Abstract
Tara made major contributions to this Journal over the years. As one of the founding editors of a new journal in 2003, she recognized a need for a publication that would provide a place for peer-reviewed science, policy, and practice articles and that could serve as a forum for discussion of the many complex issues surrounding the fledgling field of biosecurity. She set the Journal's mission, shaped its voice, and persuaded many colleagues to write, edit, and review for it. She helped guide its growth and development into a well-read, often-cited, respected publication that has had a lasting, valuable impact on biosecurity policy and is now read in the policy community, across the nation and in 90 countries. We thank her for her vision and her years of contribution to the Journal.
The second transition is that DA Henderson has graciously agreed to serve as coeditor-in-chief of this Journal. For anyone working in this field in the past decade, DA needs no introduction. He has had a singular record of accomplishment and contribution to public health and biosecurity. His work directing the successful global smallpox eradication campaign, his leadership at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, his founding of the Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense, and his senior government service in the years after 9/11 and the anthrax attacks have given him experience and knowledge that bear on so many of the challenges that we now confront in biosecurity. Not only does DA deeply understand these issues, but the man knows how to write. (Let me here shamelessly praise his phenomenal new book, Smallpox: The Death of a Disease.) DA's wisdom will be especially valuable to the Journal and to this field.
This also seems an appropriate time to thank the many other people who have contributed to the Journal's success over the past 7 years. Our extraordinary managing editor, Jackie Fox, has been with the Journal from its beginnings. She ensures its rigor and scholarship, she has pushed us to keep innovating, and she keeps the journal and all of us on track. A succession of bright, dedicated associate editors have contributed their hard work and knowledge over the years to writing and soliciting articles, columns, and meeting reports and to shepherding them through the peer review process. Our editorial board members have written and solicited articles and served as advisors and reviewers when called on. And most important, literally hundreds of reviewers have given their time, judgment, and expertise to help us continue to improve the content of the Journal. Finally, the unstinting support of our publisher, Mary Ann Liebert, and her associate, Vicki Cohn, have made all of this possible.
In this coming eighth year of the Journal, we will continue to publish and push forward on key science, policy, and practice issues related to biosecurity. There will be assessments of what we have learned from the H1N1 events of the past year. New approaches to countering biological threats will be argued. We will publish accounts of policy and science meetings on topics including how to strengthen community resilience, pursuing a systems biology research agenda for biosecurity, and how hospital and health systems can be more prepared for catastrophes. We'll publish reviews of legal issues that have practical implications for how government, hospital, and public health programs are planned and executed. We'll continue to seek grassroots practice articles that demonstrate best practices at work. And we will continue to encourage authors from other countries to publish on their science, their practices, and their policies as they relate to biosecurity.
As always, we invite readers to send us their articles, their comments, and their feedback, as we continue a rigorous and thoughtful dialogue on how to improve biosecurity in the time ahead.