Editorial: Discourse on nutrition topics – impact and reach

ERNÄHRUNGS UMSCHAU will enter its 66^th year of publication in 2019. Over this span of more than 6 decades, a lot has changed in people’s nutrition in Germany and other industrial nations. The increasingly prevalent public discourse on nutrition topics has also changed considerably.

One example is the consumption of meat: The Fresswelle (feeding frenzy) in post-war Germany and quasi-religious stylization (by advertising slogans such as “Meat is a piece of vitality”¹) have given way to a more critical view of animal-based foods as pertains to health, ethics, ecology, and sustainability. Particularly when it comes to nutrition issues, it is often not the scientific world, but rather NGOs, the food industry and their agencies, and increasingly social networks that set the pace for the discussion, as can be seen in the wave of products “free from” certain ingredients and even veritable smear campaigns against certain foods.

Scientific societies and nutrition policy can seem to be downright 2019.001driven by these stakeholders. And in practice nutrition specialists not only have to answer questions in the middle of this conflict situation but also deliver concrete recommendations, actions, and evaluations every day in counseling and nutritional therapy.

The specialist journal ERNÄHRUNGS UMSCHAU therefore has the important task of communicating the state of scientific knowledge in practice-relevant articles, offering a basis for further education and training, and also taking on controversial topics. In the world of scientific publications, the impact factor (IF), determined by the citation rate of our contributions in other publications, is an important benchmark for this. We are pleased to announce that ERNÄHRUNGS UMSCHAU, a German-language specialist journal with many years of listing in the Web of Science and open access to available full-text articles in English, was able to improve this IF in this international competition during the past evaluation period. 

For the public discourse described above, however, another indicator is just as important: the actual reach and dissemination outside of research. With over 8,000 subscribers, a circulation of approximately 9,500 copies and monthly publication, this range of influence of the ERNÄHRUNGS UMSCHAU, in the entire professional world, agencies, editorial departments, public institutions and Ministries, deserves high acclaim. Many authors and research institutions appreciate this important mediating role between science and practice, as we have learned from submission letters, personal conversations, and our current reader survey. We would like to thank all authors and readers for their trust in us and look forward to an interesting year in 2019.

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¹ Slogans.de – Die Datenbank der Werbung. www.slogans.de/slogans.php?BSelect%5B%5D=131

Prof. Dr. Helmut Heseker
Publisher

Prof. Dr. Helmut Erbersdobler
Honorary Publisher

Dr. Udo Maid-Kohnert 
Editorial Director