Editorial

The new chief editor of the Zentralblatt für Neurochirurgie has been appointed by the Publisher following a suggestion of the Board of the German Society of Neurosurgery. After careful consideration I have taken on this task. I feel honoured by this duty and have started to devote energy and effort to it. First it is my pleasure to thank the previous chief-editor Prof. Wolfgang Bock and his chief editorial assistant Privatdozent Dr. J. Herdmann for all the efforts they put into this traditional neurosurgical journal. I am happy about the collaboration of my co-editors which have agreed with enthusiasm to cooperate in the production of this journal.

I would like to thank the panel of reviewers who have agreed to cooperate by providing reviews for our authors. I have asked them to consider themselves as supporters of the authors helping them to make the best of their submitted manuscripts. In addition to the Reviewer Panel the Zentralblatt für Neurochirurgie will have an International Advisory Panel.

The Zentralblatt will continue to publish articles in German but authors are encourgaed to use English as the international language of medical science and also to improve the impact of their articles. The impact of publication in the Zentralblatt is also enhanced by the fact that for some time Georg Thieme Publishers has made the Zentralblatt available on the Internet under the heading of www.thieme-connect.de (s. Fig. [1]).

Fig. 1 “Link-out” from PubMed to www.thieme-conncet.de

The editor is interested in increasing the number of original articles, strengthening the scientific spectrum of possible publications. Authors are encouraged to use the Internet and hopefully the review process will be speeded up by the use of modern communication techniques. Although the weaknesses of the procedures in the scientific publication process ar well known (e.g. open review, blinded review, impact-factor) the authors have to live with them and try to make the best of it. We will try to provide a speedy review process while not overloading our reviewers. The two panels of reviewers will therefore be supported by a number of ad-hoc-reviewers asked for their support because of their special expertise.

The members of the German Society of Neurosurgery are encouraged to support their journal, the Zentralblatt für Neurochirurgie, by submitting interesting and attractive original papers for publication. Submissions in English from our European neighbours or overseas are welcome.

I would like to thank the members of the German Society of Neurosurgery for their support and look forward to this exciting task together with my colleagues from the editorial board.

Johannes Schramm M. D. Editor, Zentralblatt für Neurochirurgie