Nutrients would like to share with our readers some encouraging statistics on the journal’s progress through 2013.

• We received 586 submissions in 2013; 303 were published. The rejection rate was 44%.
• The publication rate was a substantial increase compared with 134 published in 2012 and 58 in 2011.
• 48% of the articles published in 2013 were original research articles and 48% reviews. Their countries of origin are illustrated below.

  

• Almost half of these articles were published in the following special issues:
  
  
  • “Nutrition and the Eye” edited by Drs Frank Eperjesi, Hannah Bartlett (11 articles published)
  • “Polyphenols and Human Health” edited by Dr Winston Craig (9 articles published)
  • “Nutrients and Immune Function” edited by Drs Alma Nauta, Johan Garssen (11 articles published)
  • “Dietary Fiber and Nutrition” edited by Dr Nancy Turner (8 articles published)
  • “Dietary Iron and Human Health” edited by Dr Mitchell Knutson (14 articles published)
  • “Vitamin D and Human Health” edited by Dr Simon Spedding (22 articles published)
  • “Nutrition and Respiratory Disease” edited by Dr Lisa Wood (10 articles published)
  • “Vitamin B12 and Human Health” edited by Dr Kristina Pentieva (7 articles published)
  • “Nutrition and Infectious Diseases” edited by Dr Mark Kuhlenschmidt (5 articles published)
  • “Chocolate and Cocoa in Human Health” edited by Dr Margarida Castell (8 articles published)
  • “Vitamin C and Human Health” edited by Drs Anitra Carr, Margreet Vissers (10 articles published)
  • “Nutrition and Celiac Disease” edited by Drs Carlo Catassi, Alessio Fasano (19 articles published)
  • “Vitamin A and Carotenoids” edited by Drs Loredana Quadro, William Blaner (10 articles published)
  • “Nutrition and Neuroscience” edited by Dr Kevin Laugero (3 articles published)


• The average time from first submission to publication was 95 days.
• Nutrients’ manuscripts were accessed on-line 191835 times. Over 30% of these were from the USA.
• Importantly, there were 149067 full text downloads from the MDPI website.
• Our citation rate continues to rise rapidly (89 citations in 2011, 330 in 2012, over 1000 in 2013)
• Nutrients’ Impact Factor has increased consistently from 0.676 in 2011 to 2.072 in 2012. The 2013 Impact Factor is likely to exceed 3.

We would like to thank our readers for their continuing interest and support which has enabled Nutrients to make great progress in its first four years. We also acknowledge the efforts of our Editorial Board members, those who have guest edited our special issues and the many expert reviewers who have so generously, often repeatedly, given their valuable time to ensure the quality of our publications. We trust that Nutrients will continue to fulfil a need for on-line, open access scientific communication in your field and we hope that we can expand this role by encouraging the promotion and reporting of conferences and other relevant events through the Nutrients website.

Peter Howe & Jonathan Buckley