editorial2011(4):Opmaak 1 22/12/11 12:43 Pagina 231 Editorial “Thereis a need for a journal that starts off humbly and that can grow by sticking to its founding principle of broad diversity in combination with different levels of intensity. Facts alone tend to be isolated in every narrowing niche of professionalism; views alone tend to degenerate into strong opinions nobody is interested in; and vision alone tends to become a nightmare if unsupported by facts and a beholder’s sharp view. In conjunction, they constitute the basic elements needed for a truly translational medicine, where findings from the bench may become part of a clinician’s view and where today’s clinical expertise may take a jump from a sleepwalker’s routine to the disruptive insight of the visionary” Jan Gerris, Editorial, FV&V in ObGyn, Vol 1, Nr 1 Facts, Views and Vision in O&G and its globalist ideas aim to contribute scientific knowledge in Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Reproductive Medicine, by providing its readership with state-of-the-art manuscripts on highly relevant issues in the field as well as free access to its content, and by challenging scientific and clinical establishmentarianism. Willem Verpoest, Editorial, FV&V in ObGyn, Vol 3, Nr 1 FV&V is a paragon of 21st century communication. In addition to new information, emphasis on discussion and the social interface makes it special while it strives to put related subspecialties in orbit around the star named reproduction. Howard Jones, Editorial, FV&V in ObGyn, Vol 3, Nr 2 It’s always nice to look back and try to summarize what we achieved during the first three years of FV&V. We observed a broad input from all different fields including obstetrics, perinatal medicine, gynaecology and reproductive health and it was fascinating thatmany papers showed a lot of interest in the global perspective on our specialty. The introduction of PhD summaries turned out to be a successful concept and a surprisingly high number of original papers were submitted although our Journal is not Medline-approved yet. This could only be realized by a very active editorial board and the support of our universities. Structured reviews, strong opinion and viewpoint papers, excellent historical reviews, exactly what we were looking for from the very beginning. Two Monographs on “Artificial Insemination” and “Social aspects of infertility care in developing countries” were published in 2010 and distributed to more than 8000 participants of the annual ESHRE meeting in Rome. Two Books of Abstracts were published on the occasion of the 21stEBCOG Congress and the 11thEUROCAT Symposium on Congenital Anomalies. In 2012 we expect to publish at least two other Monographs on Perinatology and Medical Education in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. In the near future we also hope to provide a forum that will unite scientific work with debates and opinions relating to the field from other disciplines such as sociology, psychology, philosophy, law, ethics, health economics etc. We are very proud that Dr. Howard Jones Jr and Dr Mahmoud Fathalla accepted to become an honoured member of our Editorial Board, their support and input is highly appreciated. Thanks to our artistic reviewer, Koen Vanmechelen, our Journal got a different but very attractive look when compared to other scientific journals. The confrontation of art and science turned out to be unique: “One picture is worth ten thousand words”(Chinese proverb.). 231 editorial2011(4):Opmaak 1 22/12/11 12:43 Pagina 232 Our next target is to be covered by major indexing services such as EMBASE and Medline. Getting indexed on Medline is only possible after a minimum of 3 to 5 years of continuous publication, the process is arduous and complex. On behalf of the editorial board and the publisher of FV&V, I would like to thank all the authors and referees who have been contributing to the journal in its first three years. It was a pleasure to be the editor-in-Chief and I really look forward to a very promising and challenging future. Wishing you and your families a prosperous 2012, full of health and wonderful surprises. Willem Ombelet Editor-in-Chief 232 F, V & V INOBGYN