Year: 2017
Type: editorial
Abstract: With this issue I conclude my role as founding editor of this journal after 18 years of service. Eighteen years is considered in most societies as a coming of age: infancy, childhood, and adolescence having transitioned to a robust and healthy youth near the peak of physical powers and at the cusp of intellectual growth, facing the challenges of the world with boundless optimism. So, it is, I believe, with this journal, Pediatric Diabetes, which I have had the privilege of supervising throughout its existence to date. Launched in the year 2000 as a result of a chance meeting during a visit to Pittsburgh by the far-sighted head of a small niche publisher in Denmark, Munksgaard, and myself in the summer of 1998, the journal was the first and only journal exclusively dedicated to diabetes in children and adolescents, the unique epidemiology, patterns of childhood disease, and special needs of children at various ages, and the often disruptive effects on physical and emotional growth and development of the child, as well as on the family of such an affected child. The goal of the journal was to become the voice to transmit discoveries in the field, based on basic laboratory as well as clinical research, and the highest standards of care based on objective data emanating from careful observational experience and appropriately planned trials. Locating the journal’s offices at The Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh immediately enabled the appointment of Associate Editors with established expertise in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes in childhood; their names remain on the masthead, though several have moved to different locations. In addition, the position of a Deputy Editor for Europe, and an Editorial Board of international experts were rapidly appointed. Financial support for the journal was borne by the publisher as well as a generous contribution from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation in the first 2 years of the journal’s existence, during which we published only 4 issues per year and attained citation and credentialing in Pub Med. With an increasing flow of submissions, the journal increased its issues to 6 and now 8 issues per year, each issue containing approximately 10 papers. A defining event was the affiliation of the journal with ISPAD (International Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes) as its official journal; this “marriage made in heaven” was spearheaded by Professor Denis Daneman during his term as President of ISPAD and has enabled the journal to publish the proceedings of the society as well as its quadrennially updated Consensus Guidelines on various aspects of the etiology and management of diabetes in children. Together, these developments have allowed the journal to thrive, and to gain recognition and standing in the field; the most recent impact factor ranked the journal among the top 10 pediatric journals, and the top 25% of endocrine/metabolic journals, achievements I could not have imagined a decade ago. None of this would have been possible without the efforts over the years of the European Deputy Editors, Professors Paul Czernikow, Thomas Danne, and Olga Kordonouri; the Associate Editors, Professors Silva Arslanian, Dorothy Becker, Ram Menon, Max Pietropaolo, and Massimo Trucco; our Editorial Board members and ad hoc reviewers, too numerous to name, and to each of whom I extend my sincere thanks. Last but certainly not least, I acknowledge and thank our Editorial Manager for the last decade, Daniel Bogdan, whose tireless dedication and efforts on behalf of the journal deserve special recognition. I believe that the journal at 18 is in its robust youth and capable of further intellectual growth and maturation. As of this writing my successor has not yet been identified. Whoever assumes this role will have to contend with fierce competition from established journals and a plethora of start-ups which assume names with vaguely similar but not established places in the line-up of reputable journals in the field. At the same time competition has led to diminished support for editorial activity with consolidation of many functions in centralized corporate facilities, and the publisher of Pediatric Diabetes is no exception to this trend. These challenges are occurring at a time when technology-driven innovations such as the closed loop systems forming an “artificial pancreas” are entering clinical use, the pharmacological armamentarium for type 2 diabetes is rapidly expanding and requires evaluation in the pediatric population, and discoveries at the basic molecular level offer a clearer picture of the etiology and potential treatment of all forms of diabetes. Bringing this new scientific knowledge to the readers of Pediatric Diabetes assures a flow of submitted manuscripts and the responsibility to balance the publication of “hard science” with the “softer science” of the psycho-social dimensions of diabetes in childhood, especially in less developed countries. But the quality of the science must remain inviolate. I am immensely grateful to the publisher and ISPAD for the opportunity and privilege of filling the role of Editor-in-Chief over the past 18 years and extend my gratitude to all my colleagues who participated in this enterprise and remained loyal to its mission. I wish my successor all the best in maintaining and surpassing the journal’s reputation for excellence, and to experience the satisfaction I had working with such supportive colleagues.
Source: Pediatric Diabetes
DOI: 10.1111/pedi.12593
Author: Mark A Sperling
Language: English
Subfield: History and Philosophy of Science
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2769517116