[140 years Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde. 140 volumes: looking back, looking in and looking forward].

The Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde was founded in 1856 when five of the nine medical journal in the Netherlands decided to join hands and launch a new medical weekly (in Dutch). About 800 manuscripts are now submitted each year, most of which are peer reviewed before acceptance. The editorial board consists of about twenty medical specialists who have agreed to carry out the bulk of the peer review for a period of three years each. After retirement from the editorial board, they are a lifelong member of the Association of the Dutch Journal of Medicine. After acceptance, articles are thoroughly scientifically and linguistically edited to ensure that the general medical readership will understand them. About 50% of the accepted papers are published within twenty weeks. In the near future the journal pages will have more illustrations and more coloured ones, educative panels, and a digest of Dutch research published in international journals.