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Northbrook, IL
Dr. Irwin is Editor in Chief, CHEST.
Correspondence to: Richard S. Irwin, MD, FCCP, Editor-in-Chief, CHEST, American College of Chest Physicians, 3300 Dundee Rd, Northbrook, IL 60062-2348; e-mail: rirwin{at}chestnet.org
"Era: a period of history marked by a new or distinct order of things."
Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary1
The new cover or "face" of the January, 2006 issue of CHEST heralds that changes have taken place in the editorial content and format of what will be published in the pages of the Journal as we begin a new era in its 71-year history. The cover was redesigned to reflect the changes that will occur. While the new design appears fresher and more modern, it has not lost the identity of its heritage. In this regard, while it is my goal, and that of the Associate Editors and new Editorial Board members, to improve the quality of research and scholarly works and educational offerings published in CHEST, and in advancing our field, we will not attempt to do so at the expense of publishing what our readers expect and need. CHEST is above all else a clinical journal, with a very important educational mission.
There is also a new masthead. It identifies and acknowledges the important contributions that will be made by the Associate Editors, the new Editorial Board, and the Editors-in-Chief of our international derivative journals of CHEST. This issue of CHEST also reflects the smaller size of the monthly issues that our readers can expect during this new era. No doubt, you have noticed that recent issues of CHEST, especially the October 2005 issue, have been exceptionally large. The publication of an increased number of articles and pages per issue was intentional and temporary (1) to decrease the time from the acceptance of articles to their publication; (2) to eliminate a backlog of accepted manuscripts; (3) to phase out our old manuscript system; and (4) to prepare for the changes that we knew were going to begin with this issue. All four of these objectives have been met.
The new blueprint of contents for CHEST is summarized in Table 1 . It is a product of a process that included focused conversations with individuals and groups, an analysis of our membership/readership survey, and a 1.5-day strategic planning meeting of the multidisciplinary, multinational, advisory group of Associate Editors. It also reflects the changes in the focus of the Journal that were announced in a July editorial.2 The major foci of the published content will be in the general areas of pulmonary medicine, critical care medicine, and sleep medicine, and the cardiovascular relationships that relate to pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine. In addition, CHEST will become more reflective of contemporary societal issues and the practice of medicine.
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All other sections of the blueprint are new and have been planned with a core set of topics in mind. For example, Nicholas S. Hill and Jesse B. Hall have selected, and will oversee and coordinate reviews that will appear in Recent Advances in Chest Medicine; this section is designed to review the important advances that have occurred within the past 2 to 3 years. Peter J. Barnes and Paul M. O’Byrne have chosen, and will oversee and coordinate reviews in Translating Basic Research into Clinical Practice; this section is designed to educate clinicians about the clinical implications or potential clinical importance of research that is presently considered to be of a basic nature. The first article in this series, "Reduced Histone Deacetylase in COPD: Clinical Implications," written by Peter J. Barnes, appears in this issue.3 There are five articles in this issue that are Special Features that were ready for publication in this issue.45678 Topics such as medical informatics and simulation technology in pulmonary and critical care medicine will appear in future issues. Articles in this section are chosen by the Editor in Chief.
Mary S. Ip and Surinder K. Jindal have chosen, and will oversee and coordinate reviews in Global Medicine. This section will cover topics that are important to all clinicians around the world. The first article in this series, "Avian Influenza Virus Infections in Humans," written by Kwok-Yung Yuen, appears in this issue.9 Constantine A. Manthous has selected, and will oversee and coordinate reviews that will appear in Medical Ethics; this section is designed to review on a regular basis the ever-increasing importance of ethical issues that influence the practice of medicine and research today. Scott Manaker has selected and will oversee and coordinate reviews that will appear in Topics in Practice Management; articles in this section will combine a brief review of a clinical topic with a practice management perspective (eg, coding, billing, reimbursement, documentation, or other regulatory issues). The first article in this series, "Pulmonary Rehabilitation and Respiratory Therapy Services in the Physician Office Setting," written by Sam Birnbaum and Brian Carlin, appears in this issue.10
There will be a variety of different types of articles in the section labeled Postgraduate Education Corner. For example, Nancy A. Collop and Virend K. Somers have designed a core curriculum of topics in Contemporary Reviews in Sleep Medicine; Curtis N. Sessler and Howard L. Corwin have done the same in Contemporary Reviews in Critical Care Medicine. Suhail Raoof, David P. Naidich, and William D. Travis will choose, oversee, and coordinate the articles that will be published in Chest Imaging for Clinicians. Manuscripts submitted for consideration for publication in this section must be case-based and feature chest-imaging modalities, but also must contain pathology that correlates with the chest-imaging findings. Marvin I. Schwarz has the responsibility of choosing articles for Case Records from the University of Colorado. Also, J. Patrick Barron is finalizing plans for overseeing and coordinating a regular, educational feature that will be referred to as Medical Writing Tips of the Month. Those of us who regularly review manuscripts see the great potential importance of this educational series. It has the potential of elevating the writing skills in those of us whose first language is English; it also represents our commitment to the international community that potentially faces the additional challenge of describing research in a language that is not their first or native language. Last, for those readers who are interested in receiving Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits through the Journal, we will continue to provide 1 h of category 1 CME credit for at least one article each month, and we hope to expand this program in the future. The article with accompanying CME credit will be noted as such in the Table of Contents of each issue. Please see the "Instructions for Receiving Journal CME Credits," which will be published each month in the Journal.
While it is important for all potential contributors to a journal to be knowledgeable of the Uniform Requirements for the Submission of Manuscripts to Biomedical Journals (http://www.ICMJE.org), it is also important to be aware of and to follow the "Instructions to Authors" of the target journal. In this regard, I encourage all potential contributors to CHEST to carefully read and adhere to all sections of our "Instructions to Authors," especially those addressing ghost writing, duplicative publication, Institution Review Board (IRB) approval, word counts, tobacco-funded research, clinical trials registry, and disclosure of conflict of interest.
The same process that helped us decide what content to add to the new blueprint of CHEST led us to determine that we would no longer publish content that is strictly cardiac in nature, animal investigations, and most of the other stand-alone departments, which were either replaced or restructured as one of the sections described above.
The new "face" of the January issue of CHEST heralds a new era. With succeeding issues, the blueprint of sections summarized in Table 1 will become more fully expressed with content on a regular basis. While much has changed, the impact of the changes that have and will take place will be monitored. If the changes do not work, they will be changed. "Nothing is cast in stone."
Footnotes
Dr. Irwin discloses that he has no real or potential personal or financial conflict of interest.
References
This article has been cited by other articles:
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  R. S. Irwin and S. J. Welch Becoming the Journal of the Future Chest, January 1, 2008; 133(1): 1 - 3. [Full Text] [PDF]
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S. J. Welch Avoiding Common Problems During Online Submission of Manuscripts Chest, May 1, 2007; 131(5): 1591 - 1594. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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K. L. Woolley Goodbye ghostwriters!: how to work ethically and efficiently with professional medical writers. Chest, September 1, 2006; 130(3): 921 - 923. [Full Text] [PDF]
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J. P. Barron Introducing "medical writing tips of the month". Chest, March 1, 2006; 129(3): 506 - 507. [Full Text] [PDF]
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S. J. Welch Preparing Manuscripts for Online Submission: Basic Information and Avoidance of Common Pitfalls Chest, March 1, 2006; 129(3): 822 - 825. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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