[Rhinology Journal: where are we going?]

In the past 5 years Rhinology has evolved to a high impact Journal in Otorhinolaryngology with a citation index of . 2.182. The result is an enormous increase in the number of papers send to the journal for review. In 2010 we expect to reach over 300 manuscripts that are send to the Journal. This forces us to some important decisions about the future of the Journal. One of those decision has been taken. Last year we published 10 case reports with subjects ranging from Nasal reconstruction in advanced sinunasal sarcoidosis, to Bilateral allergic fungal rhinosinusitis caused by Schizophillum commune and Aspergillus niger and A Pott`s puffy tumour as a late complication of a frontal sinus reconstruction (1-3). This year we published the last case reports we had in stock and in this issue of the Journal we publish the last case report (4). But that will not be enough. More fundamental choices have to be made. To guide the editorial team in the choices we have to make, we ask our readers to help us. On the website of Rhinology you can find a questionnaire. All readers of Rhinology are asked to fill in this questionnaire. We hope many of you will make the effort to go to the website and fill it in: www.rhinologyjournal.com/ .The questionnaire contains questions on the sort of papers we want to read. The last 5 years we increased the number of papers with 50% from around 60 papers I 2005 to around 90 papers in 2009. The increase in papers has mainly been in the clinical papers. The top cited papers in the last five years were mainly guidelines and position papers and reviews (5-9). In the last two years we did not publish this sort of papers and the case mix was totally different with subjects ranging from olfaction to foreign bodies and CRS with or without post nasal drip (10-14). We will ask you what sort of papers you are interested to read in the next years, clinical papers, surgical papers and/or basic research and on what subjects. The journal has become much thicker from 64 pages a few years ago to 80-128 pages now. This has resulted in a significant increase in the printing costs and next year we have to increase the subscription price. Of course the price of the journal has always been very low (74 euro) compared to other journals so we have some room for increase but how far do we want to go? Do you want a lot of space to publish your manuscripts which would mean that we have to increase the size of our Journal even further or are we aiming and even stricter selection and do we only offer you the very high quality papers? We would love to go to 6 issues to have more space and to reduce the time from acceptance to publishing but that would further increase the subscription rate. We will ask your opinion. Many of us read the Journal on the net. We can imagine that a number of people are interested in having an online subscription only. Also that question can be anwered in the questionnaire. A number of societies in Europe have a shared membership of the ERS and in some countries the Journal is send to all members of the otorhinolarynogolgy society with a grant from the pharmaceutical industry. If your rhinologic society is interested in a shared membership please let us know. In summary, Rhinology is a rising star. We are at a point that we have to decide how to proceed. We hope that you are willing to fill in the questionaire on the Rhinology website to help us to make the right decision