Volume 47, Issue 1, Editor’s Letter – 50 YEARS OF SCIPTA MEDICA
Socio-economic development, which was accomplished by Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina within the former Yugoslavia during the 1960s of the previous century, has led to the development of educational and health institutions in the area, which has contributed to the growing interest for the scientific research work. All the above mentioned has developed the preconditions to create the need for the release of one professional medical magazine on professional and scientific scene of Bosanska Krajina at the time. The aim would have been to convey reliable, peer-reviewed results of scientific research to a wider audience and develop scientific research without which there was no progress in medicine.
The first issue of Scripta Medica was published in May 1966 in Banja Luka on the occasion of the celebration of the 80th anniversary of General Hospital in Banja Luka. At the time, Scripta Medica was the magazine of doctors of Bosanaska Krajina, published by General Hospital in Banja Luka.
The publishers of Scripta Medica in the period from 1966 to 2015 were as follows: General Hospital Banja Luka, Medical Center Banja Luka, Regional Medical Center Banja Luka, Medical Society of Bosnia and Herzegovina – subsidiary of Banja Luka, COAL medical -faculty center of Banja Luka and the Faculty of Medicine in Banja Luka. In the period from 1995 to 1999, Scripta Medica was the journal of Medical Society of the Republic of Srpska, and from 2000 to 2015, the publishers of the journal of Scripta Medica were Medical Society of the Republic of Srpska and the Faculty of Medicine, University of Banja Luka.
The first issue was printed by NAGlas Banja Luka and the chief editor was Andrija Mikeš, MD. Editorial board for the first issue of Scripta Medica was consisted of the eminent medical and scientific workers from the region.
In the period from 1966 to 1991, Scripta Medica was the magazine of doctors of Bosanska Krajina which was published, with occasional brief interruptions, 4 times a year. After the publication of the first issue of the magazine, a target was set to continue the release of the journal in order for the extensive scientific material, various and rich experiences of doctors and other health institutions in Banja Luka and Bosanska Krajina to be published and available to the scientific community. That hard, demanding job was conducted excellently by Scripta Medica editors-in-chief during the time: Prim. Dr. Dragomir Todorović, Prim. Dr. Zvonimir Klepac and Dr. Branko Pikula. The most difficult period for the journal functioning was from 1991 to 1995 due to the war in the former Yugoslavia.
The Journal Scripta Medica was not published from 1991 to 1994.Thanks to the great enthusiasm of the then editorial board, associates and financial support of sponsors whounderstood the importance of publishing a medical journal, Scripta Medica was reprinted in 1995.
There is no doubt that the most responsible for the re-publishing during the post-war period were pro minent scholars who constituted the Editorial Board, led by its chief editor, Dr. Bogdan Žigić.
In his mandate, the chief editor Dr. Rajko Igić had started printing Scripta Medica in English language. The issue had changed its content and form, followed the modern achievements and tended to grow into a respected international journal.
During the last three years, the papers have been published both in Serbian and English language, the international editorial board has been formed and the journal is available in electronic form on the Internet. Conditions have been created for Scripta Medica to become a respected international journal in which papers from the country and abroad are published in Serbian and English language.
Total commitment and work of the members of editorial boards, editing and publishing council and reviewers of the journal has implemented Scripta Medica, from August 2015, into the cited databases: CrossRef and EBSCO Academic Search Complete. Therefore, we have managed to officially protect our intellectual property and copyrights. By doing so, our papers have become available to interested colleagues all over the world and in all sorts of publications (print, radio and CD / DVD).
Distribution of Scripta Medica in the citation database EBSCO Academic Search Complete allows the processing of the same data in accordance with the highest quality standards and creates the possibility of applying and admission to their major citation databases, such as EBSCO Medline, EBSCO Health, EBSCO DynaMed and DynaMED Plus. We will apply for the above mentioned bases when we reach the
required standard that the bases require. We plan to accomplish this task in 2017.
So far, 46 volumes (issues) of the journal Scripta Medica have been published. On the occasion of the 50th, golden birthday of Scripta Medica, I would like to thank everyone, from the first publication to the present day, the chief editors, international editorial boards, editorial and publishing councils, reviewers, eminent medical and scientific workers from the region, authors and readers who have made a remarkable contribution to the development of the journal.
I hope we will continue this tradition of common work and cooperation and that we will succeed in our intention to become members of the significant citation databases in the following period.
Editor-in-chief of Scripta Medica
Prof. Predrag Grubor
