On behalf of all our staff and the publisher OUP, we would like to convey our best wishes for the New Year to our readers, editors and reviewers and want to thank them all for their continuing support of the journal. With this editorial, we also provide an update on last year's achievements.
Number of submissions
As shown below, the number of submissions to NDT Plus has remained more or less the same over the past few years, with a current average of 3-4 submissions per day.
| 2009 |
Total number of submissions 630 (430 original submissions and 200 revisions)
| 2010 |
Total number of submissions 606 (419 original submissions and 187 revisions)
| 2011 |
Total number of submissions 575 (405 original submissions and 170 revisions)
Content Analysis
We now give an overview of the different manuscript types that have been published in NDT Plus in 2010 and 2011 and their respective percentages.
| 2010 (% of published articles) | |
| Book Review | 1% |
| Case Report | 38% |
| Editorial | 1% |
| Historical Note | 0.5% |
| Images in Nephrology | 15% |
| In-Depth Clinical Review | 2% |
| Letter | 21% |
| Reply | 1% |
| Nephroquiz | 0.5% |
| Supplement Articles | 7% |
| Teaching Point | 8% |
| Obituary | 1% |
| Special Feature | 2.5% |
| Short Communication | 0.5% |
| 2011 (% of published articles) | |
| Book Review | 1% |
| Case Report | 38% |
| Editorial | 1% |
| Historical Note | 1% |
| Images in Nephrology | 12% |
| In-Depth Clinical Review | 4% |
| Letter | 16% |
| Reply | 1% |
| Nephroquiz | 3% |
| Supplement Articles | 15% |
| Teaching Point | 9% |
| Technical Note | 1% |
In the upcoming issues of the new Clinical Kidney Journal (CKJ), some of these manuscript types will be renamed and others will be added.
It has been agreed with the Editor-in-Chief of NDT and the council that a typical issue of CKJ will assume the following layout:
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1)Original Contributions
Editorial Comments (on a paper or papers that appear in the same issue)
In-Depth Reviews (two to three)
Clinical Study (occasionally)
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2)Clinical Cases
Exceptional Case (occasionally)
Clinical Reports
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3)Educational Papers
Teaching Points
Nephroquiz
Images in Nephrology (usable as PowerPoint slides)
From the Clinic (formerly: short reports in the form of letters)
Correspondence (about published papers with reply from authors)
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4)Other
History of Medicine/Nephrology (occasionally)
Book Review (occasionally)
Varia
Instructions to authors
Geographic distribution of lead authors in NDT Plus
We now analyze the country of origin of the lead authors of publications in NDT Plus in 2010 and in 2011. Although NDT Plus still predominantly attracts submissions from European countries, it is noteworthy that approximately 20% of the papers originated from the USA and Japan in 2010 and 2011. This overview also illustrates that a wide range of other regions are represented, reflecting the growing international recognition of NDT Plus as an educational journal.
| 2010 | |
| Australia | 1% |
| Austria | 1% |
| Belgium | 4% |
| Brazil | 1% |
| Bulgaria | 1% |
| Canada | 1% |
| Denmark | 1% |
| France | 7% |
| Germany | 6% |
| Greece | 1% |
| Iceland | 1% |
| India | 1% |
| Iran | 1% |
| Ireland | 3% |
| Italy | 10% |
| Japan | 9% |
| Korea, Republic of | 1% |
| The Netherlands | 2% |
| Norway | 1% |
| Poland | 1% |
| Portugal | 3% |
| Qatar | 1% |
| Romania | 1% |
| Spain | 7% |
| Switzerland | 2% |
| Taiwan | 6% |
| Turkey | 4% |
| United Kingdom | 17% |
| United States | 10% |
| 2011 | |
| Austria | 1% |
| China | 1% |
| Iceland | 1% |
| Ireland | 1% |
| Korea, Republic of | 1% |
| Norway | 1% |
| Saudi Arabia | 1% |
| Sweden | 1% |
| United Arab Emirates | 1% |
| Greece | 1% |
| Hong Kong | 1% |
| Iran | 1% |
| Singapore | 1% |
| Switzerland | 1% |
| Turkey | 1% |
| Australia | 2% |
| France | 2% |
| Germany | 2% |
| New Zealand | 2% |
| Canada | 2% |
| Denmark | 2% |
| Taiwan | 3% |
| Belgium | 3% |
| Brazil | 3% |
| The Netherlands | 4% |
| Spain | 5% |
| Japan | 6% |
| India | 7% |
| Italy | 7% |
| United States | 17% |
| United Kingdom | 18% |
Publication times
Manuscripts submitted to NDT Plus are assigned to the handling subject editor within two days, and we aim to provide the authors with a first decision on their manuscripts within 2-3 weeks of submission. NDT Plus is a fast journal and operates with efficient editorial and production processes. While many manuscripts achieve our target of 4 weeks (receipt by the publisher to online publication), the mean is somewhat higher, at about 6 weeks, due in part to author queries or delays in returning proofs. Print publication varies but the majority of papers appear in print in around 16 weeks (from acceptance date). We are working hard to speed up print publication, and we hope to achieve our target of 12 weeks by the middle of 2012. High-priority manuscripts are fast-tracked.
Acceptance and rejection rates
We now compare the acceptance and rejection rates for submissions to NDT Plus. Not only does the number of submissions to NDT Plus more or less remain unchanged, but also the acceptance and rejection rates from 2009 till December 2011 are virtually the same. However, it is noteworthy that the number of immediate rejections by the Editor-in-Chief has drastically increased from 0.8% in 2010 to 14% in the second half of 2011.
The rise in the immediate rejection rate can be explained by the strict implementation of the new recommendations to authors and by a more exacting policy with regard to scientific/educational content.
| Acceptance rate 2009: | 47% |
| Rejection rate 2009: | 53% |
| Immediate rejections by EIC 2009: | 0.7% |
| Acceptance rate 2010: | 48.1% |
| Rejection rate 2010: | 51.9% |
| Immediate rejections by EIC 2010: | 0.8% |
| Acceptance rate 2011: | 47.8% |
| Rejection rate 2011: | 52.2% |
| Immediate rejections by EIC 2011: | 14% |
Online usage of the journal
Figure 1 illustrates the number of HTML and PDF electronic downloads of full articles from NDT Plus since 2008. This number has steadily increased over the past few years and is further testimony of the growing interest in the journal.
Fig. 1.
NDT Plus average monthly full-text downloads, 2008–2011.
Usage of NDT Plus has increased, with the average monthly downloads reaching a new high of 8,900 in 2010, an increase of ∼69% compared to 2009 (5,280 in 2009 and 3,770 in 2008). In 2011, the average downloads even reached 13,220 (a 49% increase compared to 2010).
New changes, new expectations
In July 2011, the new editorial team took over. Some exciting new changes to the journal have already been implemented and will be displayed in the upcoming issues of the Clinical Kidney Journal. In addition to the new cover, new name and new and independent editorial board, new manuscript types and a reshuffled lay-out are among the modifications that will hopefully be appreciated by our authors and readers and which are meant to make CKJ an increasingly successful educational journal.
Acknowledgments
We would like to acknowledge the support of our readers and authors and thank our subject editors, editorial staff and our publisher OUP for all their help and hard work. A special word of thanks goes to the council of the ERA-EDTA for their support and encouragement.