Turkish Journal of Pathology

Türk Patoloji Dergisi

Turkish Journal of Pathology

Turkish Journal of Pathology

2013, Vol 29, Num, 2

Editorial

Alp USUBÜTÜN 1

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Introduction

Dear Colleagues,

“The Turkish Journal of Pathology” continues to move forwards while maintaining its goal of becoming an even higher quality journal. Its past experience, experienced staff and the support of the pathology community are its biggest strengths. We recognize this potential by the constant increase in the number of articles submitted to the Journal. Besides the numerical increase, another important consideration is that the articles come from a wider geographical area. Close to 100 articles from 13 different countries were submitted to the Journal for consideration in 2012. To expand the sphere of influence of the Turkish Journal of Pathology, this year we entered an agreement with Versita as it has international experience and a widespread communication network, especially in Eastern Europe. We therefore expect more widespread recognition and more articles to be submitted.

Some changes were made this year to accelerate the functioning of the Turkish Journal of Pathology and to respond to the authors faster. We started to use continuous monitoring programs to monitor the effectiveness of these changes. We have not achieved our desired level yet but the response duration is shorter. We aim to respond to all incoming articles within 4-5 weeks in 2014. We have shortened the review duration for the articles and have also become more rigorous in their evaluation. Our rejection rate was about 30% in 2012, and will be higher this year. We also made some changes to make the evaluations more effective. Reviewers are expected to increase the quality of the articles in the current scientific environment. We will select the reviewers who make large contributions and announce them at the Journal each year to encourage an increase in contributions to the articles and to publish higher quality studies. We will therefore thank them for their contribution to the scientific community by announcing their names. We would like to remind you again that we will give a “best research article award” this year.

“Plagiarism” is a major problem and has an adverse effect on the scientific community at an ever-increasing rate. However, the good news is the development of soft ware to determine “plagiarism”. One such program is “iThenticate”. We have started to scan the articles with this program in 2013. We will thus try to protect the Journal of Turkish Pathology from negative factors.

When compared to articles globally, articles from Turkey receive fewer citations and are mostly case reports. Although there are many reasons for this, young authors without sufficient experience and knowledge in writing articles is an important factor. In order to overcome this problem and to instruct young authors on article writing, a training seminar where the articles from Turkey will be generally analyzed and guidelines provided for young authors will be held at the National Pathology Congress this year.

Finally, we notice a quantitative decrease in articles from Turkey. This may be an effect of the changes in universities in the last few years. However, we need to evaluate this issue seriously and investigate and discuss the causes of the decline in the near future so that we can take action as necessary and ensure our place as a contemporary part of the global pathology community.

Yours sincerely,

Alp USUBÜTÜN, M.D.
Chief Editor of the Turkish Journal of Pathology

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