Techniques in Coloproctology

Dear friends and colleagues,
The journal began in 1993 as “UCP News”, a bulletin of the Coloproctology Units in Italy, (which are still an essential part of the SICCR).
In 1995 it was transformed into “Techniques in Coloproctology” published 3 times a year, first in Italian and English and later only in English. Steven Wexner was one of the first co-editors and over the years has sent us many articles from the Cleveland Clinic. Among the first members of the editorial board there were surgeons from St.Mark’s Hospital and the Mayo Clinic as well as various well-known Italian coloproctologists.
In 1999 the Springer-Verlag became the publisher of “Techniques” and in 2000 the journal was indexed. From this point on there have been 4 issues annually plus supplements.
“Techniques” is the official journal not only of the Italian Society of Colo-Rectal Surgery (Società Italiana di Chirurgia Colo-Rettale: SICCR) but also of the Mediterranean Society of Coloproctology, the Israel Society of Colon and Rectal Surgery, the Eurasian Colorectal Technologies Association, and the Chinese Medical Association Surgical Section Colorectal Anal Group.
In 2010 full-text copies of articles published in “Techniques” were downloaded 4352 times and articles from 37 countries, with the UK, Italy the USA and Singapore in the lead, were submitted to the journal. Over half of these articles (64%) were rejected by our referees.

Now, after 9 years rather than 9 months, “Techniques” has given birth to its first impact factor; 1.53. Not bad considering that only 4 issues of the journal are being published annually!

The credit for this success goes to the staff of “Techniques”, the editorial board, all those who used to work for the journal back in the 1990s, the SICCR, which has always been so supportive, all the authors who have submitted articles to “Techniques”, and the hundreds of Italian and non-Italian referees who have helped to improve the quality of the journal.

We must not rest on our laurels but move on to greater things.
To obtain an impact factor of 2 and then an even higher one, we need your help.
The articles most often cited are meta-analyses, systematic reviews, and prospective randomized trials. We want more of these. It is not easy to write such articles, but we know we can count on you. We now have a team of statisticians, 3 members of the editorial board, who are ready to collaborate with you. The involvement of the Springer-Verlag ensures that “Techniques” is read all over the world, making it very gratifying to have an article published in the journal. The assistance of those SICCR members who are experienced authors will be of key importance in further improving “Techniques”, but other members can also play an important role, for instance by participating in the various multicenter studies being conducted under the auspices of the SICCR, the results of which we hope to see submitted to “Techniques”. The more the journal grows, the more the SICCR will grow and vice versa.
We would like to thank you in advance for your future collaboration,

Mario Pescatori Editor-in-Chief
Giuseppe Gagliardi Associate Editor
Ezio Falletto Assistant Editor
Vlasta Podzemny Editorial Assistant