A Report on the Journal 2004

Abstract

Cephalalgia has been successful by a number of measures in the last 12 months: our circulation is up particularly through electronic penetration in libraries, our submission rate has risen substantially and our impact factor remains high amongst clinical neuroscience journals. We are entering our fifth and last year of the current publisher’s contract. In the life of the contract we have switched to a very successful on-line submission system, finalized details for a new CDROM containing all issues of Cephalalgia and Headache, and will publish this year the revised International Headache Society classification for headache (1). All of this is excellent progress The journal continues to attract a range of important, interesting and often very thought-provoking submissions. We have benefitted greatly from the broad range of interests of the Associate Editors we are able to recommend and solicit high-quality expert reviews that keep the scientific standards high. In keeping with our general philosophy there is a need for renewal amongst the Associate Editors, and Professor Peer Tfelt-Hansen will be standing down. Peer is widely regarded as one of the most authoritative figures on clinical trial methodology in headache, his wide contributions to the field have appropriately lead to his election as President of the International Headache Society. The journal thanks him for his contributions, and congratulates him on his election. After wide consultation I have invited Professor Nahib Ramadan, University of Chicago, to join the Associate Editors. Professor Ramadan was extensively involved in the journal under the previous Editor-in-Chief, Professor K. Michael Welch, and brings both excellence in academic life and a stint in industry with that important perspective to the Board. I welcome his acceptance of the invitation. From this issue Cephalalgia will become a monthly journal. We have a strong throughput of excellent work and rather than raise the rejection rate, and somewhat arbitrarily dismiss work that readers might be very interested in seeing, we felt it timely to increase to 12 issues a year. We hope this will allow more rapid publication of your accepted work and a greater range of interesting papers for readers in any one year. Let me close by thanking the Editorial Assistant Faye Cheeseman for her sterling efforts at the Blackwell’s Office in keeping the journal ticking over, our referees whose expertise is the key to our success, the Associate Editors who do so much for the journal, and you the reader for your continued support for Cephalalgia.