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Preventive Veterinary Medicine 100 (2011) 1–3

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Preventive Veterinary Medicine

journa l homepage: www.e lsev ier .com/ locate /prevetmed

ditorial

00 volumes of Preventive Veterinary Medicine—The past, the presentnd the future

has enhanced its scientific reputation as evidenced by theimprovement in the publication index (e.g. Impact Fac-tor) over these years (Fig. 1). The journal started with

Intensification of animal production systems since the950s has created new challenges for disease controlor livestock producers. Producers must address con-umer concerns related to animal welfare and food safetynd food security while ensuring the economic viabil-ty of their operations. The methodological needs arisingrom these challenges inspired visionary veterinarians andther related scientists to initiate and promote a mod-rn approach to preventive veterinary medicine basedn understanding the population – encouraging a newiscipline in epidemiology to develop within the fieldf veterinary sciences (Schwabe, 1984). This approachas facilitated through use of available methods and

echniques from disciplines such as animal sciences,iostatistics, human epidemiology, and quantitative soci-logy. Due to the urgent need to solve applied problems inpidemiology, research in methods and techniques took annprecedented leap in the early 1980s. With these increas-

ng research activities in veterinary epidemiology, the needor a “discipline journal” arose. As a consequence, Preven-ive Veterinary Medicine was launched in 1982 (Riemann,982) as the journal to publicize approaches and methodsor understanding and evaluating animal diseases at theopulation level.

Preventive Veterinary Medicine began with articles thatere mainly focused on “herd-health” methods with the

im of publishing manuscripts of studies to understandhe health status of groups of animals (herds, flocks) andhe intention of emphasizing disease prevention and con-rol options. Early volumes of the journal predominantlyncluded statistical methods and quantitative approacheso disease ecology. In part, the discipline of veterinary epi-emiology has expanded because of these publications andas been recognized as an essential part of the professionf veterinary medicine. During the last three decades, thenalytic methods either developed within or incorporated

nto our discipline have substantially contributed to com-ating diseases, quantifying the extent and impact of noveliseases, and improving the wellbeing of society in gen-ral and its animal populations in particular. Preventive

167-5877/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.oi:10.1016/j.prevetmed.2011.03.010

Veterinary Medicine has played a major role in scientificcommunications among professionals within the field ofveterinary epidemiology, and equally importantly it hasalso represented our discipline to other discipline groups.

When founded, Preventive Veterinary Medicine promisedto incorporate topics of mathematics, statistics, computeruse, and economics within the framework of preventiveveterinary medicine (Riemann, 1982). These topics havebeen maintained as a focus of the journal; but as the dis-cipline has expanded to incorporate other topics, issues ofconcerns, and tools, the journal has also evolved and broad-ened the scope of research areas. The journal, however,has expanded the field to diseases of wildlife species, envi-ronmental health and population-based companion animalstudies.

During the last 30 years, the Preventive VeterinaryMedicine has received the support of the majority of sci-entists who are involved in animal health issues throughtheir contributions, reviews, or citations of the journal’spublications. It has also received full support from the pub-lishing company Elsevier. Preventive Veterinary Medicine

Fig. 1. Impact factors of Preventive Veterinary Medicine 1998–2009.

2 Editorial / Preventive Veterinary Medicine 100 (2011) 1–3

reventiv

Fig. 2. Number of manuscripts of P

four issues per year, and this steadily grew with time to20 annual issues (now published in 5 volumes) as thesubmitted manuscripts and the scientific popularity ofthe journal increased (Fig. 2). For a while, the journal’sreputation suffered from long turnaround times betweensubmission, final decision for publication, and publishingthe accepted papers. This resulted in the unfortunate lossof some good contributors and interesting topics, but theseissues have been addressed in recent years, and we contin-ually strive to reduce the time between submission and thefinal decision. The journal recently increased the numberof associate editors and expanded the subject special-ties of the editorial-board members. The journal has alsotransitioned from hard-copy to electronic submission andincludes an electronic review process. The journal now canensure that most articles will be published on-line within2 months of acceptance (providing that authors respondspeedily in returning their corrected proofs).

Preventive Veterinary Medicine will continue to strive toimprove its reputation and maintain its scientific qualityfor the betterment of the discipline of veterinary epidemi-ology in the future. Preventive Veterinary Medicine’s goalis to remain as one of the top 10 journals in veterinarymedicine and sciences. This will require a comprehensivevision of the scientific directions of veterinary epidemi-ology. The discipline continues to evolve toward betterand more effective ways to understand diseases and otherhealth events in animal populations. There are several chal-lenges to veterinary epidemiology in terms of new areasof interest and approaches to new animal-health issuesincluding technical tools (such as new statistical tech-niques); interactions with other disciplines; applications ofresearch findings in public policy; study design and analysisfor large-scale (national and regional) issues; simula-tion modeling; qualitative approaches and incorporationof expert opinions for health events; and health-eventindices. Preventive Veterinary Medicine will provide lead-ership by exploring the scientific challenges inherent inthese topics and their application through publication oftranslational research papers. The journal will also con-tinue to promote scientific conferences in epidemiology

and population-based veterinary medicine through thepublication of special issues.

As a final remark, the success of Preventive Veteri-nary Medicine depends heavily on its contributors, readers,

e Veterinary Medicine 1982–2010.

reviewers, and editorial-board members. On behalf of allour associate editors and the publishing staff, we thankthese individuals for their support for the last 30 years, andwe look forward to working together to further enhancethe journals reputation.

References

Riemann, H., 1982. Launching the new international journal “PreventiveVeterinary Medicine”. Preventive Veterinary Medicine 1, 1–41.

Schwabe, C.W., 1984. Veterinary Medicine and Human Health, 3rd ed.Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore, MD, pp. 1–680.

M.D. Salman ∗

Campus Stop 1644, Animal PopulationHealth Institute, College of Veterinary

Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, ColoradoState University, Fort Collins, CO

80523-1644, USA

M.G. DoherrVeterinary Public Health Institute, Vetsuisse

Faculty, University of Bern,Schwarzenburgstrasse 155, 3097 Liebefeld

BE, Switzerland

H.N. ErbDepartment of Population Medicine &Diagnostic Sciences, Cornell University

College of Veterinary Medicine, Ithaca, NY14853, USA

K. FrankenaQuantitative Veterinary Epidemiology

Group, Wageningen Institute of AnimalSciences, Wageningen University, PO Box

338, 6700 AH Wageningen, The Netherlands

I.A. GardnerDepartment of Medicine and Epidemiology,School of Veterinary Medicine, University of

California, Davis, CA 95616, USA

J.A. StegemanUtrecht University/Faculty of Veterinary

Medicine, Department of Farm AnimalHealth, 3584 CL Utrecht, The Netherlands

rinary M

j.a.stegeman@uu.nl (J.A. Stegeman),hstryhn@upei.ca (H. Stryhn),

michael.ward@sydney.edu.au (M.P. Ward),

Editorial / Preventive Vete

H. StryhnCentre for Veterinary Epidemiological

Research, Atlantic Veterinary College, 550University Avenue, Charlottetown, PE C1A

4P3, Canada

M.P. WardThe University of Sydney, Private Bag 4003,

Narellan, NSW 2567, Australia

R. Weigel

Department of Pathobiology/College of

Veterinary Medicine, University of Illinois,2001 South Lincoln Avenue, Urbana, IL

61802, USA

edicine 100 (2011) 1–3 3

∗ Corresponding author.E-mail addresses:

m.d.salman@colostate.edu (M.D. Salman),marcus.doherr@vetsuisse.unibe.ch (M.G.

Doherr), hne1@cornell.edu (H.N. Erb),klaas.frankena@wur.nl (K. Frankena),

iagardner@ucdavis.edu (I.A. Gardner),

Weigel@illinois.edu (R. Weigel)