Cytotherapy, 2013; 15: 1
EDITORIAL
Progress and change for Cytotherapy
JOHN BARRETT Hematology Branch, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
Cytotherapy was born in 1999 and thus can rightly claim to have been the consistent voice of the International Society of Cell Therapy (ISCT) and the promoter of all aspects of translational medicine in this field since the millennium. In the last 12 years, our journal has become internationally recognized as an authoritative source of papers, reviews and opinion in regenerative medicine, immunotherapy and stem cell transplantation. Our publisher Informa Healthcare (1999e2012) has helped the journal grow in size from six issues a year to 10 issues and has presided over a progressive improvement in our impact factor. In 2012, our contract with Informa came to a close. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Håkan Pårop and Charlotta Eklund in particular for their steadfast support that has brought our journal to its current status. Our new publisher Elsevier brings the authority and prestige of a long-established publishing house. Elsevier has been a publishing house for more than 400 years, responsible for printing in 1683 one of Galileo’s finest and most controversial works, Discorsi e Dimonstrazioni Matematiche [Discourses concerning new sciences], in Amsterdam at a time when his work was banned in Italy. One of the reasons that Elsevier has maintained its prestige over the centuries is its capacity to develop and adapt to changing circumstances. This capacity is especially important today when the publishing world is in the process of rapid change, as paper subscriptions and the printed page cede more and more to electronic publication. I am therefore especially happy that Kate Williamson, our immediate contact from Elsevier, is moving us with the times to ensure that Cytotherapy will have the best
chance to achieve its goals and further expand in the new technology. This is also the time to pay a tribute to our Editorial Assistant Jean Winter. Jean was present at the meeting of the International Society of Hematopoiesis and Graft Engineering (ISHAGE) when the idea of launching Cytotherapy was born. She oversaw the launch of the journal under the editorship of Adrian Gee and Nancy Collins. Thus, she can truly claim to be the longest serving member of this journal’s editorial board. Her expertise and insider knowledge accrued through this time have been invaluable to all of us. On behalf of all the editors of Cytotherapy and my co-editors, I thank Jean for her consistent expert attention and management of the manuscripts and journal contents, always carried out with efficiency and a sense of humor that we will dearly miss. Cytotherapy continues to expand and improve: this year we move to monthly issues reflecting a true increase in submission of papers, achieved with a rejection rate now >60%. We join with Elsevier in promising a forward-looking, lively, and relevant journal, fit to represent the ISCT and to promote the exciting and continually growing field of cell therapy. We hope to retain our preeminent position as the journal of cell therapy. To reflect this, we have modified our cover title to: Cytotherapy—The Journal of Cell Therapy. In a developing discipline, nothing remains the same for long; treatments change, and new developments can move established technologies to the sidelines overnight. We and our new publishers want Cytotherapy to remain an accurate mirror of the cutting edge. Your contributions, dear readers, will remain an integral part of this!
Correspondence: John Barrett, Hematology Branch, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, 10, CRC Room 3E-5330, 10 Center Drive, Bethesda, MD 20892e1202, USA. E-mail:
[email protected]
ISSN 1465-3249 Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of International Society for Cellular Therapy. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcyt.2012.10.001