For me one of the best decisions of the current Directorate of the Portuguese Society of Pulmonology (SPP), in the early days was the appointment of Professor João Carlos Winck as Editor-in-Chief of the Portuguese Journal of Pulmonology (RPP). It was in fact the first time that the President of SPP was not simultaneously, the head of our magazine.
To quote the words of my favourites the Rolling Stones “You can’t always get what you want But if you try sometimes, You just might find you get what you need!”
And we are all agreed that the RPP has undergone a real revolution since then.
The Editorial structure has been reformulated, not only with the appointment of Editor-in-Chief and Associate Editor, but also through the new Editorial Board, with new thematic editors and linguistic, methodological and statistics consultants.
Elsevier Editorial System was also introduced which has allowed a welcome growth in visibility and initiated a new method of submitting and revision of articles online, leading to greater efficiency in the whole editorial process, from submission to publication.
Finally, the image and the editorial strategy were altered, culminating in the afore-said revolution by gaining its first Impact Factor and in this way transforming the RPP into one of only 3 medical journals in Portugal to claim this prestigious indicator and achieve international recognition, which is a great source of pride to the Editorial Team of the Journal, the Board of the SPP and the whole national respiratory community.
This considerable and justifiably promising evolution, reinforced by the steady progress of the IF in 2012 brings with it great collective responsibility, not only in relation to the exponential growth in impact but also the expectations in terms of the building on what has already been achieved in raising the profile of the journal.
Problems have a habit of turning themselves into opportunities.
And so it is that the promotion to Editor-in-Chief of RPP of Dr. António Morais with his excellent record of hard work and collaboration from the very beginning is fully justified. We offer him our most sincere best wishes in this new role, and, as has always happened in the past, assurance of our availability and support whenever deemed necessary, envisaging a strengthened internal cohesion with the existence of the three associate editors, Professor Venceslau Hespanhol, Professor Melo Cristino and Dr. Fátima Rodrigues. The team will be even stronger thanks to a new consultant in Medical Editing and Bibliometrics, Dr. Helena Donato, as well as tweaking and suggestions from the Editorial Board under guidance of the thematic editors.
We have now therefore the human resource capacity for the development of the logistics required to raise the profile of the journal, the number of external citations and the IF. Such a well qualified team, of whom we can expect both prolific and effective work, cannot fail to ensure the strategy and vision required.
There was no lack of commitment, dedication and fire in the Editor to whom we are once more, with a heavy heart, bidding farewell, saying Thank you so much, Very Best Wishes…. And So long!
Please cite this article as: Robalo Cordeiro C. …E eu diria muito obrigado e até já! Rev Port Pneumol. 2013. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rppneu.2013.04.001.
