Abstract
I didn't sleep much the night I agreed to become the next Executive Editor of the Journal of the Association for Laboratory Automation. On that night four years ago, my thoughts were many and my emotions mixed. Among my many emotions was a strong sense of pride—I was asked to take on a job that I felt was extremely important and interested me deeply. I was excited about all the possibilities that lay ahead. And I must admit, I was a bit fearful that I would be unable to rise to the challenge before me. Now, as I approach the end of my tenure, I look back on that sleepless night and smile with the knowledge that my fears were unfounded.
JALA has experienced tremendous positive change and maturation over the previous four years. We entered into a publishing partnership with Elsevier, the world's largest and most renown publisher of medical and scientific journals. The partnership brought with it a new cover design and dramatic facelift throughout. Partnering with Elsevier also provided journal authors with opportunities to have their manuscripts distributed much more widely, in both print and electronic formats. A fully online manuscript submission and review system also went into use. We revamped manuscript categories and introduced the JALA Tutorial. We began the regular and very popular Literature Highlights column by Drs. Hilmar Weinmann and Kerstin Thurow. We initiated periodic special issues of JALA that focus on a single topic of interest, and introduced World News in a special A-pages section at the beginning of each issue as well as online.
Changes extend beyond the editorial content of the journal. For example, we began the regular practice of hosting VIP receptions for all those who actively contribute to the journal. We also created the JALA Reader's Choice Award, presented annually to the authors of a manuscript that JALA readers select.
The credit for this remarkable transformation goes to a team of many people, including the JALA Editorial Board members, authors, reviewers, journal staff, and above all Ms. Nan Hallock, managing editor of JALA.
If I was asked to highlight just one of our achievements, I would choose the way the journal refocused its activities on the people that it serves. Some examples include extending invitations to experts in the field to serve as guest editors for special issues; and the adoption of the JALA Spirit of Mentorship, which provides all prospective authors with useful, constructive criticism and guidance to help them improve the presentation of their work and create high standards of quality for JALA.
As we begin a new phase of the journal, I am very pleased to introduce Doug Gurevitch of the University of California, San Diego, as the next Executive Editor of JALA. Doug was the ideal candidate for this position, and I am thrilled that he agreed to take on this responsibility. Doug has worked in the field for many years, and has been a long time contributor to the ALA. Having been an ALA presenter, JALA author, Editorial Board member, short course instructor, associate program chair for LabAutomation2005, and most recently the program chair for LabAutomation2006, Doug is intimately familiar with JALA, the ALA, and more generally the field of laboratory automation. I look forward to the continued growth and success of JALA under Doug's leadership.
Looking back, I realize that I began my tenure with mixed feelings, and now that I am ending it I have many of those same feelings, but for different reasons. I am very proud of how far we have traveled, and I am excited about all the new developments still to come. But, I am no longer fearful. Progress has been swift and substantial, and the future of the journal is very bright with the promise of many forthcoming contributions to the field of laboratory automation to be reported by JALA authors. I look forward to continuing to serve JALA as a member of its editorial board.
Sincerely,
Mark F. Russo, Ph.D.
Thank You
The Journal of the Association for Laboratory Automation sincerely thanks the many talented volunteers whose contributions resulted in six well-received, peer-reviewed issues of JALA in 2006.
Thank you 2006 JALA Guest Editors
Erik Rubin, Ph.D.
Bristol-Myers Squibb
Special Issue: LabAutomation2006
(JALA 11.4 August 2006)
Anthony Lozada, M.Sc.
Velocity 11
Special Issue: LabAutomation2006 (JALA 11.4 August 2006)
Thank you 2006 JALA Authors
Nitin Agrawal
Ahmed Al-Alawi
Keith Albert
Maneesha Altekar
Arezou Azarani
David Balaban
James Becker
A.S. Bedekar
Mark Beggs
Duncan Bell
Neil Benn
Sibani Lisa Biswal
Michael Bizak
Lawrence Blyn
Mangkey Bounpheng
Evelyn Bowlby
John Thomas Bradshaw
Jimmy Bruner
Jonathan Bullock
Angela Burrell
Glenda Chandler
Alison Chaiken
James Chiao
Humphrey Chow
Jon Chudyk
Douglas Clark
Victoria Clark
Stephen Clulow
Lendell Cummins
Richard Curtis
Dave Dalrymple
David Danley
Dan Davolos
Collette DeChard
Nicholas Dickenson
Seth Dobrin
Huijin Dong
Robert Donnenberg
Jonathan Dordick
Derek Douglas
Jared Drader
Klaus Drese
Greg Dummer
Robert Dunn
Mark Durst
Jacob Durtschi
James Dyer
David Ecker
Richard Ellson
Andrew Emili
Elizabeth Erickson
Mark Eshoo
Kurt Evans
Xingwang Fang
Ye Fang
Jerome Ferrance
Ann Ferrie
J.J. Feng
Kim Fieweger
Igor Fomenko
Michael Forbush
Sho Fuji
David Gannon
Victor Geraldo
Andrew Ghetler
Mario Giron
Andrew Goldenberg
Dirk Gordes
Abel Gutierrez
Jose Gutierrez
Fred Hajjar
Thomas Hall
Nan Hallock
James Hannis
Steffen Hardt
Vanessa Harpin
David Harris
Mark Herrmann
Quoc Hoang
Steven Hofstadler
Carol Homon
Ian Hudson
Cristina Ivy
J Jayapandian
Mohammed Jemal
Nahid Jetha
Yun Jiang
Mike Jones
Ronny Jopp
S Kalavathi
Mohammed Kashem
Fiona Kelly
Minseok Kim
Duane Knize
Mipha Koh
Anne Kopf-Sill
Tanya Knaide
Gary Kramer
Carol Kreader
S Krishnamoorthy
Jorg Kutter
James Landers
James LaRocque
Moo-Yeal Lee
Timothy Lekin
Harold Levene
Feng Li
Guangshan Li
Brian Libby
Joseph Liscouski
Elliott Liu
Jane Liu
Robin Liu
Steve Lowry
Anthony Lozada
Miguel Maccio
Arun Majumdar
Sheri Manalili
Andrew Marziali
Steven Mason
Christian Massire
Frank Maurio
Edward McKillip
Ceara McNally
Andy McShea
Rachael Melton
Kevin Moore
Olivia Mooren
Sharmili Moturi
Peter Miu
Gotz Munchow
Sandra Munro
Mitchell Mutz
Peyman Najmabadi
Richard Nelson
Tai Nguyen
Pamela Norris
Joseph Olechno
Zheng Ouyang
Je-Kyun Park
Lori Patnaude
Michael Pear
Carolyn Pommier
Shalini Prasad
Jorge Quijano
Raymond Ranken
Digvijay Raorane
Jochen Rieth
David Robbins
Alexis Rogers
Andrew Rose
Victor Rosso
Alexander Roth
Erik Rubin
Karl Rudnick
Terry Rusch
Mark Russo
Vivek Samant
Rangarajan Sampath
Kristin Sannes-Lowery
Reinhold Schaefer
Amy Schink
Jacqueline Sedman
Brent Segelke
Paula Selley
O.K. Sheela
Jean Shieh
Sushil Shrinivasan
Peter Simpson
Tony Siuda
Mike Slota
Fredric Solomon
Veronica Soloveva
Anne Song
Benjamin Spaulding
Jay Strum
Dominic Suciu
S. Sundaram
Paul Taylor
A Thiruarul
Kerstin Thurow
Maria Tobarmosqueraa
Jeffrey Toney
Dominique Toppani
Fabrice Turlais
Victor Ugaz
Rafael Valdes-Camin
Frederick van de Voort
Jennifer van Dinther
John Venit
Karl Voelkerding
Demetrius Walcott
Richard Wales
Danhui Wang
Michelle Waters
James Weber
Hilmar Weinmann
Gregory Wendel
Pat Whalley
Neill White
Roy Willis
Carl Wittwer
Matthew Wollerton
Lester S.Y. Wong
Achim Wixforth
John T.Y. Wu
Weiwei Xu
Jeffrey Yingling
Hartmut Zimmermann
Thank you 2006 JALA Manuscript Reviewers
Maneesha Altekar
Gordon Alton
Mike Ashley
Thomas Astle
Arezou Azarani
Mark Beggs
Neil Benn
Tony Beugelsdijk
John Bradshaw
Christine Brideau
James Britt
John Brohan
Andrew Bullen
Andrew Carmen
Peter Cooper
Thomas Crevier
David Cumpstey
Raymond Dessy
Christian Dinter
Robert Doebler
Huijin Dong
Nader Donzel
Joerg Dreessen
Todd Edwards
Richard Ellson
Steven Fillers
Rob Fitzgerald
Jordan Gerton
Oliver Geschke
James Gill
Peter Grandsard
Douglas Gurevitch
Steve Hamilton
Rifat Hamoudi
Thomas Hartmann
David Herold
Steven Hoffman
Ying Huang
Stephen Hughes
Jeffrey Hurst
Michael Johnson
Rick Jones
Sanjaya Joshi
Paul Kaplita
Paul Kayne
Edward Kerns
Anne Kopf-Sill
Steve Kubala
Jorg Kutter
John Laycock
Tanguy LeNeel
Chuck Li
Urban Liebel
Anthony Lozada
Bob McDowall
Roger McIntosh
J. McWilliams
Patrick Merel
Stephen Michalczyk
Kevin Moore
Ben Moshiri
Carl Murray
David Nirschl
Laura Pajak
James Paulson
David Pechter
Douglas Perry
Shalini Prasad
Steve Richmond
Erik Rubin
Kara Rubin
Mark Russo
Giles Sanders
Reinhold Schaefer
David Semin
Toshiyuki Shiina
Peter Simpson
William Sonnefeld
Andrew Southan
John Souverijn
Dana Spence
Torsten Staab
Juergen Steigert
James Sterling
Norbert Stoll
Tetsuro Sugiura
Paul Taylor
Michael Thomas
Kerstin Thurow
Alain Truchaud
Richard Wagner
Harold Weller
Yining Zhao
Tong Zhu
Juergen Zimmermann