Abstract
Acta Radiologica undertook an electronic survey among our subscribers and readers back in 2007 and asked them to answer which articles they read and what they would want to read more of in scientific journals. The answers obtained from this survey were interesting and the following conclusions could be drawn:
95% of our readers regarded review articles as important and 57% always read them; 100% regarded original articles as important and 51% always read such articles; Case reports were regarded as important by 63% of readers, but only 29% always read these articles; Short reports were regarded important by 64%, 33% always read these articles; Editorials and related articles were considered important for 83% of readers, and were read by 33%.
More review articles were requested by 65% of readers, original articles by 43% and, surprisingly, more than 30% would like to read more case reports and short reports. Original articles were given the number one priority by the majority of readers as such articles are the foundation on which radiology is built. These are the articles revealing the scientific forefront of our specialty. However, review articles were close behind and were regarded to be of almost equal importance with the main reason that textbooks cannot always be up-to-date, while review articles in journals can.
What can be learnt from these figures? Perhaps the most surprising figure was that about two-thirds of readers wanted to see more case reports in the journal, and one-third always read such articles. At the same time it is a fact that very few journals currently accept and publish case reports, the main reason probably being that such articles will ‘ruin’ the Impact Factor as it seems to be a fact that such articles are cited less than review articles and original articles. The main reason for regarding case reports as important was that ‘radiology is based upon recognition. We need to learn how lesions appear or may appear and how they can be recognized and diagnosed.’
To measure quality is difficult and many indicators have been developed to measure quality. The three most commonly used indicators are: Quantity indicators (to measure the productivity of a researcher), Quality indicators (to measure the quality of the researchers production), and finally Structural indicators (to measure the relationship between publications, authors and areas of research).
Measuring quality is difficult, measuring productivity is easier as this can come down to counting the numbers of publications by a specific author. As a case report is much easier to write and takes far less time compared to an original article where writing the articles itself in most cases is the part of the work that takes less time, the impact of a case report is obviously not the same as an original article. Such articles are cited less and in this way tend to decrease the Impact Factor, which has become the single most important factor in judging the quality of a specific journal. Therefore, most journals omit such articles even if two-thirds of all readers love them and one-third want to read more.
Acta Radiologica is now providing a solution to this problem and hereby announce that the Foundation Acta Radiologica has decided to produce a new journal called Acta Radiologica Short Reports. This new journal will be produced and published by RSM Press and Foundation Acta Radiologica from 2012. This new journal will be an open-access journal available online only and not in print, i.e. you will not need to subscribe to the journal to read the articles. We have for some time seen a substantial increase in open access articles and the market is for sure present.
Scientific production/publication has become much easier in recent years due to implementation of the digital world where everything can be handled fast, easy and inexpensively.
Acta Radiologica has for some years used the Manuscript Central system for submissions, and reviewing and producing articles. The new journal will use the same system for peer review, and the web address for submissions to the new journal will be
The new journal will not be a garbage can for rejected articles from other journals; every article submitted to Acta Radiologica Short Reports will be evaluated following the strict rules of peer review. Acta Radiologica has for many years had the following criteria for accepted case reports: ‘Case reports are interesting for many of the readers of Acta Radiologica. To qualify for publication in the journal, however, a case should not only be an unusual case, a case you have not seen before. We see such cases almost every day. A case report must bring new information and be of broad interest. It may include e.g. description of new radiologic findings facilitating diagnosis or differential diagnosis, application of a new radiological technique or new aspects of an old technique or it may even consist of a not so unusual disease but presented in a didactic way with pertinent review of the literature.’
It is our hope that this new journal will be an important addition to current radiological journals and will be an important marketplace where case reports and short reports of high quality can be presented. We therefore invite authors who have important information to share with the radiological community to submit their papers to Acta Radiologica Short Reports.