The urgencies of a periodical publication

There are several characteristics of periodic publications that invariably lead to urgencies and alarms. Some are of long term and reach, such as those relative to the needed funding, to the quality and permanence in indexes and its position in evaluations of all kind. Others are of short span. They happen day to day or, better, at each publication interval, according to the periodicity established in each case. Independent of its nature, be it scientific, technological or of another kind, they all move around one of the fundamental premises of any periodical publication, which is, redundantly, its periodicity.

Whichever the latter, everything ought to be planned and executed so that it be accomplished. The innumerable production details have to be completed in time to properly fulfill the stipulated timing.

One of the earliest requirements, and perhaps the most obvious one, is to have completed the material for the coming issue. Every periodical publication, and in our specific case a scientific journal, has gone through moments when it appeared as if there was not enough material to send to the printer. Be it because of lack of received manuscripts, slowness in the refereeing process or of any delay in the editorial gears, up to the timely review of page proofs, the amount of pages does not reach the programmed number. But, however, lets suppose that the contents of the issue being prepared have been completed.

When enough material has been gathered and appropriately prepared, it is necessary that all the equipment and people responsible for its operation be ready. The obvious advantages that current technologies offer to carry out the text setting processes, including handling graphics, tables and photolith preparation, as well as for printing and binding, represent invaluable help and are time saving. What turns out to be once in a while a real headache is the relative fragility of these systems and the dependency they create upon highly specialized and expensive personnel

No matter how well the equipment operates, operators are required. Although the progress reached by biomedical sciences promises to achieve an ever increasing extension of the average longevity of man and the solution to innumerable problems for which there was none in sight not long ago, people in general, and publishing equipment operators in particular, continue to get sick. The ever increasing specialization of the processes employed make publication more dependent on specialized personnel and its temporal substitution is every time more difficult.

Fortunately, in most occasions all the elements commented above take place without major inconveniences, the material is prepared, machines work properly and people as well. Everything is ready in the appropriate moment, in order to go to the printer. Only one detail is missing, which seems to be, to many readers, a minor detail: there is no editorial.

The editorial page of a journal is not a banal thing, as it should communicate a message of interest to the journal audience, pertinent and updated, written in a legible manner and with few words. On the other hand, it should not collide with the editorial line of the publication and the institutions to which it belongs or that sponsor it. Only in few occasions previously prepared editorials are on hand and it generally is, together with the table of contents, the last texts to be prepared.

When the end of the pre-printing phase is reached without an editorial, the editorialist friends are usually on vacation or too busy. This is when it has to be remembered that the journal does not come out without an editorial.

Miguel Laufer, Editor