Apunts. MedicinAdel’Esport is the Spanish scientific journal dedicated to sports medicine and one of the oldest in its speciality in Europe. It was created in 1964 by a group of young Catalan doctors and enthusiasts, pioneers of sports medicine in Spain. In 2006 a new stage in its long history began. During that year and for several years after, Apunts became solely an electronic journal with commitment from the Editorial Committee to improve both its editorial quality and its visibility.

We are satisfied with Apunts’ development over the last ten years.1 Its current quality is impeccable with regards to editorial management: we believe that it is sufficiently solvent and effective, has a speedy external peer review process and consistent punctuality. Over the years the presence of original articles or articles translated into English has increased, whilst the appearance of articles in Catalan and Castilian Spanish has been simultaneously preserved.

Thanks to this enhanced editorial quality and profile, Apunts now receives around 60 articles annually and has a rejection rate of 60%. This has led to obvious improvement in the scientific quality of the selected articles.

Having achieved its proposed objectives during this last decade, Apunts now has a new challenge: to offer its scientific production to the English-speaking world. From this edition of the journal onwards all articles will now be available in English, as well as Spanish and Catalan. Apunts does not wish to abandon its Spanish and Latin American readers and will therefore continue to publish the Spanish version, and neither does it wish to forego its origins which is why they will continue to appear in Catalan. However, scientific production which aims to be global must also appear in English.2 FC Barcelona, through its Barcelona Innovation Hub is well aware of this problem and has signed an agreement with the Consell Català de l’Esport for co-publication of Apunts. MedicinAdel’Esport. The journal will thus increase its international outreach and ensure its financial sustainability. Gerard Figueras, the general secretary of l’Esport and General Chairman of the Consell Català de l’Esport, and Albert Soler, Director of Esports Professionals and Area of Expertise Manager of FC Barcelona signed this agreement (Fig. 1).

Figure 1 Agreement signature. Photograph of German Parga (FC Barcelona).

The joint forces of Barcelona Innovation Hub and Apunts journal will improve the editorial quality of the journal, increase its international profile and provide contact with the best international specialists in sports medicine. We are certain that if those medical enthusiasts who founded the journal in the ‘60’s were in charge today they would do the same: maintain their origins, nourish relationships and expand their horizons.

Available online 20 June 2017

E-mail address: rbalius@gencat.cat