Changing of the Guards

Starting with the January 2012 issue, a new team takes the reins of Diabetes. A question that many people have asked is whether the new leadership will change Diabetes. My answer would be, of course, that change is necessary to respond to new challenges arising from the continual transformation of technology and science. Such changes have been continuously transforming Diabetes since its inception in 1952 under the editorship of Dr. Frank N. Allan (of Boston, Massachusetts) and the 11 editors that have succeeded him. This evolution will continue under our stewardship, though the core principles and mission of the journal will remain unchanged. The overriding mission of Diabetes is to publish the most original and important scientific works of relevance to diabetes and related disorders. The majority of the early editions of Diabetes published articles relevant to clinical problems. Gradually the journal began expanding toward more laboratory-based mechanistic studies. Diabetes will continue to publish both human and animal studies that advance our understanding about the pathophysiology of diabetes and its complications. Our ultimate goal—to prevent and cure diabetes—lies ahead. Continuing toward this goal, our aim is to serve the immediate need of reporting research that contributes to improving the quality of the lives of people suffering from diabetes. Most of the mechanistic experiments published in Diabetes are performed in animals or in vitro models. These are the cornerstones of medical discovery. Before applications in humans can occur, basic experimentation lights the way, as exemplified by Dr. Frederick Banting and Charles Best, who performed their landmark experiments in dogs before applying their findings to treat type 1 diabetic individuals with insulin. Although there are many obvious limitations in performing human studies, we also believe that novel observations in humans are critically important to stimulating basic science research in animals and in vitro. Not only does the application of discoveries to improve human health remain the key motivator for most medical scientists, human studies further stimulate new hypotheses to be tested in the basic science laboratory. Basic science discoveries will not be useful to humanity until they are effectively translated to improve human health. This process may involve years of applied research requiring the collaboration of scientists in both academia and industry. It is our goal that Diabetes offers a forum where basic and clinical investigators can effectively communicate. It will provide the opportunity for basic science investigators to comment on novel findings in human studies that can stimulate prompt mechanistic studies in animals or in vitro. Similarly, invited commentaries from clinical investigators on the translational aspect of basic science findings will facilitate their rapid translation to humans. Seamless two-way communications between basic and clinical scientists and the emerging synergy will accelerate the goal of improving the care of people with diabetes. We appreciate that controversial findings and reports that challenge current notions need careful review before publication. However, if those findings are based on wellconducted studies, we intend to publish them while seeking commentaries from people holding differing views so that the readers may draw their own conclusions. Periodically, Diabetes will feature debates (pro and con) on controversial topics, thus allowing an impartial forum for healthy scientific discussions and the dissemination of information. We also propose publishing selected reviews based on symposia covering important and timely topics which, in addition to their educational value, might stimulate new research. Exciting new ideas and hypotheses will result in solid conclusions only when they are tested using rigorously validated and state-of-the-art methodologies. Technological and methodological advances are so rapid that their applications to biological research lag for many years after they have been established. Many novel methodologies applied in areas other than diabetes have potential applications in diabetic research. However, many diabetes research investigators may be unfamiliar with these methodologies. Because of a lack of well-written, critical, comparative evaluations of these methodologies, it is often difficult to choose among the many methodological options available. Therefore, we will be soliciting state-of-the-art critical methodological reviews for the journal’s new Novel Methodologies section. In addition, the Genetics section will be renamed Genetics/Genomes/Proteomics/Metabolomics, thus offering an invitation to investigators to submit research based on the system biology approach. Also planned is an educational section based on other journal publications relating to both basic and clinical areas. A scientific editor has been chosen to assist with these new initiatives. In response to the rapidly increasing prevalence of diabetes —especially in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and South America—we anticipate a global expansion in diabetes research. As a result, it is anticipated that manuscript submissions and the readership of Diabetes will also globally expand. In view of this scenario, we have increased the consulting editorial board to include a greater number of investigators outside of the U.S. We will plan occasional reviews related to topics relevant to the global nature of diabetes. The most important responsibility of the editorial board is to ensure an objective and impartial review of manuscript submissions. Aside from the authors who submit their manuscripts, our reviewers are very relevant to the journal’s From the Division of Endocrinology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota. Corresponding author: K. Sreekumaran Nair, [email protected]. DOI: 10.2337/db11-149