Two steps up, the development of Acta Physiologica

Heritage can be a burden. Physiology has strong roots throughout Scandinavia (Burnstock et al. 2010, Gjedde 2010, Hansen & Vanhoutte 2011, Hoffmann & Pedersen 2011, Larsen 2011, Seidler 2011, Wang 2011), the origin of our journal, not to mention the great nations throughout Europe whose fellow physiologists helped form our discipline to what it is today (Westerhof 2011). Looking back can therefore add pressure to the active young physiologists who submit their best work to us. For decades, Acta Physiologica has been among the top-notch physiology journals. With the new geographical focus aiming at including all countries worldwide, Acta Physiologica once more is a leading journal. In 2011, Acta Physiologica ranked among the very best journals of our discipline, no matter from what perspective this ranking is performed. Roughly speaking, Acta Physiologica is listed among the top third of the journals classified as physiology journals. Take for instance the Article Influence Score. This measure mirrors the average influence of an article over the first five years. Or, simply take the impact factor, which is the most common index of the influence of a journal. With regard to the impact factor, Acta Physiologica has taken two steps up and is once again ranked among those journals that traditionally have been compared to Acta Physiologica. We must thank Jan Henriksson for his dedication to this journal and extreme expertise, which put Acta Physiologica back to where we belong. In contrast to many other physiology journals that are similarly located in the ranking, Acta Physiologica exhibits a very low self-citation rate. Only 3% of all citations refer to Acta Physiologica articles. Other leading journals of physiology exhibit values that are considerably higher, at around 5–7%. When looking at the long-term trend of Acta Physiologica, we must keep in mind that the name change from Acta Physiologica Scandinavica to Acta Physiologica still causes a drop in the five-year impact factor and the article influence score. When this is considered, the performance of our journal is truly remarkable. Please help us in the continuous improvement of our quality and performance by submitting your very best articles to Acta Physiologica. None.