OBESITY FACTS - 10 Successful Years

OBESITY FACTS is celebrating its 10th anniversary. This is a welcome opportunity to briefly review the past 10 years in a rapidly changing world of science. Since the first issue of OBESITY FACTS was released in February 2008, the journal ran through an eventful history. Initially projected as a forum for obesity research in Europe, the journal rapidly developed, thanks to the commitment of its founding editor Johannes Hebebrand who did an excellent job to attract novel and interesting articles and reviews from many research groups covering a broad range of topics. Within the first 4 years, there was a rapid increase in submissions, and the rejection rate increased to close to 70%. In 2013, the decision was made to continue OBESITY FACTS as an online journal with worldwide open access. The big advantage of this move was that the journal became easily accessible all over the world, including poorer countries. This was also in agreement with the policy of the European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO) to disseminate recent findings in obesity research as broadly as possible. However, this step required the introduction of publication fees to cover the costs caused by the publication process. Despite substantial fee reduction for EASO members, this conversion initially led to a rapid and substantial decrease in the number of submission in 2013 and 2014. However, in the following years, the number of submissions increased continuously, and in 2016 we again reached a satisfying level of submissions, with a current rejection rate of 63%. The ‘European character’ of the journal is reflected by the fact that 52.5% of all submissions in 2016 were from European countries. The remaining submissions came from all over the world, showing that the perception of the journal is no longer confined to Europe and that OBESITY FACTS meanwhile is a multinational platform for obesity research. Needless to say that such a success story is based on joint activities of many enthusiastic people. Therefore, I want to thank all colleagues who served as associate editors, in the editorial board, and as reviewers. Finally, I am indebted to our authors who submitted the sweet fruits (fully ripe, without added sugar!) of their enormous efforts to answer research questions, develop the field, and produce novel insights. I am also very happy that a highly committed publisher is producing this journal. S. Karger is a European publisher with a long Received: February 15, 2017 Accepted: February 15, 2017 Published online: February 21, 2017