文本框: Aspects on Acta Paediatrica Rolf Zetterström, Acta Paediatrica, Karolinska Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden Acta Paediatrica, which was founded in 1921 by a Swedish Foundation, is the oldest paediatric journal in international circulation. Originally, Acta Paediatrica was meant to be a paediatric forum of Scandinavian and Dutch paediatrics. However, in 1950, when Arvid Wallgren became Editor-in-Chief of the journal its’ basis was broadened through Wallgren’s wide international contacts, which were based o his own contributions within paediatric research. The international orientation, which started when Wallgren was Editor-in-Chief, has continued and in the year 2000 volume no. 89 contained 1507 pages with 308 articles and 43 letters in 12 issues. Of these papers 27% of them were submitted by authors from the Nordic countries, 40% from other European countries and 37% from countries outside Europe (abt. half of them from developing countries). In the year 2000, the circulation of the journal was 2 930. About 50% of the subscriptions were from the Nordic countries and the rest from countries all over the world. Each year about 700 manuscripts are submitted out of which around 45% are accepted. Thus around 325 articles, including Letters, are published yearly. The median time from submittance until publication is now 10 months. All papers, except Invited Commentaries, are subject to ordinary peer review process and are reviewed by 2 – 3 experts in the field. During the last decade the impact factor of Acta Paediatrica has been burdened by the yearly publication of a great number of supplements (up to 12) with articles that have been of obvious educational value but not being cited in current scientific literature. Due to this fact, the Editorial Board two years ago decided not to publish any supplements that have to be sent to ISI. In the last ISI report, Acta Paediatrica has an impact factor of 1.2 but is still burdened by supplements. If supplements are completely excluded when the impact factor is calculated, it should be around 1.9 and thus the same as for the British Archives of Diseases in Childhood. However, the Editorial Board is trying to reach a factor above 2 by a harder selection of papers that will be accepted. …… The Editorial Board of Acta Paediatrica consists of one Editor-in-Chief (R. Zetterström, Stockholm) and 6 associate editors from Denmark, Finland and Sweden, who represent different fields of paediatrics. The general policy of the Editorial Board has been to keep Acta Paediatrica as a general paediatric journal with special sections for neonatal medicine and community paediatrics. During recent years papers that are of general paediatric interest have been commented upon by well-known authorities in the same field. In general, the Editorial Board in general encourages the submittance of papers from low-income countries, as it is obvious that research being made in such countries very often is of global value. As an example, it may be mentioned that a great number of papers have been published on breast-feeding, the Kangaroo-method for the care of preterm infants, and oral rehydration of diarrhoeal disease.