So long, and thanks for all the fish.

Farewell from the Editor-in-Chief

 

Fernando Carrera

Editor-in-Chief

 

I have been serving this Journal since its inception in 1987, and occasionally wonder if I am the longest-lasting Editor-in-Chief of a medical journal in the world! As such, now that I am finishing my current threeyear term as Editor-in-Chief with the publication of the last issue of this year, I feel this is the right moment to bring my service to the journal to a close and pass the mantle to the younger generation.

Portuguese nephrology has several well-known colleagues ready, willing and able to carry the torch and help the journal thrive and prosper.

So, if you’ll permit me, at this moment of farewell, I would like to highlight some memories which might be helpful for future generations to understand the first twenty-six years of our journal.

The journal was created in 1987, born of a dream Prof. Serafim Guimarães† (Porto) and I shared of a Portuguese journal devoted to nephrology and hypertension.

This dream became flesh, and its first incarnation was the Revista Portuguesa de Nefrologia e Hipertensão, providing a forum for national and international nephrologists in that it carried articles in English, French and Spanish while its first language was obviously Portuguese.

My original aim, or how I saw the usefulness of the journal, was to be the first choice and opportunity, a kind of practical school, for junior Portuguese nephrologists to publish their work, but at the same time, benefitting from the high standards imposed, as demanding as those required by international medical journals, from submission to final edit.

One such junior nephrologist at that time, a man who published his first articles in our journal and who has often stated in public that he learnt how to prepare scientific papers for publication because of our journal is now an international author and member of the editorial boards of worldrespected journals: Dr Aníbal Ferreira (Lisbon). He is nowadays an enthusiastic mentor to his many Telemachus, guiding them through the steps needed to write and publish medical articles, many times in our (his) own journal.

The other aim I had in mind for the journal was for it to be a major contribution to continuous medical education in nephrology by publishing editorials and review articles by outstanding nephrologists.

Almost from its first breath of life, the Revista Portuguesa de Nefrologia e Hipertensão received for publication a raft of articles from Spain and counted on the support and enthusiasm of Prof. Fernando Valderrábano† (Madrid), a good friend to Portuguese nephrology and a fan of the journal in particular. He remains in my memory and is still much missed today, eleven long years after his passing.

During our first twenty years of existence, we enjoyed an uninterrupted publication, becoming popular and well accepted nationally and beyond these shores.

Our first aim met, we realised another: the switch to an English-only format. Six years ago this dream was brought to life thanks to the then-President of the Portuguese Society of Nephrology, Dr José Vinhas (Setúbal). Together we evaluated the risks and benefits of this daring move and decided to make it happen, making 2007 the year of the English. The Portuguese Journal of Nephrology and Hypertension was born!!!

The result surpassed our wildest expectations. Over this last six years of English-only publication, the number of manuscripts submitted increased each year, as did the articles coming from abroad. This new structure permitted us to regularly use reviewers from overseas, and since then all articles submitted to us have been reviewed by three or four experts, and always a combination of both national and non-national physicians.

This increasing number of manuscripts submitted plus the highest standards demanded by this combination of international and domestic reviewers led to both a better quality of the manuscripts published and a higher rejection rate of manuscripts. Just to mention this year, 2012, we rejected 50% of original articles and 45% of case reports. Further to this, our editorial policy is one of strict adherence to the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals produced by the ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors). Consequently, and with the efforts of our Deputy-Editor, Prof. Rui Alves (Coimbra), our journal is now indexed on the SciELO platform and included in Google Scholar.

My ten years of service (1994-2004) to the ERAEDTA gave me the opportunity to forge excellent contacts and friendships with all NDT editors-in-chief, from whom I learnt several ideas which I tried to adapt to the reality of our journal. As a matter of fact NDT has been the gold standard for which I’ve striven during my term of office as Editor-in-Chief of this Portuguese journal.

A staunch friend I was privileged to make during my years on the ERA-EDTA council and who has given me unceasing support ever since is Prof. Jürgen Floege (Aachen). This excellent scientist has published in and reviewed articles for our journal and is a loyal friend to Portuguese nephrology. I mention particularly his work as Chairman of the Scientific Committee for the 2004 Lisbon ERA-EDTA Congress: I will never forget the support he gave to Portuguese nephrologists’ visibility during that congress, appointing so many of them as chairs of sessions or speakers. It was a moment of glory, of being in the spotlight, which never happened before or after this congress.

My thought was always that the journal’s continuity depended on both the full support of Portuguese nephrologists and international visibility. As such, the journal always had an International Editorial Board which, along these twenty-six years, always included presidents of foreign national and international societies of nephrology as well as editors of international journals of our speciality.

By way of an example and an expression of my gratitude, all Editors-in-Chief of NDT have been a part of our International Editorial Board, have published in our pages and have reviewed articles in our journal. Prominent nephrologists from Canada, the US, Latin-America, Africa, Australia, and many European countries have graced this International Editorial Board and have published and reviewed articles submitted for publication in our journal.

At the turning point to an English-only journal six years ago, a good friend of mine from the time of the outstanding 2006 ERA-EDTA Glasgow Congress, its president, Prof. Jonathan G Fox (Glasgow), offered his priceless expertise and has worked alongside me ever since, not only in reviewing and editing manuscripts, but more crucially in establishing the journal’s medical English house style. I am indebted to his fine-tooth comb!

Within our national shores, grateful thanks are due to the journal’s dedicated team of Portuguese reviewers, and in particular Drs José Vinhas (Setúbal), José Luis Reimão Pinto (Lisbon) and Pedro Ponce (Lisbon) for the sheer volume of their promptly delivered and scientifically rigorous reviews.

A huge thank-you goes also to Ms Rebecca Baker, our English text editor, who has been a loyal and dedicated aider and abettor of my work for the Portuguese journal. I have benefited from her intelligence, culture and professionalism for over a decade, since my time at the ERA-EDTA, and her background in the arts has been a great complement to the world of medicine.

I thank also our publishers, Ciência e Vida for their professionalism and ‘can-do’ attitude. Here I’d like to mention that I’m now working with the second generation of this publisher: my work began with Mr Jeronimo Simões and now continues with his son, António. This illustrates well how long I have been in the role of Editor-in-Chief!

A heartfelt acknowledgement is made of the journal’s sponsors in the pharmaceutical industry. Without the generous support of these companies over the years, there would have been no journal and Portuguese nephrology all the poorer for it.

I also give personal thanks to our authors, and mention especially the junior authors, the main reason for the existence of our journal. Their fine work is a constant challenge to me to remain up-to-date and read widely. The child is indeed father to the man…

Finally, just to say that leading a medical journal like this has been a labour of love which I’ve dedicated myself to for too many years now. The Portuguese Society of Nephrology generously recognized my dedication in 2006 when they awarded me Honorary Membership of this society which I am happy to add to similar awards I have received before this one: Honorary Member of the Ibero-American Community of Nephrology, Honorary Member of the Cuban Society of Nephrology, Honorary Member of the Spanish Society of Nephrology, Honorary Member of the Romanian Society of Nephrology and Honorary Member of the Hungarian Society of Nephrology. To these I was extremely happy to add a very recent award I received in October 2011: Fellow of the ERA-EDTA.

If I may leave on a note of advice to my successor, Prof. Rui Alves (Coimbra), I would say that being in charge of this journal means serving it as its custodian, not owning it but being its privileged caretaker for the next generation. And to return to Douglas Adams, the writer whose quote is this farewell’s title:

“To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity.”

 

Acknowledgement of our Reviewers

Fernando Carrera

Editor-in–Chief

This time of the year, when I extend my sincere thanks to the journal’s reviewers, is a good moment to reflect on the switch to an English-only policy six years ago. It gave me the opportunity to bring on board prominent international reviewers, and a glance at the names listed below shows an almost fifty-fifty split between national and non-national experts who contribute so much to increasing the scientific level of this publication. All manuscripts we receive are normally reviewed by 3-4 reviewers, and always a combination of national/international experts.

We are grateful and lucky to have such luminaries working with us.

 

The Editor-in-Chief of the Portuguese Journal of Nephrology and Hypertension is grateful to the following reviewers who kindly reviewed manuscripts for Volume 26 in 2012.

 

Adragão T. (Carnaxide, Portugal)

Almeida M. (Lisbon, Portugal)

Alves R. (Coimbra, Portugal)

Amore A. (Turin, Italy)

Arias M. (Santander, Spain)

Bárány P. (Stockholm, Sweden)

Brenninkmeijer L. (Aachen, Germany)

Bustorff M. (Oporto, Portugal)

Carvalho F. (Lisbon, Portugal)

Clode N. (Lisbon, Portugal)

Coentrão L. (Oporto, Portugal)

Dias L. (Oporto, Portugal)

Faria M.S. (Oporto, Portugal)

Eknoyan G. (Houston, TX, USA)

Feehally J. (Leicester, UK)

Ferreira A. (Lisbon, Portugal)

Floege J. (Aachen, Germany)

(Glasgow, Scotland, UK)

Frazão J. (Oporto, Portugal)

Gonçalves M.S. (Carnaxide, Portugal)

Guerra J. (Lisbon, Portugal

Henriques A.C. (Oporto, Portugal)

Jardim H. (Oporto, Portugal)

Krüger T. (Aachen, Germany)

(Lecco, Italy)

Macário F. (Coimbra, Portugal)

Mota A. (Coimbra, Portugal)

Mota C. (Oporto, Portugal)

Neves P.L. (Faro, Portugal)

Oliveira C. (Almada, Portugal)

Oliveira J.P. (Oporto, Portugal)

Pedroso S. (Oporto, Portugal)

Ponce P. (Lisbon, Portugal)

Reimão-Pinto J.L. (Lisbon, Portugal)

Sá H. (Coimbra, Portugal)

Sarmento A.M. (Oporto, Portugal)

Schor N. (São Paulo, Brazil)

Silva J.G. (Lisbon, Portugal)

Stone R. (Lisbon, Portugal)

Swanepoel C. (Cape Town, South Africa)

Tesar V. (Prague, Czech Republic)

Vaz-Carneiro A. (Lisbon, Portugal)

Vinhas J. (Setúbal, Portugal)

Wanner C. (Wurzburg, Germany)

Watschinger B. (Vienna, Austria)

Weigert A. (Carnaxide, Portugal)