Ahead of print

Dear Colleagues!

Please forgive me for this somewhat reflective mood, but it is caused by the up- coming end of the 2015-2018 term of the PUA Executive Board. As you probably know, the Editor-in-Chief of the Central European Journal of Urology is appointed by the PUA Executive Board, which is why this introductory article is somewhat of a summary.

So then, for this reason, I would like to share some information about the development of the journal. The journal is developing very well. When analyzing the names of the authors, we can see that we are recognizable not only in Europe but also around the world. Urologists from large academic centers publish their articles in our journal. We operate on an "open access" basis and therefore do not charge any fees. This is undoubtedly an asset. An expression of this is the growing number of our citations. The CiteScore coefficient for the Central European Journal of Urology is currently 1.11, while last year it was 0.70. The systematic increase in citations year by year sets the stage to move us from Emerging Cites Sources and promote us to the Science Citation Index Expanded, managed by Clarivate Analytics, formerly Thomson Reuters, which is associated with the granting of the socalled "Impact Factor". I first submitted our journal in 2015 and the assessment, at that time made by Thomson Reuters, was that we should remain in the "waiting room", and therefore we were included in Emerging Sources Citation Index. I submitted my second request for re-assessment at the end of 2017 and I am currently awaiting an answer. I hope to get a positive decision.

Building a urological journal in Europe is not a simple task. We already have journals of recognized position and reputation, such as European Urology, European Urology Focus, as well as World Journal of Urology, Urologia Internationalis, Scandinavian Journal of Urology and International Urology and Nephrology. There are also newly created journals such as European Urology Oncology which has very strong support from the European Association of Urology. We must show that we are needed in Central Europe! We do not have anything to prove!

The standing of a scientific journal depends firstly on the quality of the materials submitted, that is from the authors' workshops. However, this is only one side of the coin!

The team of people who verifies submitted scientific materials is also very crucial. This is probably the most important thing that I would like to convey. Usually, I do not officially direct words of thanks to my colleagues, because I think that they consciously chose the tasks they carry out in their lives. At this point, however, at the end of the 2015-2018 term of the PUA Executive Board, I would like to thank Dr. Bartosz Dybowski, my assistant Editor-in-Chief, for the enormous amount of work and time devoted to the extremely professional preparation of each issue. His ex- pert knowledge and availability could be the envy of many a manager. Without the hard work of Dr. Dybowski, this journal would not look like it does today, and the choice of his person for this position was certainly the right one.

I would also like to personally thank our section editors for their hard work and input. Przemysław Adamczyk, Ewa Bres-Niewada, Stefan Buntrock, Abdullah Erdem Canda, Michał Ciszek, Olga Dolejšová, Simona Di Francesco, Jan Hrbáček, Kajetan Juszczak, George Kasyan, Daimantas Milonas, Maciej Salagierski and Przemysław Waliszewski have always stood up to the task. Dear Colleagues, I know how much you have done for the journal, I appreciate it, and I will always remember your commitment.

Nothing could be done without the huge backing of internationally recognized professionals, without which the magazine would not be in the right form and would not grow. The Consulting Editors and the Editorial Board are these advisory bodies that I would like to thank for their knowledgeable comments and support in making difficult decisions.

Also, I would like to recognize the Reviewers, who often work "behind the scenes" but are nonetheless extremely helpful. Their complete independence allows them to give us their wise and unbiased opinions. Thank you for your support during the entire 2015-2018 term.

In conclusion, it is my sincere hope that the journal will continue to develop even better and even more vigorously in the coming years.

Tomasz Drewa
Editor-in-Chief