The Torch Passes, the AJRCCM Community Stays Aglow

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As the American Thoracic Society takes charge of its own destiny, it is with a combination of awe and excitement that I assume responsibility as Editor of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine for the next five years. The vitality and intellectual state of a professional society depend first and foremost on the quality of its journals. In turn, a scholarly journal's most important function is to provide a vehicle for intellectual exchange among the society's members, creating within them a sense of belonging to a community of shared interests.

To alleviate suffering and reverse disease is a noble calling. But the covenant between physician and patient demands that we practice medicine not only for today, but also for tomorrow. This last can only be achieved through research, and that will be our legacy for the future. Research is not complete, however, until its results have been published, and no amount of presentations at medical conferences can take the place of an original article in a scientific journal. Journals provide the place where investigators bring data and theories to the attention of a scientific community in a format that will promote further stimulating and fruitful work. The publication of excellent research in pulmonary and critical care medicine is our stock-in-trade at AJRCCM, and we judge excellence based on novelty, verity and importance, employing the highest standards of peer-review. This function of AJRCCM is essential for the advancement of medical science.

I realize that many readers of AJRCCM are "in the trenches" taking care of patients, not carrying out original research. To serve this section of our community, the Journal takes existing information and turns it into knowledge that can be applied at the patient's bedside. We will continue our current review series, and unfold new features in the coming months. In a good review, authors extract relevant material from the mass of published literature, and interpret, distil and synthesize it into a compact product that is more convenient and manageable. We intend AJRCCM to be the journal you quote on rounds. By helping readers stay abreast of the breathtaking changes in science and medicine, this function of AJRCCM is essential for the advancement of medical practice.

Researchers are attracted to novelty and innovation except when they publish their research. Then, they seek the most traditional journals with the toughest peer-review standards. The intellectual capital donated by our referees is one of the greatest treasures of AJRCCM. The time volunteered by this dedicated community of scholars is incalculable, and their constructive criticism adds considerably to the value of published papers. Our referees demand the highest standards, and that is the reason authors want their papers published in AJRCCM. As with people, the reputation of a paper depends on the company it keeps.

From its launch as the American Review of Tuberculosis in 1917, our journal has evolved by first accepting papers on diseases of the lungs other than tuberculosis, and later by embracing topics remote from the lungs, such as cataplexy and sepsis. Such extensions from an ancestral focus are expressions of health and vigor in a discipline. Advancement in science is also crucially dependent on cross-fertilization, and fortunately our Ph.D. colleagues have considered the Journal a desirable forum for their best basic science research. Centrifugal forces, however, carry the risk of fragmentation, and a strong journal is perhaps the major centripetal force holding a discipline together. A public space for vigorous debate about recently published articles and other community concerns is available to all readers in the correspondence columns of AJRCCM.

The contribution of any one person to the store of knowledge is most always modest, but when we interact as a community and are stimulated by the work of one another, our collective power far exceeds the sum of individual efforts. Science has always been an international enterprise, and nationalistic jingoism does not belong in the vernacular of a physician or scientist. Colleagues in all countries fight disease as a common enemy. Ease of travel and the forging of bonds at international conferences have accelerated collaboration, and papers are increasingly co-authored across oceans. Now, with the internet, we have unprecedented power to meet the needs of a global community.

Despite many attempts at reconstruction, the general form of the scientific journal has changed less in the last 300 years than that of any other class of literature. With the internet and the World Wide Web, however, the manner of disseminating information is undergoing tremendous change. By providing a digital continuum of information, the Web opens the way for weaving electronic journals and scientific libraries into a single interconnected database. AJRCCM has been at the forefront of subspecialty journals in the application of information technology, and full-text articles have been available on the internet since 1997. On-line capability makes AJRCCM available at the same moment in Cork and Cairo as in Chicago. Increases in the speed of publishing, however, have not changed the pace at which a person can read nor the time required to assimilate a new idea. Moreover, the basic purpose of publishing has not changed from the time of Gutenberg: content is still king. More than ever, with the exponential increase in information, physicians and scientists need journals like AJRCCM that distinguish relevant knowledge from half-baked ideas.

On a personal level, it is a great honor for me to steer this esteemed journal into the next millennium. I feel fortunate in having learned the craft of editorship from such outstanding exponents as Alan Leff and Bob Klocke. The extremely high standards they set will be a challenge to follow. The AJRCCM, however, is not a journal of its Editors; it is a journal of its readers and contributorsit is your journal. The Associate Editors and I are eager to meet the needs of the community we serve. As readers, we want each of you to look forward to every issue because it will bring something of interest to you. For authors, we will be pleased to consider any paper in the broad field of pulmonary and critical care medicine, and we promise a fair evaluation of your manuscripts in the shortest possible time. We won't know if you are satisfied with our service unless we hear from you. With the help of readers, authors and referees, the AJRCCM will serve as the torch, illuminating the path ahead for the new ATS.

MARTIN J. TOBIN

Editor