Weighing up a seven-year period

At the end of my term of office as Editor-in-Chief of Acta Otorhinolaryngologica Italica, i should like to briefly recall some of the results achieved. The principal aim indicated by the Board of the italian Society of otorhinolaryngology – head and neck Surgery (Sio) was to work towards the journal which had then only recently been published in English under the Editor-in-Chief, at that time Dr Marco Piemonte becoming even more international in order to offer reliable and up-to-date information to italian specialists, encourage an exchange of experiences, stimulate new collaborative activities between otorhinolaryngologists from all areas and to achieve an impact Factor. The extraordinary involvement of the Editorial Board, the Scientific Committee and the professional approach of the reviewers offered the possibility to gradually introduce several new ideas to realize this programme. The italian Scientific Board was renewed and, alongside, an international Scientific Board was set up comprising wellknown Members representatives in the various fields which to-day complete the otorhinolaryngological discipline. The competence of the reviewers has resulted in an improvement in the scientific level of the papers; at present approximately 45% of the papers currently submitted to the journal are considered worthy of publication. Together with the Publisher, we have gradually made the presence of Acta Italica better known on the most important and prestigious websites worldwide; Acta is currently cited in index Medicus/PubMed, Science Citation index Expanded, Scopus, Pub Med Central, Directory of open Access Journals (DoAJ), open-J gate, Free Medical Journals, index Copernicus, Socolar. Simultaneously, alongside the edition in English, an italian edition has been set up, namely, Argomenti di Acta Italica, aimed at offering the possibility of a timely up-date to those who are not familiar with the English language. This italian edition publishes the guidelines proposed by Sio, updates and debates focusing on current hot topics. An on-line publication has also recently been launched, the early view website which includes papers that have already been accepted and are awaiting publication in the official journal, in order to offer readers an on-time, updated consultation. last, but not least, we have also changed not only the size, but also the graphics of the journal, in order to make reading easier.