Round 2 at JASN

Abstract

To become the second editor of JASN was not an easy road traveled. My competition consisted of two highly visible and extremely well-published nephrologists from prestigious institutions with extensive editorial experience, each of whom had served the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) in many capacities, including president. Before and immediately after my interview with the search committee at the time of the 1995 ASN Annual Meeting in San Diego, I had serious doubts that I would be selected; however, on the final day of the annual meeting, I learned that I would be the next editor of JASN. After a very brief period of euphoria, I began to feel like the old hound that loved to chase cars but after finally catching one was uncertain what to do next. I quickly recovered and immediately asked Kirsten M. Madsen and R. Tyler Miller to serve as my deputy editors, and together we set about the task of organizing a new staff in preparation for taking on the editorial responsibilities of JASN in July 1996. Critical to our effort was convincing Ms. Bonnie O’Brien, then current managing editor of JASN (founding editor Jared Grantham’s right-hand person) and a native of Kansas City, to relocate with JASN to Gainesville and the University of Florida. I believe the fact that she was an avid and very skilled tennis player and that tennis is enjoyed outdoors the year around in Gainesville was a major factor in her successful recruitment. The transition from the old to the new editorial team was virtually seamless, in large part because of the professionalism displayed by the very successful founding editor, Jared Grantham, and the presence of Bonnie. Interestingly, although the journal editorship has moved twice since leaving Gainesville, first to Seattle under William Couser and now in Nashville with Eric Neilson, Bonnie and the managing editor’s office have remained in Gainesville, a true testimonial to the power of the internet and tennis! I was extremely fortunate to enjoy the support of an outstanding group of associate editors that included Corinne Antignac, Alfred K. Cheung, Mark Knepper, Alan M. Krensky, Richard P. Lifton, William E. Mitch, Giuseppi Remuzzi, and Eberhard Ritz. These individuals manifested an incredible wealth of knowledge and experience in their respective areas of expertise, which was especially important to this newly minted editor. Indeed, their contributions along with those of Kirsten Madsen, who was later appointed senior deputy editor, to the quality of the editorial process were immeasurable. Also, I would be remiss in not acknowledging the extremely important role of the members of the editorial board and the dozens of additional referees who day in and day out provided thoughtful, well-written, and detailed reviews of manuscripts submitted to JASN. Their outstanding efforts maintained the integrity and quality of the peer-review process. An initial mini-crisis involving JASN arose somewhat unexpectedly at the ASN Spring Council meeting in 1996. The editor’s report included an artist’s rendering of a proposed new style and color for the cover. Furthermore, the editor proposed that greater emphasis be placed on “nephrology” in the title so that gradually, over the course of approximately 3 years, the journal might become known simply as “NEPHROLOGY” rather than JASN. Eventually, the cover would have read, “NEPHROLOGY, the official publication of the American Society of Nephrology.” The council did not accept the proposal, and, as they say, “the rest is history.” We will never know whether NEPHROLOGY could have replaced JASN in name recognition. The deep red or burgundy color was found acceptable and, incidentally, matched the color of the editor’s pick-up truck. A new feature introduced with the January 1997 issue was the “Milestones in Nephrology” series. We are indebted to Mark Knepper, who served as the feature editor. Our intent was to reprint scientific articles from any journal source that had provided a critical breakthrough in some area of nephrology, renal physiology, renal pathology, or a closely related discipline. To be considered for inclusion in this series, the article had to have been published in a peer-reviewed journal at least 20 years earlier, and one of the authors had to be alive and willing to provide a brief commentary about the original article. An individual working currently in the same or a closely related field was invited to comment on the significance of the findings and the subsequent impact of the article on the discipline. For the initial article in the series, the editors selected a publication by Carl W. Gottschalk and Margaret Mylle entitled “Micropuncture Study of the Mammalian Urinary Concentrating Mechanism: Evidence for the Countercurrent Hypothesis” that was published originally in 1959 in the American Journal of Physiology.1 The series concluded in December 2001 with a classic article by William B. Published online ahead of print. Publication date available at www.jasn.org.