The editorial office of Inhalation Toxicology’s publisher, Taylor & Francis Group, would like to thank Dr. Mitchell Cohen for his years of service to the journal as Editor-in-Chief. We look forward to continued success under the leadership of new editor, Dr. Andrij Holian.
A letter from the new Editor-in-Chief of inhalation toxicology
I am looking forward to my new role as Editor-In-Chief of Inhalation Toxicology. In applying for the position, I greatly appreciated what I had learned from the leadership and mentoring of Dr. Donald Gardner who felt that part of his responsibility was to help authors through the submission and review process. This was also a goal for Dr. Mitchell Cohen who took over the journal after we lost Dr. Gardner. Dr. Cohen provided sustainable leadership for the Journal and has been a mentor to me for quite a while and will be key during the transition phase. I recognize that filling the large shoes left behind by Drs. Gardner and Cohen will be no small task.
My goal for Inhalation Toxicology will be to build a strong foundation and increase the visibility for the journal by working with the editorial staff at Taylor and Francis, the Associate Editors and members of the Editorial Board. Together, we will be creative and encourage established and new authors who will bring exciting new information to the ever-changing landscape of research that is being done in this critical field. The Associate Editors and I encourage anyone who has suggestions for timely white papers, review articles, or thematic issues to bring them forward. Importantly, we want to continue our main goal of publishing original research in all areas related to Inhalation Toxicology. We also want to ensure and improve on timely and high-quality peer review.
Over the next few months I will be working and communicating with the Associate Editors, Editorial Board and the Editorial Staff at Taylor and Francis to develop specific plans for achieving our mutual goals. I will be reaching out at national and international meetings to potential authors. With everyone’s help, I hope to be able to not only continue the journal’s success, but to increase the reputation of Inhalation Toxicology.
Sincerely,
A letter from the outgoing Editor-in-Chief of inhalation toxicology
It was during our 2014 SOT meeting in Phoenix that the founder of Inhalation Toxicology, Dr. Don Gardner, asked me to serve as a “shadow” Editor-in-Chief based on my experiences as EIC for Journal of Immunotoxicology. Having served with Don as an Associate Editor for Inhalation Toxicology since 2004, I readily agreed to lend a hand. As you all know, Don passed away that October, and so the publishers thought it best that I simply transition into the full-time EIC. While I first thought this would be an easy task, time would prove that wearing two EIC hats was not going to be an easy thing.
In this period since 2014, there have been great shifts in the “hot” research areas related to pulmonary toxicology. We have seen an explosion in nanoparticle-based studies, in research on inhalable biotherapeutics, in “omic”-related analyses of the lungs/distal tissues after inhalation exposures to toxicants/medicinals, and the like. There has also been a very large increase in the numbers of submissions to the journal from around the world. The latter has been both and boon and a bane. There has also been a flourishing of “off-shoot” journals with more specialized focus on topics that in the past would have been natural fits for Inhalation Toxicology. These have all been challenges, both positive and negative, for the long-term status of Inhalation Toxicology. Even so, with the help of the Associate Editors, the Editorial Board members, and the untold numbers of Ad Hoc reviewers, the well-earned status of Inhalation Toxicology as a major journal for toxicologists around the world has been maintained.
Nevertheless, like Don in 2013, I realized in 2017 that the time had come for a new face to guide – this time with a singular focus - Inhalation Toxicology into the future. Working with the publishers at Taylor and Francis and all the Associate Editors, an extensive year-long search/interview process to fill the EIC slot was undertaken. Each nominee for EIC was asked to consider where the journal is/should be going in the future, how the journal might deal with an ever-increasing number of on-line submissions, how to handle the increasing numbers of papers being submitted that are poorly written and seemingly-have not gone through any type of Scientific English editing prior to submission (not a problem unique to Inhalation Toxicology), how to better deal with wayward reviewers as well as those invited to review papers and that never respond, and how to bring new visual formats for data (i.e. movies, 3D photos, etc.) into the journal when warranted. Of course, each potential EIC was also queried on what would be their approach to maintaining a good impact factor, how to increase marketing of the journal, and ways to bring in more highly-citable reviews/cutting-edge papers that Readers would seek out.
I am delighted that as a result of this long search, Dr. Andrij Holian has agreed to take over as Editor-in-Chief of Inhalation Toxicology starting in January 2019. I, like so many of you, have known Andrij for a very long time as a superb researcher, author, and leader of a major research institution. Andrij possesses an exceptionally high level of commitment to our area of research, to our aims in education, and towards the promotion of good science in all the areas that are ultimately related to pulmonary toxicology.
I am confident that Inhalation Toxicology will be in safe strong hands going forward. I hope you all will welcome the journal’s new EIC when you see him at our upcoming meetings.
Thanks to all!!