Next year, changes will become noticeable in the overall design and content of Ultrastructural Pathology. The idea is to provide in every issue a mixture of exciting and interesting clinical and research articles highlighting the role of electron microscopy and other complementary diagnostic techniques in the diagnostic and experimental arenas. Articles dealing with technical issues will be admixed with the above.
Single topic issues will occur at least once a year with a mix of diagnostic, technical, and experimental subjects. The first issue dedicated to a single topic will be dealing with a rather timely and useful technique for diagnostic and experimental pathobiology: Microprobe analysis. This remains one of the unique applications of transmission electron microscopy. This subject is very timely and an important one to expand the applications of electron microscopy in clinical and research arenas and delineate its use in very pertinent situations were no other technique is available today. Dr. Victor Roggli will be leading this effort and the proposed articles will clearly illustrate the broad scope of this technique with emphasis on its expanding role and future. This elegant technique is currently only available in a few electron microscopy laboratories. It appears that careful consideration should be given to incorporate microprobe analysis into the daily routine of most existing laboratories. Even though there will be a monetary expenditure associated with this move, there are billing codes that can be used to at least partly recoup the investment. Certainly, the benefits to the diagnostic and experimental fields will be significant.
I have been impressed by the variety of topics in the articles submitted to the journal for consideration which highlights the ever increasing, broad scope of applications in which electron microscopy can contribute to better patient care and understanding of basic pathobiological events.
While molecular/biochemical pathways are fundamental to understand diseases, by themselves they do not always provide a complete account of what is relevant to answer pertinent questions asked in clinical and experimental situations. The saying “seeing is believing” applies well to this situation. In reality, it is the combination of molecular/biochemical and morphological data what generally provides the entire story that makes translational efforts of research information into the clinical arena successful.
In the inaugural issue of Ultrastructural Pathology published in 1982, the then Editor-in-Chief (and first Editor-in-Chief) Professor Jan Vincents Johannessen expressed:
We hope, with the active participation of our readers, to make Ultrastructural Pathology a forum for everyone interested in the ultrastructural features of human disease, whether they are newcomers or experienced electron microscopists, cell biologists, or ultrastructural pathologists. We will do our best to balance each volume so that it will contain at least some papers of interest to all our readers no matter what their field.
I echo his words and welcome the readers to become involved with the journal in an intimate manner so that the journal can become the real voice of those actively engaged in providing ultrastructural support in the diagnostic and experimental fields.
Ultrastructural Pathology has done well in turning around submitted manuscripts. From original submission to final acceptance, the time frame is currently 32 days and the initial decision as to the suitability of a given manuscript for publication in the journal is arrived on the average at 14 days after the manuscript is received. The current status competes well with the average journal in Pathology. This has been possible as a result of the hard work of Associate Editors, Editorial Board members, and ad-hoc reviewers who are all very sensitive to the need to provide proper, comprehensive, and on time feedback to the authors. In order to better serve authors who wish their papers to be published as fast as possible, we will in the next year aim at reducing these time frames by at about 7 days. We also pledge that once an article is accepted, publication will be soon thereafter.