Time for a Change

With the last issue in the year 2008 my tenure as editor of this journal will end, as planned for a long time and based on the conviction that change is an important element in the continuous development of any scientific or related endeavour. Over the years members of the advisory panel and review panel have been changed, co-editors have changed and quite naturally the editor changes.

Looking back I would like to thank the contributors to this journal, the past and present members of the international advisory and review panels and in particular the co-editors -present and past. Thieme publishers have been most helpful in changing the face of the journal, restructuring the lay-out and helping to refocus. We changed from traditional manuscript submission to internet based manuscript submission and an internet based review process. We were happy to see an increase in the impact factor, although the value of the impact factor alone may rightly be questioned. International submissions have increased and the range of countries where our authors come from has changed considerably. In that sense it is quite correct to view the new title Central European Neurosurgery not only as a declaration of a future development but as a start into a new reality. Scientific publishing is undergoing a lot of changes, one of which is the fact that English has become the international language of medical publishing. In changing to acceptance of only English language manuscripts this was acknowledged during the period of the outgoing editor. I am happy to have seen the Zentralblatt für Neurochirurgie – Central European Neurosurgery to develop so well.

The new editor is welcomed to this job and hopefully our readers and authors will continue to work with him and this journal as they did in the past.

Johannes Schramm

Correspondence