Major changes are occurring this year at Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology, and Medicine: with the leadership of Dr. Lajos Balogh as Editor-in-Chief, a renewed team has been assembled with rededicated focus and mission. As part of the new strategy, we are pleased to introduce Dr. Istvan Pirko as Clinical Editor of the journal. The Editor's vision for this new role was to find an unbiased clinician scientist with basic science experience and an active research program, and due to the unique nature of this new challenge Dr. Pirko has embraced this opportunity.
The main role of the Clinical Editor is to highlight and emphasize the clinical relevance and significance of papers published in the journal. While in large part this depends on the wise selection of submitted manuscripts, it will also depend on how effectively we showcase the potential clinical aspects of nanomedicine papers. Establishing a system that can efficiently highlight the clinical relevance of our publications will ensure a broader readership, and may lead to a higher level of interest in the field of nanomedicine. We hope to attract new readers – ones that have known about the enormous potential of nanomedicine, but are not yet utilizing the advances and technologies the field offers.
Nanomedicine might still be viewed by many as something that has no immediate relevance to others than to those who pursue their basic science research interest in the development of these technologies. Part of the problem is that nanomedicine-related studies are published in different journals across various specialties.
Emphasizing clinical nanomedicine potential will be of value to translational and clinician scientists and we will strive to nurture such enhancements. As part of this new mission, you will notice a number of new features in the journal. We will continue to publish carefully selected reviews in each issue that have a clear and concise clinical message in mind. In addition, brief clinical editorials will accompany select articles in the journal, highlighting their impact on the particular field of medicine in the broadest context. To support spreading our message, these Editorials will be open access papers.
We also plan to establish a brand new system of “clinical relevance vignettes”, brief statements that will provide the actual or potential clinical significance of articles published in the journal. Authors of future manuscripts will be asked to submit these two- to three-sentence clinical relevance summaries with their submissions. These “vignettes” will appear online as part of the article abstracts, and will be searchable and openly available. We plan to create these vignettes for manuscripts that have already been accepted. Look for these vignettes in the September 2009 issue.
We also look to develop a “directory of clinical aspects” of all previously published and future papers. Papers will be categorized into standard medical disciplines (radiology, oncology, immunology, etc), as well as based on their clinical relevance. Any specific paper could be listed under many categories, and each category will be searchable.
The Editors and Publisher welcome your input regarding the proposed changes, including any additional ideas to improve showcasing clinical relevance. We also encourage you to contact us over the course of the year and provide feedback about the new issues.
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