This issue of Animal Health Research Reviews will be my last as Editor-in-Chief. I have enjoyed being Editor-in-Chief over the past 10 years and I am pleased to turn the reins over to Bill Stich. I am deeply indebted to the many individuals who have contributed so much to the growth of Animal Health Research Reviews over this period. The publisher, Cambridge University Press, has been very supportive of the journal and has shown its deep commitment to its success. In particular, I am grateful to Kathy Stanford, Production Editor, who has been calm, considerate, caring, unflappable, and efficiently organized in dealing with the seemingly inevitable rush toward the deadlines for manuscripts for the June and December issues each year. The Section Editors and Editorial Board members have been of enormous assistance by writing reviews, inviting reviewers, arranging for reviews of manuscripts, and contributing to lively annual discussions about the direction of the journal. I am particularly grateful to the authors who have taken the time to share their insights with the readers of Animal Health Research Reviews. These authors include some of the world's leading researchers in immunology, virology, bacteriology, parasitology, epidemiology and food safety, among other areas. Keynote speakers at the CRAWD Annual General Meeting have been very helpful in writing reviews based on their presentations at the meeting. I also acknowledge the work of hundreds of reviewers who have evaluated manuscripts and provided advice on their quality as well as suggestions for improvement of articles.
The journal has experimented with several ways of bringing high quality science reviews to our readers. In 2004, we published the Proceedings of the 3rd International Veterinary Vaccines and Diagnostics Conference that was held in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, and in 2009, we published articles from a symposium on Bovine Respiratory Disease Complex that was held in Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA. Since 2007, we have been identifying important topics in animal health and organizing virtual symposia around these topics, which have included Bovine Respiratory Disease Complex in 2007, antimicrobial resistance in 2008, Influenza in animals in 2010, and the microbiome in 2012. Plans are underway to publish on Animal Infectious Disease and Climate Change in 2013. We have been fortunate to have had both outstanding researchers as authors for these symposia and dedicated leaders who have organized the symposia. Leadership for the virtual symposia has come primarily from our Editorial Board but we have also had the benefit of assistance from colleagues who are not Board members. I believe this approach has been very effective in bringing the latest information and forward looking ideas to our readers and I think there is scope to expand in this area. The key, as with all aspects of the journal, is having a long lead time in our planning to allow busy researchers the time needed to write insightful reviews.
Looking back, it has been a privilege to share in the work of the journal and to associate with brilliant and generous colleagues. I have not identified any of these colleagues by name, only because the list would be too long and I would be sure to leave out the names of one or more deserving colleagues. Each issue of the journal has been the product of a wonderful collaboration involving authors, reviewers, editors, and production personnel at Cambridge University Press. I have enjoyed both the science of the reviews and the camaraderie of section editors and editorial board members, some of whom have served the journal over the 10 years of my tenure as Editor-in-Chief. I expect to continue to enjoy the journal as a reader and to continue to enjoy the many friendships formed through my association with the journal.
The journal will no doubt continue to evolve, driven by the ingenuity of the editors and by technology. Looking ahead, I welcome the move to an online only format for the journal, beginning in 2013. This will reduce costs, an important factor in a journal with a specialized readership. It will also enhance the opportunities to remove the restrictions on the use of color and to have video clips in supplementary material. Many journals provide for mini-reviews but only a small number include comprehensive reviews. Animal Health Research Reviews occupies a unique niche in this respect. Not surprisingly, we have tended to emphasize the subjects which are the dominant ones at CRWAD annual meetings. We could increase the involvement of researchers in other areas such as pharmacology, physiology, and ecosystem health and we need to strive to make the journal more international in scope.
Our incoming Editor-in-Chief, Bill Stich, is Professor of Parasitology in the College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Missouri. Bill has conducted research at several universities – as a NIH Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Georgia, as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Washington State University, and as a faculty member at The Ohio State University, and at the University of Missouri. He brings energy, commitment and vision to the position of Editor-in-Chief of Animal Health Research Reviews, and with the assistance of an outstanding Editorial Board, he will see the journal continue to grow and enhance its reputation as a valuable source of expert reviews on a variety of aspects of animal health.
