Respirology Case Reports – New and filling a gap

At the meeting of the Executive Committee of the Asian Pacific Society of Respirology (APSR) in February 1995, the decision was taken to develop a regional respiratory journal in recognition of the perceived need to expand the activities of the APSR and cater for the broad educational requirements of its members. Twelve months later, in March 1996 Volume 1, Issue 1 appeared under the title “Respirology”. An editorial in this issue written by the late Peter Macklem pointed out that the word “respirology” first appeared in 1986 when the APSR was established, that the word was a curious hybrid of the Latin “respirare” (to breathe) and the Greek “logos” (knowledge), and that it was an entirely appropriate name for the journal as it encompassed all the processes involved in respiration, not just the structure and function of the lungs. The founding editor-in-chief, Professor Shiro Kira, and his successors together with an enthusiastic editorial board and a hardworking editorial office provided the vision and dedication to make Respirology an undoubted success with a constantly improving impact factor, currently 2.416*, a high rate of manuscript submissions (7–800 per year) leading to acceptance of only about 20% of the submissions, and increasing citation rates of its published articles. Respirology has kept faith with its original mission to provide a broad platform for publication of articles which currently include topics in allied health, thoracic surgery, internal medicine, immunology, intensive and critical care, epidemiology, cell and molecular biology, pathology, pharmacology, physiology, paediatric respiratory medicine, sleep, bronchoscopy and interventional pulmonology. One consequence of its success has been the gradual erosion of the number of case reports. This is not unique to Respirology with case reports now being entirely absent from some highly ranked respiratory journals. Yet case reports can be of great value to the practising clinician. The isolated physician is recognised to be at a professional disadvantage because of the absence of the opportunity for exchange of clinical experience with colleagues. Even in large hospital departments or group practices, there may be limited experience with rare disorders or unusual presentations of more common disorders. By definition, such cases are infrequent and a journal dedicated to publication of rare and unusual cases can be of assistance to clinicians confronted by a patient “who reminds them of something they have never seen before”. Therefore in 2012 the APSR Executive once again made the decision to develop a new journal, Respirology Case Reports. Again, the submitted cases may be very broad with unusual clinical manifestations or unusual pathology, physiology or response to therapy. The review process is streamlined. There is no need for detailed review of study design, methods or complex statistical analyses. There is, however, the need for true novelty and clear presentation of the case material. The submitted manuscripts are not sent for external review but are handled by the editorial board thereby ensuring rapid turnaround. This requires a large and expert editorial board and this has been established. We expect to accept the majority, rather than a minority, of the submitted papers. So here goes: 2013, Volume 1, Issue 1 – I am excited.