The importance of the reviewers

Radiol Bras. 2015 Mai/Jun;48(3):V The Brazilian radiological community is quite pleased with the indexing of our journal, Radiologia Brasileira, at PubMed Central. Finally, the journal articles are listed in the PubMed databank, the greatest worldwide reference source in medical literature, thus gaining international visibility. Researchers in the field of Radiology, especially those participating in stricto sensu post-graduation programs evaluated by the Brazilian Coordination of Superior Level Staff Improvement (CAPES), will benefit greatly from such indexing, not only with the evaluation of the programs which they belong to, but also with their personal evaluation as they apply for research scholarships to funding bodies. This progressive evolution of the journal has been discussed in several editorials over the last years. However, there is a price to be paid for this. The greater the acquired visibility and relevance, the greater is the researchers’ interest in publishing in this journal, the greater is the submission of articles to be evaluated and the greater is the significance of a qualified reviewers board as well as their willingness to do this job. The reviewers’ work is inglorious, anonymous and is done for free; it goes unnoticed, except by the journal management board, but it is fundamental for maintaining the integrity and exemption in the decision making by both the Editorial Board and the Editor. Despite the considerable number of members in our reviewers’ board, most of them generously collaborating whenever requested to do so, the journal secretariat frequently faces serious difficulties in maintaining an appropriate and timely review workflow, particularly because of a constant and systematic refusal by some of our colleagues to do this task. This is not a problem unique to our journal. Great international journals have been facing the same difficulties and are cur-