The Next Chapter in the Story of the Journal of Aerosol Medicine and Pulmonary Drug Delivery

Editorial by the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Aerosol Medicine and Pulmonary Drug Delivery

Thomas O'Riordan

Earlier this year, the founder and Editor-in-Chief Dr. Gerald Smaldone retired after 35 years with the Journal of Aerosol Medicine and Pulmonary Drug Delivery. He had a consistent vision for the journal and commitment to the field of aerosol medicine. I am honored to be his successor and have the opportunity to build on the strong foundation that he has established. In partnership with the publisher Mary Ann Liebert, the International Society for Aerosols in Medicine (ISAM), the dedicated community of reviewers who continue to share expertise and countless hours enhancing the quality of the submitted articles, and most importantly the committed scientists whose work has been published in the journal, I would like to say, “Thank you! I am delighted to continue this legacy.”

I will continue the peer review process established by Dr. Smaldone, which was notable for its transparency with most reviewers electing to have their names published at the end of the article they reviewed, and for the detailed and constructive feedback provided to authors to enhance the scientific rigor applied to methodology and presentation. In partnership with ISAM, it can be argued the journal has had a major influence in establishing the standard by which clinical drug deposition data are quantified and presented in the broader medical literature. The journal provides a cross-disciplinary forum for experts in devices, formulation, clinical science, toxicology, modeling, public policy, and the regulation of drug development to encourage communication and scientific engagement.

Carsten Ehrhardt from the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, has accepted the position of associate editor. Carsten takes over Tim Corcoran and we are very grateful for Tim's service as associate editor. I am delighted that Tim will serve on the editorial board and I am glad to add another eight distinguished new members to the board, with diverse backgrounds and experience in clinical and nonclinical research.

As the journal moves into its next stage, we encourage all those who have contributed articles to the journal in the past to continue to submit their new research work to the journal.

The journal has published articles on a diverse range of topics related to aerosols in medicine. My vision for the next phase in the journal's development will be to continue to foster growth and to expand the diversity of topics that have characterized the journal to date. My priority topic of focus will be the application of aerosol science to enhance human health with an emphasis on two areas:

1. Facilitating the development of novel inhaled therapeutics to meet the unmet needs of patients at all stages of the development pathway.
2. Increasing our understanding of the complex interactions between deposited particles and the airway microenvironment and the physiological processes that influence drug delivery.

Advancing these objectives will require cross-functional collaboration and sharing of insights. Any novel inhaled therapy that successfully advances from concept to commercialization will have needed to overcome a sequence of complex challenges any one of which has the capability of terminating the development process. Although the majority of approved inhaled drugs have been small molecules, the development pipeline will increasingly include more complex novel modalities such as gene-editing vectors or protein therapeutics, which may need to be delivered to airways that have undergone significant remodeling and have mucous hypersecretion. We hope the journal facilitates progress on these challenging topics and programs.

The editorial board has had meetings only at the biannual ISAM meeting and I will be reaching out to the board to gauge interest in virtual meetings that can increase the participation of the board members and to determine if there are topics in which the journal should take a more active interest, including the publication of special collections of articles with a common theme. Caroline Stamato, the managing editor, will facilitate these special collections.

The journal will continue to publish original and review articles. An additional category that we will be adding is called “Drug Development Perspectives.” These brief peer-reviewed opinion pieces by experts in drug development will focus on their vision of latest work in progress, their views on promising targets or retrospective lessons learned from prior efforts in drug development.

I look forward to working with this dynamic scientific community. I hope the journal continues to provide a forum that facilitates and inspires the development of innovative therapies that are needed by patients globally.

Link to the journal publication