A short history of Clinical and Experimental Dermatology.

Abstract

Conflict of interest: none declared. Periodicals are a very important source of peer‐reviewed information in medical sciences. Currently there are more than 150 dermatology‐related journals being published. This represents 50% more than the number recorded in the last detailed survey, which was completed 2 decades ago.1 There are 41 dermatology‐related journals included in Index Medicus.2Clinical and Experimental Dermatology (CED) was the official journal of the St John's Dermatological Society. A phased transition to the British Association of Dermatologists was agreed in 2001, which will conclude at the end of 2005. This marks another landmark in the history of the journal, which dates back to 1912 in its origins, and we believe that readers will be interested in a brief summary of its history to the present time. CED started as Transactions of the London Dermatological Society. There followed a period of continuous publication as Transactions of the St John's Hospital Dermatological Society from 1927 to 1975 with the exception of the War years, from 1939 to 1952. It has been published under its present name since 1976 (Table 1). There have been eight editors since then, only two of whom have not been primarily based at St John's Hospital for Diseases of the Skin, Leicester Square, and more recently at the St John's Institute of Dermatology (Table 2).