashok Shaha, New York
Divya Sharma, Cincinnati
Young Kee Shong, Seoul
Peter Smyth, Dublin
Carole Spencer, Pasadena
Christine Spitzweg, Munich
Emme Strydom, Tygerberg
Jansson Svante, Gothenburg
Linda Thienpont, Ghent
Duncan J. Topliss, Melbourne
R. Michael Tuttle, New York
Horea I. Ursu, Bucharest
Bijay Vaidya, Exeter
Mark Vanderpump, Hampstead
Ines Velasco, Minas de Riotinto
Theo Visser, Rotterdam
Paolo Vitti, Tirrenia-Pisa
Anthony Weetman, Sheffield
Shunichi Yamashita, Nagasaki
Milos Zarkovic, Belgrade
