A View to the Future
This is a time of transition for the Schizophrenia Bulletin. Sadly, the first editor, Loren Mosher, is recently deceased. The second editor, Sam Keith, describes the history of the Schizophrenia Bulletin in this issue. The third editor, David Shore, led the transition process for NIMH. His description of the process and NIMH Director Tom Insel's announcement explaining the transfer of responsibility from NIMH to a partnership between Oxford University Press (OUP) and the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center (MPRC) is provided at the NIMH website (http://www.nimh.nih.gov/researchfunding/schizbull.cfm). The fourth editor, John Hsiao, published "An Important Message" in the last two issues of the Bulletin anticipating the transition and providing subscription information. With this issue, I begin my tenure as the fifth editor-in-chief, but I will use the pronoun "we," for this is a responsibility and opportunity shared with many colleagues at the MPRC. In particular, Paul Shepard and Gunvant Thaker led the development of our proposal for the Bulletin, selected OUP as our publishing partner, and will serve as associate editors. Shelley Johnson has led the OUP in this partnership, has connected the Bulletin with advanced publishing technology, and has been a terrific colleague in the relaunch of the Bulletin. John Hsiao, Lisa Alberts, and David Shore gave indispensable support to enable a rapid and successful transfer of publishing responsibility. We especially thank John Hsiao for his leadership of the Bulletin and his advice and encouragement as we assumed responsibility. The pace was rapid, as we signed a memorandum of understanding with NIMH on November 9, 2004, to assume responsibility in January 2005. We have formed a relationship with Carol Tamminga and Chuck Schulz of the International Congress on Schizophrenia Research so that the Bulletin is widely available to the research community and Congress science is available to the Bulletin. Discussions are underway with Tim Crow and Steven Hirsch to form a relationship with the Winter Workshop. We have gathered an outstanding group of associate editors. In addition to Schulz, Shepard, and Thaker, Susan Essock, Wayne Fenton, Mark Geyer, Robin Murray, and Dan Weinberger represent a broad range of relevant science. Members of the editorial board, listed on the masthead, will provide theme issues, reviews, and special features and serve as manuscript referees.
Our field has shared the view that the Bulletin has a special and important role that began in the 1970s with the creation of a schizophrenia research community worldwide. In the 1980s and 1990s it was the lead journal for dissemination of information from NIMH workshops, high quality review articles, and theme issues. In addition, special features such as the cover artwork, the first person accounts, and the At Issue section gave a distinctive tone. These features will be carried forward. We will add some new features and will give greater emphasis to the fit of unsolicited manuscripts with issue themes. We plan rapid review and publication of manuscripts, on-line availability pre-print for subscribers, free on-line access of all articles 12 months after publication, advertisements discreetly placed in the front and back of the journal, and a continuation of low subscription rates.
Our vision for the Bulletin is to occupy a special place in the field and to be the best at what we do. We want the Bulletin to be easily read by a wide audience, to provide critical analysis of important topics, and to provide high quality information. We want the Bulletin to be a primary source of relevant neuroscience for the clinician and of relevant clinical science for the basic neuroscientist. And we want information to be understandable and interesting to a broad readership. Our plans for publication include the following:
- Artwork on the cover from persons with schizophrenia.
- First person accounts.
- High quality reviews on selected topics.
- Mini-theme issues, sometimes more than one theme in an issue.
- Reports of key meetings and workshops such as the MATRICS cognition report in this Issue.
- At Issue section, sometimes as a pro/con format.
- A brief exposition of a selected neuroscience topic for the clinical and lay reader.
- A brief exposition of a selected clinical topic for the neuroscientist and lay reader.
- A brief exposition of a selected gene, including evidence for its association with schizophrenia, how it may interact with environment or other genes, what it may be contributing to schizophrenia pathology, and how this might affect treatment discovery.
- A brief exposition on an environmental risk factor, how it may interact with genes, its possible neurobiological effects, and its role in modulating the disease outcome.
- Occasional publication of translational research stories with top to bottom integration.
- An outline of future themes to give notice to the field of topics of interest for unsolicited manuscripts.
All manuscripts will be peer reviewed with high standards for quality. We plan the following issues for 2005: For the January 2005 issue, we are fortunate to be able to provide rapid publication of reports from a major workshop on treatment of cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. The first issue will also include previously accepted manuscripts (courtesy of Dr. Hsiao) with a focus on cognition. The April 2005 issue will contain abstracts of the ICOSR. The mini-theme of July 2005 issue is entitled, "What has been learned from first episode follow-up studies?" Dr. Waddington is the guest editor of this section, which will include manuscripts based on experience from several longitudinal studies. The issue will also include several reports of follow-up studies previously accepted for publication by the Bulletin. A future issue will include a workshop report on pre-clinical models of cognitive impairments in schizophrenia. We will solicit manuscripts on animal and human models useful in treatment discovery related to this theme.
Wish us well. We will try hard to live up to the Schizophrenia Bulletin tradition and create its best future.
Schizophrenia Bulletin
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