For the past few years, the number of papers submitted for publication to EMHJ annually has hovered around the 300 mark. For example, in 2003 we received 280 manuscripts and in 2004 we received 304. Of these, 149 and 168 were accepted respectively giving acceptance rates of 53% and 55%. In 2005, however, an unprecedented number of papers were submitted for publication – 515 manuscripts – which represents a 69% increase. This clearly demonstrates the growing prominence of the Journal which is encouraging to note. Of interest is the distribution of papers with regard to country. In 2005, as in previous years, Islamic Republic of Iran ranked as the leading contributing country with 38% of the total submissions. It was followed by Egypt with 11%, Saudi Arabia with 7% and Jordan with 6%. It is gratifying to see that close after these, with 4% of the submissions each, came Iraq and Sudan, two countries that have experienced much hardship and conflict and yet have still managed to carry out research.
In addition to publishing the EMHJ as a means to promote and disseminate research in the Region, EMRO is also committed to enhancing access to health and biomedical journals in the Region and to make them more visible on the Internet. To this end, the Regional Office has published the “EMR Journals Information Directory” on the EMRO website (http://www.emro.who.int/emrjorlist). The Directory includes 288 health and biomedical journals published in the Region and indexed in the Index Medicus of the Eastern Mediterranean Region (IMEMR) on a regular basis. The Directory includes the basic bibliographic information for each journal, such as title, publisher, start date, ISSN, subject, country of publication, frequency and abstract. Information on the editors of the journals has been added. There are also 105 online journals published in the Region available at the following URL address: http://www.emro.who.int/EMRJorList/Online.aspx. A cross link has been established between each journal and its articles indexed in IMEMR as well as with the EMR Union Catalogue for Health Sciences Journals. We welcome information of other journals published in the Region that could be included in the Directory.
