Quality in Primary Care Open Access

Quality in Primary Care marks a number of turning points as a journal. In 2012 it moves to its 10th year and 20th volume as Quality in Primary Care. For the first time in its history it had a greater number of submissions from outside the United Kingdom in 2011. The journal’s unofficial impact factor continues to increase and doubled in 2010 to 0.6 (number of citations per article per year over the previous two years calculated using www.scimagojr.com.

Last year we received 84 submissions to the journal. These were from the United Kingdom (40), Australia and New Zealand (10), Mainland Europe (18), the United States and Canada (10), the Middle East and Asia (2), South America (2) and Africa (2). Most articles submitted in 2011 were research papers (53); other formats included editorials or guest editorials (5), articles on quality improvement in action (7), short reports (3), discussion papers (1), patient safety (1), international exchange (4), quality digest (6) and ‘knowledgeshare’ (1) articles.

We have had two themed issues including a special issue on ‘The future of primary healthcare in Europe’ (guest editors: Peter Groenewegen and Diederik Aarendonk) based on the conference of that name in Pisa during the previous summer and ‘Creating quality primary health care in Australasia’ (guest editor: Moyez Jiwa). I am grateful to the guest editors for their work and support of the journal. In 2012 we look forward to further themed issues on interprofessional education (guest editor: Keith Stevenson) and nurse prescribing (guest editor: Sarah Redsell).

For articles submitted in 2011, the average time (for 50 articles published) was 175 days from submission to publication, Acknowledgements 3.5 days, initial decision 89 days and submission to final decision 123 days.Weinitially reject around 50% of unsolicited papers, although some of these are published following extensive revision and resubmission. Overall, excluding commissioned articles and editorials, 60% of papers were accepted or accepted subject to revision.

I would like to thank all the members of the editorial board for their valuable contributions to the journal and our Peer Reviewers, recognised experts in their field, who gave generously of their time over the past year. I am indebted to them for the speed and quality of their reviews. A full list of Peer Reviewers is included below. Iwould like to thankNatalie Pickles, my previous editorial assistant who has left for pastures new and to Sue Bowler who has taken over from her. Finally I would like to thank Andrea Hargreaves, journals manager at Radcliffe Publishing for her support over the past year.

We look forward to your ongoing contribution and support and I would like to take this opportunity to wish you, our readers and contributors, all good wishes of the season and success for the next year and beyond.

Reviewers in 2011

Elizabeth Barnett

Henricus Van Den Heuvel

Kath Checkland

Alan Bee

Andrew Knight

Andy Meal

Arnold Mitnitski

Bernaed Silke

Byrd Quinlivan

Charles Hennekens

Charles Juwah

Christine Johnson

Christopher Hollenbeak

Coral Sirdifield

David Cunningham

David Lewis

David Persaud

Diederik Aarendonk

Diego Schrans

Eleanor Simonsick

Elizabeth Evans

Elsbeth Taminiau-Bloem

Erno Harzheim

Gareth Morgan

Geoff Gill

Hana Burgess

Harm van Marwijk

Helen Close

Hideto Takahashi

J. Kellogg Parsons

Janine Janosky

Jenny Gallagher

Jo Middlemass

Joanne Reeve

John Browne

John Sharvill

John Unsworth

Judy Smith

Julie McGarry

Karen Andersen-Ranberg

Kate Weiner

Katie Walsh

Kay Price

Ken McLean

Kenneth Rockwood

Kerri Wright

Kevin Smith

Maria Joyce

Marianne Rosendal

Mark Shapley

Markos Klonizakis

Martin von Fragstein

Martina Kelly

Mary Stergiou-Kita

Maxine Offredy

Megan Crawford

Michael Watson

Mojtaba Vaismoradi

Moyez Jiwa

Nadya Essam

Nicholas Steel

Peter Groenewegen

Peter Leggatt

Peter Wilcock

Puja Myles

Richard Knox

Ros Kane

Rubina Hussain

Sally Brown

Sara Muller

Sarah Redsell

Shaonong Dang

Sharon Lawn

Sian Oram

Simon Kyle

Sophia Chan

Stefan Wilm

StellaMay Gwini

Stephanie Martin

Steven Ornstein

Suneth Agampodi

Tami Borneman

Therese Zink

Tilley Pain

Tim Swanwick

Ulrike Junius-Walker

Vicki Benard

Viet-Hai Phung

Yoon Kim

Zowie Davy