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BLOOD
The Journal of
The American Society of Hematology
VOL 91, NO 1
JANUARY 1, 1998
EDITORIAL
A New Year Greeting From a New Editor
I
T IS WITH great pleasure and sense of responsibility that I
write today as the eighth Editor of BLOOD. The position of
Editor-in-Chief of our Journal has traditionally been filled by a
well-established investigator in Hematology, who had convincingly demonstrated both scientific expertise and editorial excellence during many years of contribution. In both respects, I
consider myself junior. So it is with an untested belief that the
Publications and Executive Committees of the Society have
given me their confidence; I promise to do my best not only to
maintain the scientific excellence of the Journal, but to continue
the work of my insightful predecessors in improving BLOOD as
it enters its sixth decade.
By all accounts BLOOD has grown to become an extremely
successful scientific enterprise. The readership of the Journal
stands at over 14,000, far exceeding our Society’s growing
membership. I believe this reflects the scientific standing of
BLOOD, an opinion borne out by statistics. Last year, the
Journal ranked highly in every measure of scientific publications, having recently passed CIRCULATION as the journal
with the highest impact factor rate of all medical subspecialty
journals. Jim Griffin and the Associate Editors deserve much
credit for this standing, and our new Editorial team and I hope to
continue to improve upon this record.
Given this history of excellence, our new Editorial team plans
to take an ‘‘if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it policy.’’ However, that is
not to say we plan on continuing without change. I believe there
are areas in which the Journal can benefit from midcourse
corrections. Over the next several months you will see changes
that I hope reflect the needs of both biomedical scientists and
practicing hematologists. Our Reviews are, on occasion, dense
and difficult to digest. We hope to trim these, providing concise
review papers on scientific and clinical topics of importance to
our readership, each containing up-to-date information designed to educate and stimulate both the uninitiated and expert
in the field. Many of these reviews will explore crossdisciplinary topics in basic sciences, including apoptosis, intercellular adhesion and communication, inside-out signaling, and
the cell cycle, subjects that are becoming increasingly important
to Hematologists and Oncologists. A portion of these reviews
will assume a new format, ‘‘Controversies in Hematology,’’ a
forum of data-based point and counterpoint discussions by two
leaders in a field who hold opposite views. ‘‘Controversies in
Hematology’’ will be designed to objectively discuss both sides
of an unresolved issue in Hematology, provoke further discus-
Blood, Vol 91, No 1 (January 1), 1998: pp 1-2
sion, and leave the reader to draw his or her own conclusions.
Examples of topics to be covered include the deterministic
versus permissive role of growth factors in hematopoiesis, the
optimal treatment for stage IIb Hodgkin’s disease, whether to
prophylactically treat or observe an individual with Factor
VLeiden, whether to treat or observe PCR-determined minimal
residual disease, and whether to treat patients with acute
nonlymphocytic leukemia with chemotherapy alone or by
transplant. We also plan to make more use of the Editorial, both
to convey matters of Journal policy and academic concern, and
to highlight papers of particular importance appearing in each
issue of BLOOD. This latter aspect will take the form of a
‘‘News and Views’’ segment, much the way NATURE provides
commentary. Authored by members of the Editorial Board, this
new forum will be designed to draw attention to papers the
Editors believe are of widespread importance or represent a
major paradigm shift. Overall, our goals will be to maintain
BLOOD as the premier Hematology journal, to provide a forum
for the presentation of outstanding science, and to furnish the
clinician with both the primary data needed to guide patient care
and to illuminate the scientific basis of future therapies.
How will all of this be accomplished? Ironically, one of major
issues confronting our Journal is its tremendous success. At the
time this editorial appears, BLOOD will have received more
than 2,600 manuscripts for consideration in 1997. As simple
examination of the thickness of each issue demonstrates, the
growing size of the journal reflects an attempt to keep up with
an ever-increasing desire of physicians and scientists to publish
within our pages. In 1996 we published over 11,000 pages,
nearly a 70% increase since 1992. However, as publishing costs
rise, and the physical arm strength of our members remains
constant, it is becoming clear that we can no longer maintain the
philosophy of ‘‘publishing all the hematologic news that’s fit to
print.’’ We must limit our pages to the very best that Hematology has to offer. This places increased importance on the
peer-review process; we will soon expand our Editorial Board,
with the goal of having every paper reviewed by at least one
member of that devoted body. This will require a greater
commitment on behalf of our Editorial Board members, but
should provide a more balanced and consistent approach to the
difficult decisions of acceptance and rejection.
Despite our general approach of not repairing what is
working well, I would like to take this opportunity to emphati1
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2
KENNETH KAUSHANSKY
cally reinforce one important issue, that of the sharing of
reagents described in the pages of our Journal. Although always
an unstated principle of BLOOD, making the renewable reagents described in scientific articles available to qualified
investigators in the field is now a stated requirement of
publication. The basis for this policy is straightforward: the
scientific process requires that a new finding, to be established,
must be reproducible. If a new finding is based on a new
reagent, it cannot be reproduced if that reagent is not available
to the scientific community for testing. The policy is simple and
applies to individual academic laboratories and to corporate
contributors alike. If you report on a new cDNA, monoclonal
antibody, cell line, or other easily renewable resource, you must
make it available to other qualified individuals with minimal
restrictions if you expect to continue to publish in BLOOD.
In closing I would like to thank Jim Griffin, for his counsel
and support, and the outgoing Associate Editors and members
of the Editorial Board for their tremendous service over the past
5 (or more) years. You may think your term is over, but you will
not be forgotten. There are many more papers waiting for
review! I thank in advance our continuing Associate Editors and
our new Associate Editors, Cynthia Dunbar, Tomas Ganz,
Jerome Groopman, and Dan Longo, and our entire 1998
Editorial Board, for their commitment and efforts. And I thank
the Publications and Executive Committees for providing me
the opportunity to contribute to an exciting scientific endeavor. I
look forward to the next 5 years with great anticipation.
The Keystone Symposium at Tamarron, February 1997.
Kenneth Kaushansky, MD
Seattle, WA
From www.bloodjournal.org by guest on June 14, 2017. For personal use only.
1998 91: 1-2
A New Year Greeting From a New Editor
Kenneth Kaushansky
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