European Thyroid Journal Is Completing Its First Quinquennium

This year, European Thyroid Journal (ETJ) is celebrating its first lustrum. Five years of uninterrupted publishing, with every issue of the journal released on time. What does this tell us? First, that the journal is here to stay, developing slowly but steadily as a competitor for thyroid papers with other journals. Second, and more importantly, that it is possible to start and maintain a new scientific journal which is based on the honest peer review of all submissions and acceptance of papers without compromising on quality. The number of submissions is steadily increasing, and among the published papers in the year 2015 only 6 submissions were solicited (invited reviews and formal ETA guidelines). Our rejection rate of about 60% is indeed rather high for a new journal. So we have good reasons to believe that ETJ is doing a good job, not only in providing authoritative guidelines and nice reviews, but also in publishing original papers that meet certain standards of quality and innovation. This has happened against a background of considerable contamination in the field of scientific publishing caused by the frequent appearance of new journals which are completely driven by profit and are inclined to publish anything as long as you pay. In contrast, ETJ has no submission charges and no page charges. We think adherence to our editorial principles gradually pays off. ETJ is the official journal of the European Thyroid Association, and that has certainly contributed to the favourable development of the journal. The other party that contributes greatly to the journal is our reviewers. They help substantially in safeguarding the scientific quality of the published papers. As a token of our gratitude, please see below the names of reviewers who served the journal in 2015. We have also initiated the best reviewer award, which will be offered every year to the person who performs superiorly as a reviewer in the previous year as judged from the number of reviews, the quality of reviews and the speed of reviewing. The award will be granted for the first time in the year 2016; the honours will be substantiated by travel support to and free registration for the ETA annual meeting. Talking about reviewers, have you heard about fake peer review? It works as follows. Upon submission of their paper, the authors may suggest names and e-mail addresses of suitable reviewers. Indeed, many journals, including ETJ, specifically ask submitting authors for suggestions of reviewers. Fraudulent authors then provide names and e-mail addresses of friends, family members or even invented individuals who have been created specifically for this purpose. Journals are in general happy with new names to expand their pool of reviewers. When invited, this kind of reviewer will deliver a favourable comment within a short time. In 2015, Springer retracted 64 articles from 10 different subscription journals after editorial checks spotted fake email addresses, and subsequent internal investigations uncovered fabricated peer review reports [1]. ETJ tries to avoid such unfortunate events by mainly using reviewers we know and by checking their scientific background on the internet. Thanks to the work of reviewers and editors, our readership can be assured that the majority of our published papers tell the truth. I am not explicitly saying that all of our published papers tell the truth. This is because I always remember one of the first lectures I heard when entering medical school. It was given by a famous professor in psychiatry who said: ‘Everything I am going to say you should notice and remember because it will be important for your medical practice. There is just a small problem, and that is that about half of what I am going to tell you is not true, but unfortunately I don't know which half is not true.' Several reports over the last decade have arrived at the uneasy conclusion that a sizable part of the published literature turns out to be untrue or not completely true, indirectly supporting the early remarks of my old psychiatry professor. I like this kind of philosophical remark on science, but hope the majority of papers in ETJ will maintain their reliability and validity. It is up to you to judge, and a broad discussion with many interested people may enhance the falsification of study results and distinction between what is true and what is false. One of the great things of our era is that such discussions are greatly facilitated by social media. Although social media can cause great distraction and are considered by many as a blessing in disguise, Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin have become very popular amongst the younger generation. Indeed, newly published scientific papers in the field of medicine are frequently discussed in social media, especially by people below 40 years of age. So we thought it might be advantageous if the journal was present on social media as well. Grigoris Effraimidis is overseeing this project, and you can contact him by e-mail (grigoris.effraimidis@gmail.com). The plan is to put a short comment on social media every week relating to a new paper released for publication in ETJ. So follow us on social media:

https://www.facebook.com/EuropeanThyroidJournal/

https://twitter.com/Eur_Thyroid_J

https://www.linkedin.com/in/EuropeanThyroidJournal

We will evaluate this social media project after 1 year to see if it has been profitable for the journal.

Wilmar M. Wiersinga

Editor-in-Chief, European Thyroid Journal

Acknowledgement to Reviewers 2015

Maria Alevizaki, Athens

Clara Alvarez, Santiago de Compostela

Nobuyuki Amino, Kobe

Grant Anderson, Duluth, Minn.

Bjørn Åsvold, Trondheim

Jung Hwan Baek, Seoul

Luigi Bartalena, Varese

Paolo Beck-Peccoz, Milan

Tomasz Bednarcuk, Warsaw

Finn Noe Bennedbæk, Herlev

Salvatore Benvenga, Messina

Juan Bernal, Madrid

Sigridur Bjornsdottir, Stockholm

Kristien Boelaert, Birmingham

Anita Boelen, Amsterdam

Davide Bova, Maywood, Calif.

Georg Brabant, Lübeck

Gabriela Brenta, Buenos Aires

Thomas Brix, Odense

Marco Capezzone, Siena

Allan Carlé, Aalborg

Maria Grazia Castagna, Siena

Regina Castro, Rochester, Minn.

Krishna Chatterjee, Cambridge

Jae Hoon Chung, Seoul

Veerle Darras, Leuven

Chantal Daumerie, Brussels

Fatma Demirel, Ankara

Gianluca Donatini, Poitiers

Leonidas Duntas, Athens

Creswell Eastman, Westmead, N.S.W.

Joel Ehrenkranz, Salt Lake City, Utah

Murat Erdogan, Ankara

Valentin Fadeyev, Moscow

Henrik Fagman, Gothenburg

Ulla Feldt-Rasmussen, Copenhagen

Marco Ferdeghini, Verona

G. Francis, Richmond, Va.

Nicholas Friedman, Hines, Ill.

Laura Fugazzola, Milan

Dagmar Führer, Essen

Victor Gerdes, Amsterdam

Fernando Goglia, Naples

David Grandy, Portland, Oreg.

Arno Gutleb, Esch

Heike Heuer, Jena

Carolin Höfig, Stockholm

Pedro Iglesias, Madrid

George Kahaly, Mainz

Marianne Klose, Copenhagen

Peter Kopp, Chicago, Ill.

Dietmar Krautwurst, Freising

Katarzyna Lacka, Poznań

Vincent Laudet, Lyon

Andrzej Lewinski, Lodz

Marco Losa, Milan

Rui Maciel, São Paulo

Carine Maenhaut, Brussels

Claudio Marcocci, Pisa

Michele Marinò, Pisa

Stefano Mariotti, Monserrato

Marco Medici, Rotterdam

Caterina Mian, Padua

Francoise Miot, Brussels

Jens Mittag, Lübeck

Mariacarla Moleti, Messina

Rodrigo Moreno-Reyes, Brussels

N. Nagabhushan, Romford, Wash.

Hartmut Neumann, Freiburg

Birte Nygaard, Copenhagen

Helena Filipsson Nyström, Gothenburg

Maria Obregon, Madrid

Manfred Ogris, Vienna

Tania Ortiga-Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro

Ralf Paschke, Leipzig

Simon Pearce, Newcastle upon Tyne

Robin Peeters, Rotterdam

Petros Perros, Newcastle upon Tyne

Luca Persani, Milan

Victor Pop, Tilburg

Kris Poppe, Brussels

Ruth Prichard, Dublin

Efisio Puxeddu, Perugia

Natalia Quinete, Aachen

Samuel Refetoff, Chicago, Ill.

Eddy Rijntjes, Berlin

Robert Ringseis, Giessen

Alec Ross, Nijmegen

Alessandro Saba, Pisa

Anna Sawka, Toronto, Ont.

Thomas Scanlan, Portland, Oreg.

Martin Schlumberger, Villejuif

Lutz Schomburg, Berlin

Nagabhushan Seshadri, Liverpool

Young Kee Shong, Seoul

Warner Simonides, Amsterdam

Sheila Skeaff, Dunedin

Stanislaw Sporny, Lodz

Alex Stagnaro-Green, Rockford, Ill.

Heather Stapleton, Durham, N.C.

Peter Taylor, Cardiff

Linda Thienpont, Ghent

Henri Timmers, Nijmegen

Duncan Topliss, Melbourne, Vic.

Nicholas Tritos, Boston, Mass.

Agathocles Tsatsoulis, Ioannina

Michael Tuttle, New York, N.Y.

Bijay Vaidya, Exeter

Roberto Valcavi, Reggio Emilia

Anouk van der Horst-Schrivers, Groningen

Lucio Vilar, Recife

Paolo Vitti, Pisa

Robert Wagner, Maywood, Calif.

Shunichi Yamashita, Nagasaki

Sahzene Yavuz, Gainesville, Fla.

Riccardo Zucchi, Pisa