Abstract
JALA strives to serve as “a multi-disciplinary international forum devoted to the advancement of technology in the laboratory.” Realizing this goal requires JALA and ALA to embrace the many different dimensions of the lab automation community. ALA President Torsten Staab's column on page 12A and this special LRIG issue of JALA both illustrate how ALA actively works to reach out and recognize the breadth and depth of the lab automation community.
Professionals in our field come in many shapes and sizes, and the members of the JALA Editorial Board reflect this unique diversity. Their primary responsibility is to serve as ambassadors of their experience and expertise, to ensure that their specialties are appropriately represented within the pages of JALA. They do this by contributing to planning initiatives, providing ongoing critical feedback, authoring scientific papers, encouraging others to author papers, and serving as guest editors for special issues.
For peer-review and reporting purposes, their areas of expertise are generally classified as clinical automation, genomics, high-throughput chemistry, automated biology, microtechnology and nanotechnology, proteomics, analytical and purification, informatics and software, engineering, chemical process development, ADME/TOX, compound management, laboratory management, and laboratory design. These general categories include subcategories too numerous to mention here to ensure that JALA's planning and peer-review processes are as well represented as possible.
The members of the JALA Editorial Board also represent the range of work environments to which laboratory automation is mission critical. They offer firsthand know-how about what's important to pharmaceutical companies, technology companies, consulting companies, universities, government labs, government agencies, and hospitals.
The JALA Editorial Board also reflects a genuinely international perspective. As you can see from the list of members on page 4A, JALA is fortunate to enjoy the insight and input of lab automation experts from around the globe. JALA Editorial Board members from Japan, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States create a well-rounded collective voice.
As the Executive Editor of JALA, I am extremely grateful for this collective voice and the benefits it offers to ALA members and JALA readers. I believe the more inclusive JALA can be, the more meaningful JALA's editorial content will be, and for this, I sincerely thank the members of the JALA Editorial Board. We delight in our differences and the potential our diversity promises in achieving our mutual goals.
Sincerely,
