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Editor's Report, 1998 (with a grateful valedictory)

1999; Elsevier BV; Volume: 133; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1053/lc.1999.v133.a94435

1532-6543

Harry S. Jacob,

Meta-analysis and systematic reviews

The University of Minnesota has proudly hosted The Journal of Laboratory and Clinical Medicine for the past 7 years and will continue to do for more to come—but under new leadership. I am passing the baton of editor-in-chief to my talented and literate colleague, Dale Hammerschmidt. Dale has been senior editor during our tenure and has borne the brunt of day-to-day production and administration along with our erstwhile managing editor, Julie Sand. In addition, he has single-handedly developed and written the Journal's “Browser's Index,” which has enriched our contribution, enticing readers to read entire articles that they might otherwise have ignored. With the concurrence of the Central Society's Executive Committee, the Journal will continue to be housed in Minnesota, and I shall become Dale's elder-statesman, philosopher-king, and advisor (aka “Rasputin”) with the title of Editor Emeritus. This change in midstream occurs at ebb-tide, in that Julie Sand has moved on to an administrative position in the arts (at the Jungle Theater of Minneapolis). Luckily we have attracted a new and experienced managing editor, Lucy Mittag, to replace her; Lucy served in a similar position for the journal Diabetes , under Paul Robertson's editorship. Perhaps this is an appropriate time to briefly review some of the innovations promulagated by our team in the past few years. Besides the aforementioned Browser's Index, we have instituted an “Agonist/Antagonist” section that has provided a forum for passionate airing of differences of opinion by curmugeonly, but courteous, adversaries. Two examples include our publication of (1) the conflicting views of a practicing internist and a malpractice lawyer over the appropriate role (if any) that academic physicians should play as legal experts; and (2) a debate over the evidence that females and males metabolize alcohol differently in first pass through the GI tract—females doing so less-efficiently (if so, validating Ogden Nash's sage advice that “candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker”). We now look forward to soon-to-be published debates in the ethics arena, edited by our ethics editor, Arthur Caplan; suggested topics include the ethics of gene patenting, the problems of obtaining just peer review, and the ethics of performing clinical research with patients in an emergency setting. Our newest offering, “Science Before Its Time,” has generated letters of praise and has been both informative and ameliorative to previously frustrated authors. This section of the Journal celebrates the all-to-familiar phenomenon that rejection of otherwise good work may occur because of the inherent bias of many against truly new concepts. As an example, the data of the Goodners (published in the September 1996 issue of the Journal, 1996;128:246-50), which demonstrated that a satiety hormone is produced by fat cells, was “before its time” when originally described. Their data, submitted years before the more contemporaneous publication showing leptin as a probable player in determining physical habiti, was not thought credible or interesting enough by journal or study section reviewers at an earlier time. In another example, Erslev and his coworkers have shared their originally rejected manuscript with us (see the June 1998 issue of the Journal, 1998;131:487-95) that provided for the first time definitive evidence for a human thrombopoietic factor whose regulation is tuned to total body platelet mass rather than platelet number —a characteristic recently documented for the just-purified megakaryocyte growth and development factor (aka thrombopoietin). The Journal (as the US economy) has become more “global.” I am particularly proud of our success in increasing the number of submissions from foreign contributors and of our ability to attract large numbers of foreign investigators to our editorial efforts. As discussed in my last report, our Board of Reviewing Editors include in their number several foreign scientists of the highest reputation. Morover, we have built an impressive cadre of overseas critical reviewers who do their job superbly and, paradoxically, more rapidly than US reviewers. As also noted previously, our time to first publication decision is among the fastest of any journal to whom we might reasonably be compared. This efficiency had been menaced until recently by a seeming reluctance of American scientists to accept the privilege of critical reviewership or, once accepting, their increasing inability to return reviews in a timely fashion (see J Lab Clin Med 1998;131:4-8). We have rather astonishingly been able to counteract this “malaise” by a simple strategem: to wit, all reviewers who respond within 2 weeks receive with our gratitude a choice of CDs from the prestigious St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO). In closing, I express my profound gratitude to my many colleagues—including the Associate Editors, Board of Reviewing Editors, and our Advisory Board—whose efforts have maintained the tradition of excellence that our Journal has enjoyed for the near century of its existence. My most special thanks to Julie Sand, who stuck with us for so many years and whose ideas (including the SPCO rewards) have so impressively enhanced our mission; and also to Dale Hammerschmidt, who, besides contributing his literary talents, is gentleman enough to allow me to continue involvement in the Journal—a publication for which I have great affection. Thanks also to Kevin Polito, Susan Patterson, and Carol Trumbold at Mosby, whose production and administrative skills have been essential to our success. Finally, and despite some carping comments about tardiness, I salute the hundreds of critical-reviewer volunteers who this year have contributed their time from busy schedules—schedules made ever more burdensome by the demands of “fiscally responsible” administrators in academic medicine. These reviewers are appreciatively listed below. Abel, Francis L. Abu-Amer, Yousef Abuja, Peter Afdhal, Nezam H. Agodoa, Lawrence Ahn, Yeon-Soong Akira, Shizuo Alayash, Abdu I. Alfrey, Allen C. Allgaier, Bernhard H. Alving, Barbara M. Amler, Evzen Apple, Fred Arieff, Allen Arnout, J. Asakura, Toshio Ash, K. Owen Askin, Frederic B. Ault, Kenneth A. Bach, Ronald R. Bachelot-Loza, Christilla Bachovchin, William Baehner, Robert L. Bagasra, Omar Bailey, James L. Bakris, George Baliga, Radhakrishna Ballas, Samir K. Balsinde, Jesus Bantle, John P. Barabino, Gilda Bargman, Joanne M. Batlle, Daniel C. Baumann, Gerhard Baylink, David J. Bayliss, Michael T. Becker, Kyra Beierwaltes, William H. Belcher, John Berglund, Lars Berman, Brian Bertram, John S. Bessos, Hagop Billiar, Tim Bissell, D. Monte Bitterman, Peter B. Blache, Denis Blaine, Edward Blajchman, Morris Bleeker, Wim K. Boeschoten, Elizabeth Bohlen, H. Glenn Bokarewa, Maria I. Bolton, W. Kline Boosalis, Maria G. Borke, James L. Boxer, Laurence A. Boyan, Barbara D. Braide, Magnus Brain, Susan D. Bray, George A. Brewer, George Brezis, Mayer Britigan, Bradley Brody, Arnold R. Brown, Deborah Ann Brunzell, John D. Buja, L. Max Burhop, Kenneth E. Burk, Raymond F. Burke, Thomas J. Cannon, Christopher P. Carlyle, Wenda Carpenter, Becky Murray Carper, Deborah Carthew, P. Castonguay, Andre Cerra, Frank B. Chan, Laurence Chandra, Nisha Chibber Chandrashekar, Y. Cheng, Huifang Cho, C. H. Chou, Ting-Chao Christie, Douglas J. Christman, John W. Church, Frank C. Clohisy, Denis Collins, Allan J. Collins, Frank M. Comstock, George W. Conner, Elaine M. Cornfield, David N. Costabel, Ulrich Crapo, Dennis Cross, Carroll E. Crossley, Kent Cunningham-Rundles, Susanna Dagogo-Jack, Samuel Daha, M. R. Dale, David C. Dale, George L. Dalmasso, Agustin P. Davies, Malcolm Davis, Alvin E. III de Groot, Ph. G. DeMaster, Eugene G. Dempsey, Edward C. Detwiler, Thomas C. Devine, Dana V. Diacova, Tom Diamond, Jonathan Dickey, Burton F. Dominguez, Jesus H. Dreyfuss, Gideon Duane, Peter Duane, William C. Duckworth, William C. Eaton, John W. Eckfeldt, John H. Eder, Matthias Egan, Brent M. Ehrlich, Melanie Eisman, J. A. Eistad, Mark R. Elbein, Steven C. Emlen, J. Woodruff Enzi, Giuliano Epstein, Franklin H. Eqido, Jesus Erdos, Ervin G. Escott, Gemma M. Evans, Christopher H. Evans, Thomas G. Faraci, Frank M. Farley, John Feder, John N. Fernandes, Gabriel Ferrario, Carlos M. Festoff, Barry W. Fisher, Aron B. Floege, Jurgen Fogo, Agnes Fritz, Hans Frolich, J. C. From, Arthur Fujisawa, K. Fukami, Kiyoko Gabbai, Frances Gabbert, H. E. Gahl, William A. Gale, Robert Galli, Monica Gannon, Mary Garcia-Aguilar, Julio Gebhard, Roger L. Gharavi, Azzudin Gibson, Ian W. Gigliotti, Frank Ginder, Gordon D. Giorgio, Todd D. Goetzl, Edward J. Gold, Daniel P. Gollnick, Sandra 0. Goodman, Jesse Goodner, Charles Goodnight, Scott H. Jr. Goodnough, Lawrence T. Gordon, Siamon Gottardi, Daniela Grabarek, Jadwiga Granger, D. Neil Grantham, Jared J. Greene, Douglas A. Greene, Mark I. Greenwel, Patricia Greinacher, A. Gressner, A. M. Griffin, Karen Groen, Albert K. Gross, Myron Groszmann, Roberto J. Gruessner, Rainer Gulati, Anil Gupta, Rishab K. Hakim, Raymond M. Halperin, Mitchell L. Halpern, Z. Hamano, Kimikazu Hamilton, David W. Handin, Robert I. Haney, Peter M. Hansen, Barbara Haralson, Michael A. Hardison, William G. M. Hascall, Vincent C. Hatcher, Victor B. Hatton, Mark Haymond, Morey Heaney, Robert P. Helman, Lee J. Hemker, H. C. Heppenstall, Bruce Herrick, Sarah Herrington, David M. Hershko, Chaim Hill, Michael A. Hillery, Cheryl A. Hintze, Thomas Henry Hirsch, Alan Ho, Ken K. Y. Hoagland, H. Clark Hoekstra, Maarten 0. Hofmann, Alan F. Hohman, Thomas C. Holdsworth, Stephen R. Holmsen, Holm Holtzman, Jordan L. Horne, McDonald K. III Horsewood, Peter Hostetter, Thomas H. Howell, David S. Huang, L. Eric Hull, Russell D. Humphreys, Michael H. Hunninghake, Donald B. Hunt, Nicholas H. Ichikawa, Lekuni Ing, Todd S. Ingbar, David Jackman, Herbert L. Jaeschke, Hartmut Jailal, Ishwarlal Jenkinson, Stephen G. Jennings, Lisa K. Jialal, Ishwarlal Johnson, Bruce Johnson, Gerhard J. Johnson, James R. Johnson, John L. Johnson, Richard J. Joseph, Anne Jungst, Dieter Kardami, Elissavet Karpatkin, Simon Katz, Daniel A. Katz, Phillip Kelly, Elizabeth Kempson, Stephen A. Kendall, David Kennaway, Nancy G. Keski-Oja, Jorma Key, Nigel E. Khan, Mehmood Kim, Yang-Il Kim, Young-Myeong Kishimoto, Tadamitsu Kjeldsen, Lars Kleerekoper, Michael Klein, Peter D. Klibanski, Anne Knox, Franklyn Koltun, W. A. Kondo, Takahito Kopple, Joel Kotb, Malak Y. S. Kottke, Thomas E. Krantz, Sanford B. Kratzke, Robert Krishnaswamy, S. Kujovich, Jody Kuypers, Frans A. Kyle, Robert A. Lachant, Neil A. Lafont, Huguette Lambert, John Lane, Stephen J. Lauf, P. K. Laurent, Geoffrey J. Law, William R. Lawler, Jack LeRoy, E. Carwile Ledbetter, Jeffrey A. Lee, Makau Lee, Sam S. Leon, Arthur Lernmark, Ake Levi, Moshe Levitt, David G. Levitzki, Alexander Levy, James R. Levy, Jerrold H. Libby, Eric Lieber, Charles S. Lieberthal, Wilfred Lifson, Alan R. Liles, W. Conrad Liu, Longbin Lopez, Jose A. Lowry, Philip Luft, Friedrich C. Luscinskas, Francis W. Lusher, Jeanne MacNee, William Macdonald, Victor W. Madden, Jane A. Maher, Jacquelyn J. Mahowald, Maren L. Maier, R. F. Malinski, Tadeusz Mariash, Cary N. Martin, Richard Massry, Shaul G. Masters, Colin L. May, Gary R. McCarthy, James B. McCullough, Arthur J. McDonald, Kenneth M. McGlennen, Ronald C. McGowan, Stephen McKenzie, Steven Mehta, Jawahar L. Meier, Peter B. Meiselman, Herbert J. Menon, R. K. Messmer, Konrad Messner, Ronald P. Mestecky, Jiri Metzger, W. James Michalopoulos, George Michelson, Alan Miles, Steven Miller, Jeffrey Miller, Virginia M. Mitsuhashi, Masato Miyawaki, Toshio Mogensen, Carl E. Mohandas, Narla Molitch, Mark Mooradian, Arshag D. Moore, Sean Moorhead, John F. Morelli, Antonio Mosher, Deane Motulshky, Arno Muldoon, Sheila Muller, David Mulrow, Patrick Mushak, Paul Naccache, Paul H. Naji, Ali Nash, Gerard B. Nazian, Stanley Nenseter, Marit S. Nerurkar, Alka V. Neugarten, Joel Newburger, Peter E. Newman, Gale Niederau, Claus Nishimura, Hitoshi Nolph, Karl D O'Donnell, Michael P. Ochoa, Juan B. Oegema, Theodore R. Oettgen, Hans C. Oparil, Suzanne Owen-Schaub, Laurie Packham, Marian A. Paller, Mark S. Palmblad, Jan Palmer, Jerry P. Papanicolaou, D. Park, Soon Parkos, Charles A. Peine, Craig J. Petersen, Kitt Falk Peterson, Phillip Pette, Dirk Phillips, Michael Pierach, Claus A. Platanias, Leonidas Platt, Jeffrey L. Pomeroy, Claire Ponka, Premysl Preissner, Klaus T. Provoost, Abraham P. Putnam, Matthew D. Rabelink, T. J. Rabinowitz, Michael B. Radhakrishnan, Jai Raffestin, Bernadette Rai, Rudra Raij, Leopoldo Rao, Gundu H. R. Rao, N. V. Rasi, Vesa Ratcliffe, Peter J. Rauch, Joyce Read, Leanna C. Reed, Charles E. Reeve, Helen L. Reilly, Robert F. Remuzzi, Giuseppe Renooij, Willem Ribeiro, Solange M. F. Richter, Christoph Rier, Sherry E. Robakis, Nikolas Roberts, Eve A. Roberts, L. Jackson II Robison, Timothy W. Rocchini, Albert Rosen, Clifford J. Rosenberg, Mark E. Roubey, Robert A. S. Roughley, Peter Rounds, Sharon I. Rouse, Diane Rubins, Jeffrey B. Rubinstein, Israel Sahn, Steven A. Salant, David J. Salier, J. P. Sandstead, Harold H. Santoro, Nanette Santucci, Luca Schacher, Timothy Schechter, Geraldine Schena, Francesco Paolo Schenker, Steven Scheppach, W. Schifferli, J. A. Schleef, Raymond R. Schleiffenbaum, Boris Schlievert, Patrick Schmid-Schonbein, Holger Schmidt, Robert E. Schrier, S. Schuyler, Mark R. Schwartz, Howard J. Scott, Mark D. Seaquist, Elizabeth R. Semenza, Gregg L. Sen, Ananda P. Serhan, Charles N. Shaffer, Eldon A. Sharp, Harvey L. Sherker, Averell H. Shultz, Pamela Silva, Patricio Silverstein, Emanuel Silverstein, Roy L. Simmonds, P. Simmons, Richard L. Simmons, William H. Simon, Geza Singer, Frederick R. Slack, Steven M. Slungaard, Arne Smee, Donald F. Smith, Robert Sofuoglu, Mehmet Soltis, Ron Sorenson, Robert L. Sorg, Clemens Stahl, Gregory L. Standiford, Theodore Starkey, Jean R. Steffes, Michael W. Steinberger, Julia Stelzner, Matthias Stenberg, Paula E. Sterzel, R. Bernd B. Stevens, Martin Strasberg, Steven M. Striker, Gary E. Stroncek, David Stylianou, Eleni Swan, Suzanne K. Swerlick, Robert Szyf, Moshe Taegtmeyer, Heinrich Tallant, Ann Tallman, Martin Talmadge, Robert J. Tan, Sidhartha Tang, Liping Terada, Lance S. Terano, Akira Test, Samuel T. 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Wilson, Michael J. Wilson, Patricia D. Wilson, Robert F. Winslow, Robert M. Wolf, Barry Wolin, Michael S. Woodman, Richard C. Woodworth, Robert Xing, Zhou Xu, Y. Yakshe, Paul Yang, Yu-Chung Yu, Byung P. Zager, Richard Zahger, D. Zarling, Edwin Zimmer, Stevan