Archivos de Bronconeumología was launched 57 years ago and has been the official organ of the Spanish Society of Pulmonology and Thoracic Surgery (SEPAR) since its inception. It has made great strides since then, and its progress has been marked by several milestones: inclusion in the National Library of Medicine’s Index Medicus in 1994 and the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) in 2001, the first impact factor (IF) conceded in 2003, the creation of the English version in that same year—which has undoubtedly increased the visibility of the journal beyond our borders—and finally, recognition in 2000 as the official organ of the Latin American Thoracic Association (ALAT),1 and later of the Ibero-American Association of Thoracic Surgery (AIACT). All this activity aroused considerable interest in the Spanish-speaking world, and, as a result, Archivos de Bronconeumología has become the world's leading Spanish-language journal for respiratory medicine and thoracic surgery.2

Behind all these achievements is a remarkable team of dedicated professionals serving on the various editorial, advisory, and scientific committees, and an army of authors, reviewers and readers without whom the journal could not have survived. From a scientific and bibliometric point of view, the most recent achievements of Archivos de Bronconeumología, under the leadership of Dr. Esther Barreiro and her team, have been particularly outstanding. Their hard work over the last 8 years has placed the journal in a situation that was barely imaginable a few years ago: it has achieved an IF of 4.95 (see Fig. 1 on the progress of the journal’s IF), and a position in the first quartile of respiratory medicine journals worldwide. Now that this admirable team of editors has stepped down from the podium, we are facing a huge challenge not only to maintain the current status of the journal, but also to continue its growth over time.

Figure 1.

Evolution of the impact factor of Archivos de Bronconeumología (2002–2019).

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Recently, after the departure of three former editors, I have had the honor of taking charge of Archivos de Bronconeumología as Editor-in-Chief. I am fully aware of the great challenge and responsibility involved in taking up this position, particularly in the midst of such difficult times for the healthcare profession due to the terrible pandemic that is currently devastating the entire world. Nevertheless, the challenge itself is what makes the proposal attractive, and I hope that hard work and enthusiasm will lead us to success. My first decision was to create a new team of associate editors, adding a selection of young forward-looking editors to the more experienced, established staff already in place. Our first objective is to make sure Archivos de Bronconeumología retains its first quartile journal status, while designing a longer-term plan for the future on which to base our efforts to expand. The only strategy that will succeed is to improve the scientific quality of the journal to the greatest extent possible, since this is clearly the factor that will furnish us with all the elements we need to broaden our influence and strengthen our IF. To that end, it is imperative that we raise our journal’s profile by using social media, and that we expand our international focus beyond Spain and Latin America, especially in the rest of Europe and the United States. We must endeavor to develop a format and profile that will attract the attention of the world's top researchers. Another of our initiatives has been to create a group of experts composed of some of the most internationally established Spanish researchers in respiratory medicine, whose ideas, experience and international relationships will undoubtedly help us to achieve this goal. And finally, we must state our intention to support the publication of articles of particular interest, including major clinical and epidemiological studies,3 large registry studies conducted by our society,4,5 the use of new technologies and personalized medicine,6–8 national and international guidelines and consensus documents,9–14 smoking15 and the environment (the SEPAR topic for 2021),16 and, of course, the issue that concerns us all right now - the COVID-19 pandemic17; in short, everything that contributes scientific quality to our journal. Finally, we must not forget that the journal itself, aside from its scientific interest, also fulfils a teaching role for all our readers, because our future lies in imparting the highest standards of education in research to today’s best and brightest students.18,19 It is clear, however, that none of this will come about if SEPAR members do not perceive Archivos de Bronconeumología as a journal that belongs to us all, and one that currently enjoys such scientific and bibliometric recognition that it can and should be the first choice for many high-quality articles. This change in mindset is essential if we are to continue to thrive, and represents another of the major objectives of the current editorial committee.20

We cannot help but be pleased that our journal, despite its first language being Spanish and not English (the lingua franca of science today), rubs shoulders with great international journals. It has taken more than 50 years and the effort of thousands of individuals, but today we can proudly say that Archivos de Bronconeumología is one of the best. And so, in this spirit of achievement, we begin our journey. External factors may sometimes be beyond our control, but this new Editorial Committee can guarantee that enthusiasm and commitment to achieving these goals will not be lacking.