Something in need is something indeed
The new year of 2012 is doomed to be the one with miraculous stories. One of them, as we are honored to announce, is the launch of Translational Lung Cancer Research (TLCR), the first journal of its scope and coverage in world, with the strong support and active involvement of our editorial members and colleague investigators in biomedical research and clinical practices of lung cancer.
Translational medicine is a medical practice that involves multidisciplinary collaborations to bridge between basic sciences and clinical use, aiming at enhancing patient care and preventive measures. The term 'translational medicine' does not always imply using data in basic research for development of novel therapies or medical procedures and then test them in humans, because what are found in laboratories do not fully mean what should happen in a real-world human body. More efforts need to be focused on feedback understandings of how humans react to the treatment. De facto translational medicine is a two-way road: from bench to bedside, and from bedside to bench. For basic scientists, prioritized topics of laboratory research should be focused on hot topics with greatest clinical relevance, so that the subsequent findings can then be used immediately to make a difference in clinical practices. For clinicians, they need to be keen in tackling bedside problems on the bench, but never to be lost in the laboratory.
Although starting late, translational medicine as an inter-disciplinary science is developing rapidly and widely. Sustainability of such development entails close collaboration between persons on laboratory benches and those at the bedside. Unfortunately, the paradigm between basic and clinical science has often put these two disciplines at odds with each other, and communications between basic and clinical scientists is rare and sporadic. The ultimate goal of translational medicine behooves us to provide a free platform for academic communication between both sides and consequently, to push forward the development of translational medicine, in our case, of lung cancer research.
As a new open-access, peer-reviewed international journal, TLCR is dedicated to provide a free forum for rapid dissemination of latest discoveries in translational research of lung cancers, publishing articles that focus on cutting-edge findings in this rapidly growing field, and provides up-to-date, practical information on diagnosis, prevention and clinical investigations of lung cancer. Specific areas of interest include, but not limited to, multimodality therapy, markers, imaging, tumor biology, pathology, chemoprevention, and technical advances related to lung cancers. Every effort we made adds to presenting our audience with a well-constructed, informative, and educational journal.
The entire submission and review process of TLCR is managed online with Open Journal System (OJS) developed by Public Knowledge Project. This would greatly expedite the process from submission to editorial decision for an individual manuscript, and hence a rapid turnaround of publication. The open-access policy of TLCR will allow all readers from the medical science community to utilize all material published in this journal freely without obstacle. But importantly, all these benefits would by no means compromise quality of published studies in TLCR which are constantly subject to formal peer-review and are expected to meet the most rigorous standards of academic excellence.
The TLCR journal boosts a distinguished editorial board, which brings together a team of highly experienced specialists in lung cancer treatment and research. Such a portfolio renders the international nature of TLCR, and in addition, the precious experience and state-of-art expertise of the board members will allow for a prestigious atmosphere of academic and scientific brainstorming as reflected in TLCR, and will contribute to a significant difference in lung cancer translational research in China and worldwide.
At this landmark moment for TLCR, we would like to thank all our colleagues for their assistance and endeavor to make possible the launch of this newborn journal. We are also grateful to our editorial board members and staff for their diligence in copy editing, paper processing and journal promotion. Indestructible confidence is always with us that TLCR will turn out a great contribution to biomedical scientists and clinicians working in the field of lung cancer.
Acknowledgements
This paper was prepared with the assistance of Dr Prof Zeng Guangqiao, MD, scientific editor of Translational Lung Cancer Research (TLCR). Dr Zeng declared no conflicts of interest therein.
Disclosure: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
