engleski

Are We on the Right Path?

Dear readers, It has been three years since the magazine Croatian Journal of Forest Engineering (the successor to the journal which had been coming out under the title Forest Mechanization for twenty-five years) was published for the first time. We have great honor and joy, but also a pleasant duty, to give you a good news. The magazine Croatian Journal of Forest Engineering (CROJFE) has, among other referent bibliographic databases, been indexed in the Web of Science database (whose constituent part is the Science Citation Index Expanded – SCI database). Thus, one of the primary goals of the Editorial Board has been fulfilled. Both issues of CROJFE published in 2007 are indexed. The Croatian Journal of Forest Engineering is published twice a year. So far, it has been indexed in the following bibliographic databases: CAB Abstracts, Compendex, GeoBase, Global Health, Paperchem, SCOPUS and VINITI. It should also be pointed out that the Croatian Journal of Forest Engineering is the only magazine in Europe which specializes in the field of forest engineering. Division 3 of Forest Operations Engineering and Management of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) cite this journal as one of the reference magazines in their field of activity (http://www.iufro.org/science/divisions/division-3/30000/publications/). Articles published in the journal are available free of charge at the journal's internet site (http://crojfe.sumfak.hr/). In addition to the journal website, its international recognition is also enhanced by the home portal „ Hrčak” (http://hrcak.srce.hr/) and the international portal „ Directory of Open Access Journals” (http://www.doaj.org/). A Glance Backwards This is the moment to remind ourselves of the year 2005, when the journal CROJFE was first launched by the newly-appointed Editorial Board. Tibor Pentek was appointed Editor-in-Chief, Željko Tomašić was at the position of Responsible Editor and Dubravko Horvat was Technical Editor, while Tomislav Poršinsky, Marijan Šušnjar and Igor Stankić were elected members of the Technical Board. The first Editorial Board consisted mainly of experts working in the Department of Forest Techniques and Technologies at the Faculty of Forestry of Zagreb University. It should be emphasized, however, that the quality of the Editorial Board’ s activities would be unthinkable without the responsible editor Željko Tomašić, the then head of the Development Service in the company “ Hrvatske Šume” Ltd, Zagreb. He successfully integrated the publishing aspect of the science on the one hand and forestry operative on the other by encouraging the latter to recognize the value of the published results and apply them in practice. Stanislav Sever, the Editorial Board counselor, whose recommendations, suggestions and ideas have greatly contributed to the final version of CROJFE, was an indisputable authority in the field of publishing magazines in the field of biotechnical sciences in the Republic of Croatia. In 2005 the financial situation was not promising. The only guaranteed financial means were those provided by the Commission of Scientific Research Work of „ Hrvatske Šume” Ltd, Zagreb. The Faculty of Forestry of Zagreb University was unable to financially support the publication of the journal CROJFE. At the same time, the Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sport ceased to subsidize the journal „ Forest Mechanization” due to its irregular publication. Viewed from the present time, the circumstances of that period were not conducive to the attainment of the goals set by the Editorial Board ; yet, these goals were reached sooner than we had dared to hope. As we all know, fortune favors the brave, the hardworking and the persevering ; this, combined with the exceptionally dedicated work of all the members of the Editorial Board, must have contributed to the achievement of our goals. The six issues of the journal CROJFE published in the past three years contain over 35 articles written by eminent Croatian and foreign authors. All the articles have been subjected to scrutinizing reviews by leading experts from relevant fields, which additionally strengthened the journal's constant quality. The review list is relatively broad and is daily expanded with new reviewers. A Glance Forward As seen in the journal’ s impressum, the current membership of the Editorial Board differs slightly from that at the beginning of its publication. As of July 2008, owing to the generous support by the Ministry of Science, Education and Sport of the Republic of Croatia, yet another step forward will be made in the development of the journal by the appointment of a junior researcher to the post of editor. The first and foremost duties and commitments of the new editor will be to enhance the development of CROJFE. Our primary goal is to collect increasing numbers of high quality papers by leading home and foreign experts from European and oversees countries. We hope that they will recognize our journal as one of the key magazines in this segment of forestry within Europe. Timely possibilities of selection from the broad array of reviewed and accepted scientific papers will allow us to publish thematic issues and increase the size of a particular issue from the current 6– 8 papers to the future 9– 12 papers. We will make further attempts to improve the quality of the English language in CROJFE and contribute to its globalization. Our insistence on more exhaustive Croatian abstracts at the end of the articles is aimed at promoting the journal in the Croatian forestry practice and increasing the possibilities of using the results of applied research. We will try to modernize the journal’ s web site by conducting regular updates and complementing it with the papers published in all the past issues of the journal Forest Mechanization. This will be our tribute to the 25-year-long history of the journal. By doing so, we will ensure the continuity and integrity of the journal’ s electronic version. We are aware of the complexity and duration of this work, and of the fact that the project will collide with day-to-day work involved in the publishing of current CROJFE issues. However, we are even more aware of the truth that a journal which does not have, or does not appreciate its history, cannot have a bright future. In addition, we plan to introduce an information system serving a multiple purpose, including receiving papers from the authors, forwarding them for reviews and communicating with the reviewers, keeping the authors updated on the evaluation procedure status, publishing the papers in the journal's digital form, etc. Acknowledgement The CROJFE's Editors-in-Chief wish to thank all members of the journal's Editorial Board, members of the Editorial Council and members of the International Editorial Council on their hard work, effort, time and engagement invested in the preparation of the issues. We also thank the Croatian language adviser Ms. Branka Tafra and the English language adviser Ms. Maja Zajšek for always finding time and patience to meticulously and at short notice proofread the papers accepted for publication. All authors and reviewers of the published papers, as well as all those whose papers are in the process of publication, also deserve our sincere thanks for their contribution to the journal. Cooperation with the co-publisher, the company "Hrvatske Šume" Ltd, Zagreb, without which the continuing presence of CROJFE would be unthinkable, is at a very satisfactory level. The company's Management has always been sensitive to our needs and problems and has, within their possibilities and short- and long-term business policy, regularly been at our service. We express our warmest gratitude to the Management of the Faculty of Forestry presided by the Dean Jozo Franjić and to all staff of the Forestry Department at the Faculty of Forestry of Zagreb University, who have continuously recognized our problems and appreciated the strategic significance of the publishing activity within the overall activity of the Faculty of Forestry. Our Department also provided considerable financial assistance to the journal during the years 2007 and 2008. We sincerely hope that their financial help will continue in the years to come. We thank the Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sport for including the journal CROJFE in the system of subsidies to scientific-professional journals in 2006. We hope that their very important financial support, although not too great at the moment, will further increase in the future, since the journal's rising quality necessarily requires bigger financial investments. With kindest regards, Yours Editors-in-Chief Tibor Pentek and Tomislav Poršinsky

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