Dear Readers,

It is my honour and pleasure to announce that Internal and Emergency Medicine (IEM) has obtained its first Impact Factor (IF), with an impressive 2.371 for 2009. IEM has obtained 147 citations of articles published in 2007 and 2008. The entry rank of 2.371 is absolutely respectable in light of IEM young age. Our journal is ranked 30th out of 132 journals in the category Medicine General and Internal. We are delighted that our journal can be internationally recognized as an important one in our academic field.

This unforeseen success of the journal is due to many people who have worked to establish a high quality journal.

First of all I thank the former Editor-in-Chief Gian Franco Gensini who has designed with me the structure of the journal and my co-editor Peter Rosen, who leads the Emergency section and Medical Illustration articles. Working with Peter is an honour and a continuous pleasure.

Then I thank all the members of Editorial Board, Advisory Board and Operative Group for their invaluable work. I wish to thank also the management of Springer for its past and future cooperation.

I thank all reviewers who have contributed to the success of our journal. As you may know, we try to have each paper reviewed by at least two referees (3 for original and review papers). Their input largely decides the final decision on the fate of submitted papers.

My thanks go also to those who believed in IEM and contributed to its growth through manuscript submission and the citation of IEM articles.

Last but not least, thanks to the Italian Society of Internal Medicine, to the present President Francesco Violi and to the two former Presidents Giuseppe Licata and Pier Mannuccio Mannucci and to the all members. All contributed in different ways with their support to the present success of IEM.

We will continue to act to increase the IF in future.

During the first 6 months of 2010 we handled over 120 new submissions, and some 30 revised papers first submitted in 2009. The quality of submitted material is continuously increasing. The rejection rate is about 50% at the moment, so rather stable versus 2009, but our IF will reasonably lead to an increase in the number of submitted papers which in turn will force us to accept a lower percentage of papers.

According to previous trends, we want to discourage the submission of letters with case reports, except those of special interest, whereas letters of comment or criticism of previously published papers are welcomed.

We encourage our members to provide feedback on the journal and its content. If there are suggestions, please do let us know.

We hope you will continue to support our journal and to participate in future new challenges.

Domenico Prisco

Editor-in-Chief

Internal and Emergency Medicine