“At the 250th anniversary of our university we are celebrating the 25th anniversary of a journal that has an impact factor of 2.5,” said rector Dr. Béla Merkely in his opening speech of the event held in the Semmelweis Salon. “We can rightly be proud of Pathology & Oncology Research (POR), since the journal that started from the university has managed to attain a stable international position in its field,” he noted. The rector called the career of the journal over the past 25 years a significant achievement, which praises the work of its editors-in-chief. He also pointed out to PhD students the significance of having the opportunity to publish in such a renowned journal, which has ties to the university, and noted that the impact factor of a published article as first author in POR could already be enough for a PhD degree.
POR was launched in 1994 based on an idea by the professors of the 1st Department of Pathology and Experimental Cancer Research, with the goal of creating an English-language scientific journal for publishing articles in the fields of pathology and oncology, one of the founders, Dr. József Tímár, a professor at the 2nd Department of Pathology, told our website about the beginnings of the publication. The two other founders were pathologists Dr. László Kopper and Dr. Zsolt Orosz. The idea and the implementation was supported by Judit Nagy, as the head of Tudomány Kiadó, a science-oriented publishing house.
The journal became an international scientific publication a few years later, when the UK-based publisher Saunders took it over in 1997. However, the founding editors-in-chief remained the same, as did the fact that half of the editorial committee is Hungarian, and one-third of it is from Semmelweis University. “We thought it was important to secure an international background in order to acquire an impact factor,” noted Dr. József Tímár. Due to a merger of the publishers, the journal belonged for a short time to Elsevier, which was followed by a period of independence before being taken over by Springer on its 10th anniversary, and it is still a member of Springer’s portfolio today. The journal, which is continuously expanding, acquired an impact factor in 2004, and has increased steadily (currently at 2.5), as has the number of submitted articles, which come from all over the world. “In 1995, we received around 50 articles, of which we published 30-40, while today we get more than 1,000 submissions, of which around 30% are published following an evaluation process,” said Dr. Tímár, adding that 20% of these published articles are from Hungary.
The articles of the quarterly journal are downloaded 100,000 times, while the current goal is getting a Q1 rating, Dr. Tímár emphasized. It has always been an important mission of POR to provide space and opportunity for PhD students, which he called attention to once again on the occasion of the anniversary.
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Despite the changes in its publisher, POR has remained in Hungarian ownership, namely belonging to the Arányi Lajos Foundation. At the event Dr. László Kopper, professor emeritus, presented the life and career of the Lajos Arányi, who was the founder of the 1st Department of Pathology and Experimental Cancer Research and who created the department using his own money.
As part of the event’s program, Judit Nagy, the first publisher, recalled the journal’s beginnings, Dr. Lívia Vasas, the operative director of the Central Library MTMT, presented data on the scientific metrics, a speech was held by rector emeritus Dr. Ágoston Szél as the previous president of the Doctoral School, after which the authors of highly recognized articles published in POR held presentations: Dr. István Kenessey, Dr. Gábor Decsi, Dr. Gergely Varga and Dr. Andrea Uhlyarik.
Pálma Dobozi
Translation: Tamás Deme
Photo: Semmelweis University
