First, I am grateful for the confidence in the journal from the scientific and clinical communities, which is reflected by the increasing number of high quality submissions. Numbers are not always useful to describe the quality and effectiveness of a scientific journal, but a few examples can be helpful: the impact factor (IF) has gradually increased and the IF for 2008 (the most recent at time of writing) reached 7.188 (table 1). We handled 1635 new submissions in 2009, the acceptance rate for original research (concise and extended reports) is now 18% and average time from submission to review underway is 14 days, from submission to first decision (all papers/reviewed papers) 32/56 days and the average turnaround from submission to acceptance is 103 days. Researchers always want to have their work published as soon as possible, and the journal and publisher share this interest. Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases was quick to feature an online first publication system, but the time from online to print publication increased in 2008–2009 to about 1 year, which was considered unacceptable. Bumper issues at this year’s and last year’s European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) congresses, together with an increase in the number of pages in 2010 as well as a strict editorial policy, has contributed to a considerable reduction in this interval from acceptance to print publication. An additional feature that is increasingly used is the opportunity to publish online supplementary material (details about methodology, tables and figures, and videos as well, if relevant). The online publication system was changed at the end of last year; the ambition is to have all accepted papers published online in the final, fully edited, typeset and proofed version 3 weeks after acceptance. Unfortunately, the publisher has faced some capacity problems with typesetting, but the 3-week goal will be achieved in the near future. The advantage will be that all papers will only appear in one final copyedited version: first online, and then printed 4–6 months later.

This journal issue contains many important papers within the area of basic and translational science, as well as in clinical and epidemiological research. We assume that the new EULAR recommendations for management of rheumatoid arthritis with synthetic and biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs will be of special interest to many clinicians. 1 These recommendations are supported by five systematic literature research papers that also appear in this issue, 2–6 and an accompanying editorial is written by two of our American colleagues. 7