A Preview of the New AJCP With Editor-in-Chief Steven H. Kroft, MD, MASCP

What are you trying to achieve by revamping AJCP?

What we’re trying to do is reinvigorate and elevate the editorial process to a best practices level. What really distinguishes a scientific journal from the rest of the information available on the web is peer review. While the precise value of peer review to scientific literature is of some controversy, I truly believe in the value of the peer-review process as the essential mechanism to ensure the scientific literature has as much integrity as possible.

You’ve reconfigured the editorial board and now describe it as ‘an activist board.’ What do you mean by that?

We have expanded the scope of the editorial board, and added more specialized associate editors. The editors are empowered to be vigorous and deliberate about what they consider for publication in the journal, and they are empowered to help the authors make every paper as good as possible.

We have a board that is now looking very critically--and with a consistent eye—at what should or could be published in AJCP to advance AJCP’s position as the premier journal for the application of techniques in laboratory medicine and pathology to patient care. AJCP’s main niche is the application of science to practice in pathology and laboratory medicine. I’ve worked hard to make sure everyone on the editorial board has the same vision of what the journal means to its readers and what we are trying to find….to elevate the editorial process to make sure the papers are as good as possible.

This includes very detailed and intensive engagement for our associate editors and assistant editors in terms of both content evaluation and aggressive recruitment of content that will lead to publication of the kinds of papers we’re interested in seeing in AJCP.

What value does the double-blind review process serve?

We’ve instituted a double-blind review process to ensure the least bias possible in editorial review. We are providing much more feedback to our editors and reviewers with respect to the qualities and outcomes of the review, and we’ve provided—and will continue to provide—extensive ongoing information. Again, we aren’t just deciding whether to publish or not. We are working to make every paper better.

What role does social media play in elevating the journal’s profile?

We’ve dramatically expanded our social media profile to raise awareness of the content in AJCP so people understand what the research is bringing to our understanding of disease, how the findings can be applied in diagnosis and management, and how it brings additional value to the real practice of pathology and laboratory medicine.