Prof. Dr. Robbert Gobbens Appointed Section Editor-in-Chief of the Section “Community Care” in Healthcare
We are honored to announce that Prof. Dr. Robbert Gobbens has been appointed Section Editor-in-Chief of the Section “Community Care” in Healthcare (ISSN: 2227-9032).
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Prof. Dr. Robbert Gobbens (born 29 January 1963) has considerable experience as a nurse, lecturer and researcher. Currently, he is affiliated with the Inholland University of Applied Sciences, Zonnehuisgroep Amstelland, and the University of Antwerp. He has been involved in research on frail older people since 2005 and has published more than seventy articles on frailty, disability and quality of life in peer reviewed journals. During his Ph.D. he developed the Tilburg Frailty Indicator (TFI), a self-report questionnaire for assessing frailty among community-dwelling older people. The TFI is characterized by a multidimensional approach to frailty, including physical, psychological and social components. Furthermore, Prof. Dr. Robbert Gobbens conducts research into learning and improvement in geriatric care from a nursing and interprofessional perspective. He has implemented learning and innovation centers that link practice, research and education. He is chair of the Dutch Geriatrics & Gerontology Nursing Society (V&VN Geriatrie & Gerontologie). |
The following is a short Q&A with Prof. Dr. Robbert Gobbens, who shared his vision for the journal with us, as well as his views of the research area and open access publishing:
1. What appealed to you about the journal that made you want to take on the role as its Section Editor-in-Chief?The journal Healthcare was established in 2013. From that point on, Healthcare has continued to evolve. Healthcare is characterized by high visibility because it is indexed within important databases such as PubMed, Scopus and SSCI (Web of Science). In addition, Healthcare has a 5-year Impact Factor of 3.460. Over the past year, I have been active as an academic editor. During that time, I have found that the peer review process is very carefully conducted. Additionally, the cooperation with the staff of the Healthcare Editorial Office was pleasant. For all these reasons, I decided to take on the role of Section Editor-in-Chief with regard to the Section “Community Care”. Given my background as a district nurse and my focus on research on community-dwelling older people, this Section fits very well with me.
2. What is your vision for the journal?The journal provides rapid publication; after approximately 20 days after submission, a first decision is provided to the authors. This is important and I am happy to contribute to this. Healthcare is now ranked 50/109 (Q2) in the category “Health Care Sciences & Services”, and 35/88 (Q2) in the “Health Policy & Services” category. By selecting high quality manuscripts for the Section “Community Care”, I also want to make sure that these rankings are higher next year. Through Special Issues, we will highlight particular topics for “Community Care”.
3. What does the future of this field of research look like?Community Care is focused on the support of people with disabilities living and participating in society, from the society itself. In the Section “Community Care”, a wide diversity of studies related to people with disabilities can be included, such as studies on housing and residential environment, education, work, traffic and transport, friends and relatives, recreation and leisure, health and healthcare. It presents a challenge to reflect on that wide range of topics. When it comes to community care, older people (e.g., people with dementia) are rather quickly thought of, and this is an important target group for the Section, but studies of younger people with disabilities are also included. Community care is common in many countries spread over the world, so I expect a large submission of manuscripts in the near future.
4. What do you think of the development of Open Access in the publishing field?In my opinion, the development of open access in the publishing field is positive. In fact, it ensures that published articles are easily accessible to anyone interested in them, whether they are scientists, people from practice (e.g., healthcare professionals), or lecturers. I am convinced that, sooner or later, all scientific journals will transfer to open access.
We wish Prof. Dr. Robbert Gobbens every success in his new position, and we look forward to his contributions to the journal.
Healthcare Editorial Office