The Scandinavian Journal of Surgery – becoming truly Scandinavian!
2014-09-29 / Svensk Kirurgi / Volym 72 / Nr 6 / 2014
Professor Ari Leppäniemi, Editor-in-Chief for the Scandinavian Journal of Surgery, is welcoming all Swedish surgeons to read, contribute with articles and suggest topics for special issues to this emerging Scandinavian journal. The latest issue is presented, in full text and for free, as a link at Svensk Kirurgisk Förenings website, next to the link of our own Svensk Kirurgi.
ARI LEPPÄNIEMI
ari.leppaniemi@hus.fi
Helsingfors
The Scandinavian Journal of Surgery is the official journal of the Finnish Surgical Society as well as the Scandinavian Surgical Society. Now that the latter – the world’s oldest international surgical society – is emerging from hibernation there has been a renewed interest to expand the partnership to other Scandinavian countries and transform the journal into a truly “Scandinavian”.
The journal´s history
But let’s start with a little bit of history. The original name of a journal published by the Finnish Surgical Society was Annales Chirurgiae et Gynaecologiae, and the first issue was published in 1946. Over the years the journal published mostly original articles from all fields of surgery and included anesthesiology and gynecology. The Editors-inChiefs were prominent Finnish surgeons, and the Impact Factor fluctuated between 0.1 and 0.55. A major change was made in 2002 when the current name was adopted. At the same time, Associate Editors from other Scandinavian countries came on board and included Lars Påhlman from Sweden, Odd Söreide from Norway, Mogens Blichert-Toft from Denmark and Jonas Magnusson from Iceland.
Rising Impact factor
Slowly but steadily the number of submitted articles rose leading automatically to higher quality of published articles and correspondingly to higher rejection rates. Currently we receive about 160 submissions annually and the rejection rate is around 80 percent. Thanks to higher quality of the articles as well as the strategic decision about five years ago to make all articles immediately, and freely, accessible through PubMed and the website at http://sjs.sagepub.com/, the Impact factor reached the 1.0 level in 2010 and is currently 1.283 (Fig. 1).
Issues with special themes
In addition to original articles, the Scandinavian Journal of Surgery publishes review articles, either as single articles (invited or submitted) or as part of special issues with a common theme. Special issues from the last few years include topics such as trauma surgery (2/2014), reconstruction of complex tissue defects of the trunk (1/2013), critical limb ischemia (2/2012), pediatric surgery (4/2011), liver surgery (1/2011), emergency surgery (2/2010), and robotics in surgery (2/2009). Recently, a new category called “How we do it” publishes short reports of practical techniques and innovations with emphasis on good pictures and short text.
Four issues per year
In 2013 the journal changed its Publisher to SAGE and brought along a modern web-based editorial processing system. All manuscripts are handled through the manuscript central system and we constantly thrive to decrease the handling time from the current average of 56 days. With the possibility of E-publication ahead of print, the delay inevitably caused by the editorial process
