Hematologica

The journal Haematologica, founded by Adolfo Ferrata and Carlo Moreschi in Naples in 1920, was for the first thirty-odd years of its life “the glorious banner of the Italian School of Haematology”.
In the following years the journal specialised in publishing papers on the normal and pathological morphology of the blood and haematopoietic organs, as well as clinical case reports; after Ferrata’s death, the journal was directed by Giovanni Di Guglielmo and Paolo Introzzi, from 1946 to 1960 and from 1961 to 1973 respectively.
In the post-war period, particularly from the second half of the 1950s and even more so in the following decade, the journal went into a progressive decline, like many Italian medical journals; as a consequence of the war, European haematology journals, especially German and French ones, met the same fate, practically disappearing from the international scene owing to the unchallenged dominance of English-language, and in particular American, literature.
In 1973, upon taking up the Presidency of the Italian Society of Haematology, Edoardo Storti set himself the task of relaunching “Haematologica” both nationally and internationally; at the time the journal had little more than a hundred subscriptions, divided between libraries and Italian haematologists who were in some way connected to the Pavia medical school. Storti, assisted by Sergio Perugini as Assistant Editor and by Edoardo Ascari, began the complex operation of relaunching the journal: Italian and foreign experts in haematology were contacted, thus creating the network of referees, and some papers were published in English, together with the abstracts of all the others and the journal’s general index.
Once these essential elements had been consolidated, in 1976 the international evaluation of the journal began, through the annual assignment of an index, the so-called impact factor (IF), which was initially very low. Perugini’s sudden death was a serious loss for the journal’s editorial office as well. Alongside Storti and Ascari, the editorial staff consisted of the young researchers Perugini had trained; among them, the most important contribution came from Mario Cazzola, who would become the mainstay of the rebirth of Haematologica.
In order to broaden the journal’s circulation, and with the approval of the Ferrata heirs, who owned the title, ties were strengthened with the Italian Society of Haematology (SIE), of which the journal became the official organ; this bond, which brought great mutual benefits, was a key factor in the survival and development of Haematologica. The journal’s expansion during these first ten years under the new editorial team also created some financial and organisational problems. In 1983 Storti, in agreement with the Ferrata heirs, established the Ferrata-Storti Foundation, whose statutory aims include the strengthening of the journal, of which it became the owner.
From 1985 the journal was published entirely in English and exceeded 500 pages a year, while its IF slowly rose as a sign of its growing international standing. In 1989 Edoardo Storti stepped down as Editor of the journal, remaining President of the Foundation; Edoardo Ascari became Editor, with Mario Cazzola as Assistant Editor and later Co-Editor. In 1997, thanks to Mario Cazzola’s active efforts, the Spanish Association of Haematology (AEHH), followed later by the Spanish Society of Thrombosis and Haemostasis (SETH), asked for Haematologica to become its official organ; the Spanish edition of the journal is entirely identical to the Italian one, except for the advertising, which appears outside the journal’s pages proper and is in Spanish.
In 1998 the journal went from bimonthly to monthly, thanks in part to the contribution of papers from the Spanish-speaking world, and exceeded 1,000 pages. The following year, with the increase in the number of supplements and the monthly schedule, it became necessary to bring all editorial activities together in Pavia; the Foundation decided to expand the editorial offices and to move printing to a Pavia-based publisher. Also with the aim of making the scientific contributions published in the journal more widely and quickly known, a website was launched featuring the most recent volumes of the journal up to the latest issue of the current year. Having been Assistant Editor and Co-Editor since 1989 and having made a decisive contribution to the journal’s rebirth, in 2002 Mario Cazzola became Editor-in-Chief of Haematologica.
In 2005, at the request of the European Hematology Association (EHA) and on the strength of its steadily rising IF, the journal also became the official organ of this important society, which brings together most of Europe’s haematologists. In this new role the journal’s editorial board was expanded: ownership remained entirely with the Foundation, which appoints a Co-Editor, designated by the European Association, to work alongside Mario Cazzola in directing the journal.
Today Haematologica is by far the oldest haematology journal in the world and, on the strength of its international standing in terms of impact factor (5.532 for 2007), it is the second-ranked general haematology journal in the world; this success rewards the efforts of many pupils of Storti’s school, and in particular, together with the Master himself, of Sergio Perugini, Edoardo Ascari and Mario Cazzola, who today has the demanding task of keeping Haematologica at this high level of international scientific recognition.