Abstract
For the last 6 years, I have had the privilege and honor to be editor in chief of the journal but, as in most things in life, there comes a time when it is appropriate to hand over the reins so that beginning in January 2014 Susan Elmore and her team will take over. I have every confidence that she will be an outstanding editor in chief and lead the journal into an even better future than I have seen over my time in office.
Given this opportunity to reminisce, I am going to exercise full reign. When I began as editor in chief, “electronic-only” journals were practically unknown even though most were also accessible in an electronic version. I suspect that the inevitable will happen and that hard copy scientific journals will become a thing of the past. I have mixed feelings about the moves to electronic-only issue, but there is no contesting its convenience and cost saving. Having served as an associate editor under both Bob Maronpot and Jim Klaunig, I felt pretty confident that I could cope with the day-to-day actions required of the editor when I took over, and with a pretty well-oiled machine running under Stephanie Dickinson, most of the problems that I came across could be steered through the rocks under Stephanie’s direction. It is true to say that occasionally, ethical issues of publishing certain articles required Jim and Bob’s advice and experience and to whom I am indebted for their unstinting support, but on the whole my time as an editor has been a thoroughly rewarding one, and I am confident that Susan will also find this to be so.
From day 1, my underlying goal was to continue to make the journal relevant to the readership and to maintain the high standards set by our previous editors, but I always, sometimes against the advice of my most trusted associate editors, had my eye on the impact factor and Courtney Pugh, our Sage publishing editor, can vouch for the fact that throughout most of the Annual Symposia that were held during my tenure, I was impatient to find out the result of the previous year’s efforts. There were times when I felt frustrated by the apparent lack of progress in the journal’s position in the league table of pathology journals, and expressed outright disbelief when the National Library of Medicine refused to list one of our special issues on PubMed. But these things are sent to try us and this incident certainly did that!
It would be impossible for me to name all of the members of the Editorial Board and Associate Editors who have worked alongside me during my time with the journal, but I hope they know how much I valued their efforts on our behalf and without which the journal simply wouldn’t function. I would like to think that I could call them friends, and clearly without having the opportunity given to me by the Society of Toxicologic Pathology (STP) my list of contacts in the field of toxicologic pathology would have been seriously less than it is today. Especial thanks go to my three greatest props during my tenure, Stephanie Dickinson, Beth Mahler, and Peter Alexander from Sage who have, by their behind the scenes efforts, made the running of the journal appear as smooth as it does. I am confident that these three will make Susan’s role that much easier over the next 3 years.
Finally, I would like to thank the members of the STP for allowing me the opportunity of serving them in the capacity of editor in chief of their very precious journal.
Sincerely,