www.diagnosticpathology.eu: Reflections of 2017 – Perspectives on 2018

Abstract

The peer reviewed open access journal www.diagnosticpathology.eu remains still the only financially autonomous, solely science and medicine obliged journal. It is embedded in a medical communication network of different service nodes. The nodes include the unique Virtual International Pathology Institute (VIPI, www.diagnomx.eu/vipi), an automated image measuring system (EAMUS), a lexicon of air borne hazards such as natural and synthetic mineral fibers, fine granulate and air pollutants (Natural and Synthetic Mineral Fibers affecting Man), an anatomy training course, and a collection of sixty rare and common lung diseases. It offers access to the articles of the first solely electronically distributed journal of pathology (Electronic Journal of Pathology and Histology) In 2017 we focused on the implementation of a new open journal system (OJS) release. We had to correct several inborn errors prior to the final usage. Therefore, the announced collection of virtual slides in concordance with the original publications remained still in its start phase. The journal’s ‘outfit’ has been adjusted to the modern styles in use. The number of submitted articles declined remarkably, and the journal experienced hard competition in 2017. The main reasons are a missing Scientific Citation Index (SCI) and its listing in journal databanks such as pubmed. Entropy calculations of the journal’s scientific impact and value are in the range of well known pathology journals such as the conventional paper printed ‘The Pathology Journal’. The implemented specific publication tools ‘publish beside the microscope’ and the submission of contributions for ‘interactive publication’ have been successfully tested but only rarely been used. We still expect attractive and scientifically high standard publications in 2018. Keywords: www.diagnosticpathology.eu, open source journal, communication network, virtual slide, automated measurement, predatory journal.

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