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Editorial |
1 Department of Pathology, University of Virginia Health System, Charlottesville, VA 22908
2 Laboratory of Molecular Diagnostics, Wadsworth Center for Laboratories and Research, New York State Department of Health, Department of Biomedical Sciences, State University of New York at Albany, Albany, NY 12201-0509
aAuthor for correspondence. Fax 434-979-7599; e-mail dbruns{at}clinchem.aacc.org.
This issue marks the start of this Journal’s 50th year of continuous publication. A look back at our first volumes shows how much has changed over the past five decades and reveals interests that have stayed the same. In 1955, Clinical Chemistry was published bimonthly and comprised just over 400 pages. In the early years, articles describing new methods or new investigations were less common than now, with reviews and meeting reports filling many of the pages. Many of the papers, however, were devoted to general topics still very much of interest to current readers—lipids, endocrinology, protein markers, and advances in methodology.
As with any scientific journal, the contents of Clinical Chemistry mirror activities in the field and play an important role in defining the scope of the field. Readers comparing the contents of the current issue with those of the first volume will readily grasp the evolution of clinical chemistry into new areas. Papers on molecular diagnostics, genomics, and proteomics now fill a major portion of our pages. In this post-genomic age, it is easy to forget that the structure of DNA was elucidated just a few months before the founding of this Journal. Although clinical chemistry and laboratory medicine have a foundation dating back centuries, they are relatively young as disciplines. Only through biomedical research occurring at the time of this Journal’s founding were modern clinical laboratories established (1). This Journal has grown with those laboratories, and it has expanded the definition of "clinical chemistry".
Today’s medical decisions have a greater reliance on laboratory measurements than they did just a decade ago, much less five decades ago. The editors of the first volume could hardly have imagined the complexity of medical laboratories in 2004; the impact of discoveries in other areas, in particular in nucleic acid analyses; and the ability to analyze vanishingly small amounts of an ever-increasing number of compounds in ever-more minute quantities of specimen. What has been achieved, however, was clearly anticipated. In his introductory editorial (2), the first editor of this Journal wrote:
The practice of modern medicine is based firmly upon the knowledge gained through application of the basic sciences to medical problems. A major portion of this foundation has been contributed by the science of chemistry. The role of chemistry in the rapid evaluation of specific organ function and disease, as an aid in diagnosis and prognosis, and as the foundation for the better understanding of pathogenesis and therapy, can be attributed to the rapid assimilation of new scientific knowledge into the practical analytic methodology and interpretation at the hospital laboratory level.
Today Clinical Chemistry publishes more than 2200 pages of content in both paper and electronic formats, and each year articles published in these pages are cited on more than 18 000 occasions. The expansion of content areas is reflected in the fact that papers from Clinical Chemistry are now cited each year by more than 1000 journals, representing fields as diverse as analytical chemistry, molecular biology, surgery, statistics, and psychiatry.
Although advancement of the Journal has been a reflection of spectacular advances in the field, the Journal has also been at the forefront of advances in bringing information to readers. In 1998 we became one of the first journals in biomedical sciences to publish its full contents on-line. Readers no longer were dependent on the vagaries of printing and postal distribution. Our partner in electronic publishing—HighWire Press—is, in alliance with other top journals (including the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, BMJ, Science, and the Journal of Biological Chemistry), a leader in e-publishing. This venture provides our readers full-text electronic searching, access to data supplements, and automatic and free alerts by e-mail to new articles by a given author or on a given topic and to articles that cite a previous paper. Links from reference lists allow free access to the full text of papers at other HighWire journals, even if neither you nor your institution subscribes to that journal. References to journals outside of HighWire are accompanied by links to the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed and other sources. To facilitate "forward searching" (in time) for information, each published paper is accompanied by links to papers in HighWire journals that have cited the paper as well as a link to ISI’s list of citing papers. These links and electronic letters to the editor are posted on-line within hours of receipt.
Over the years, the Journal has also dramatically reduced the time required for authors to present their work to readers. With the online submission and reviewing system initiated in 2002, the time from submission to a first editorial decision has been reduced to 3 weeks. The mean time from submission to publication in a regular issue is now under 6 months (most of which is time spent in revision), and the time from acceptance to publication in a regular issue is less than 12 weeks. Posting of abstracts from our articles at PubMed occurs within hours from the online journal. A month ago, the Journal initiated the posting of "Papers in Press", so that readers are now able to access papers that will be published over the next 2–3 months. The information in the Journal is now more current than data presented at most meetings, and electronic communication with authors (e.g., through the authors’ e-mail addresses, which are posted with the articles) can provide instant updates. This speed in communication was not in the ken of the editors and readers of 50 years ago or even just 10 years ago, but it is now part of the ever-accelerating pace of progress in the science and technology.
An editor of The New Yorker had a particular disdain for articles that involved predictions of the future. Such forecasts are often so very wrong, but it would have made interesting reading had the editors of Volume 1 done so. We will not provide fodder for the editors of Volume 100, but we will predict that the recently introduced electronic enhancements will prove to be popular and useful in the decades to come.
In recognition of the importance of the first 50 years of publishing, a major project for the coming year is to convert all paper issues (back to Volume 1, Number 1) that were published before the journal went on-line to electronic form and post them as part of the online journal site. Our goal is that by the time the 51st volume is published, you will be able to read the full contents of all articles published in these pages and see for yourself the advances in our discipline.
Although the contents of Volume 50 will, as always, focus on new developments in our field, this golden anniversary will allow for some reflection on past achievements. Over the course of 2004, readers will find articles and reflections on some of the key work published in this Journal over the last five decades and on individuals who were responsible for that work and for the continuation and growth of the Journal. We are preparing to publish, before the year ends, a timeline of landmarks in the history of the journal, articles on key developments in selected areas of clinical chemistry where our journal has had substantial impact, and many other historical pieces.
On the occasion of this anniversary we thank the numerous authors, reviewers, and readers for their support of this Journal over its first half-century. In considering what lies ahead for the next 50 volumes of the Journal, we believe that these words from the first editorial by Appleton (2) are as relevant today as they were five decades ago:
Our objectives are clear: to help provide answers to the many problems facing those engaged in clinical chemistry; to create and maintain standards of scientific research and writing that will reflect honorably upon our profession; and to provide a continuing forum for discussion of the scientific, technical, and professional problems of all members of our profession.
References
The following articles in journals at HighWire Press have cited this article:
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  M. F. Holick 25-OH-Vitamin D Assays J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab., May 1, 2005; 90(5): 3128 - 3129. [Full Text] [PDF]
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 S.-L. Wang, X.-Y. He, and J.-Y. Hong HUMAN CYTOCHROME P450 2S1: LACK OF ACTIVITY IN THE METABOLIC ACTIVATION OF SEVERAL CIGARETTE SMOKE CARCINOGENS AND IN THE METABOLISM OF NICOTINE Drug Metab. Dispos., March 1, 2005; 33(3): 336 - 340. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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 R. Rej Clinical Chemistry through Clinical Chemistry: A Journal Timeline Clin. Chem., December 1, 2004; 50(12): 2415 - 2458. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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