Gaceta Sanitaria is the scientific journal and the voice of the Spanish Society for Public Health and Health Administration (SESPAS). All articles in Gaceta Sanitaria are peer reviewed and the journal publishes original papers, brief original papers, review articles, opinion articles, letters to the editor and other specialised articles concerning all areas of Public Health and Health Administration. These include epidemiology, prevention and health promotion, the management and evaluation of policies and services, health economics, environmental health and international health. Gaceta Sanitaria reviews and accepts articles in Spanish and English for publication, written principally in Spain and other European and Latin American countries.

Gaceta Sanitaria is indexed on the Web of Knowledge (Science Citation Index, SCI, and the Social Sciences Citation Index, SSCI), Medline/PubMed, Scielo, Índice Médico Español, Toxline, Cancerlit, Aidsline, Cab Health, Bibliomed, Cuiden, Index Medicus, Eventline and Healthstar. The Editorial Board makes a special effort to guarantee the quality and speed with which the articles are reviewed and to publish the papers as promptly as possible. The manuscript handling indicators for 2010 show that the time elapsing between receiving the document and final acceptance is on average 17 weeks. The period between acceptance and publication in the journal was 40,5 weeks on average, but authors need wait 12 weeks to see their work published in advance online. If a paper is rejected, the response time is: an average of 9 days for an initial rejection without the commissioning of an external review, and 8 weeks following the external peer review. In 2010 we rejected 54% of the papers we received. In the case of original work (regulars and briefs), 62% were rejected, while 72% of reviews, specials and opinion pieces were turned down. We turned down almost a third of papers received without sending them for external review in order to speed up the publishing process and to respond to the authors as quickly as possible.

The bibliographic impact factor for 2009, calculated by Thomson Reuters and published in June 2010, was 1.172 p. Gaceta Sanitaria was included in the category of “Public Health, Environmental & Occupational Health” in both the SCI and the SSCI. The IF of the 1.172 puts the Gaceta Sanitaria in position 84 out of 122 in this category in the SCI, and at position 57 out of 95 in the SSCI (in the third quarter in both cases).

The contents of Gaceta Sanitaria reflects the conclusions, findings and opinions of the authors exclusively, and not those of the Editorial Board, the Advisory Committee, SESPAS, Affiliated Associations, Elsevier España or the sponsors who offer their services to health professionals.