After 25 years of service, H.-W. Denker and A. English, the two Editors-in-Chief of Cells Tissues and Organs (CTO), are saying goodbye and are handing the steering wheel over to a new and younger team: Christoph Viebahn, Guojun Sheng, and Ryan Gilbert. They intend to refocus CTO even more specifically on developmental biology, stem cells, and tissue engineering, which we believe is a good move, and we cordially wish them great success.
CTO is the result of transformation of Acta Anatomica, which was founded in 1946 as a morphological journal, but later changed its focus as well as its name. This transformation started 25 years ago (with volume 146 in 1993) when the two of us had been asked by Thomas Karger to endeavor in acting as chief editors of Acta Anatomica. In 1999, the journal was renamed (Cells Tissues Organs – in vivo, in vitro) from volume 164 on.
It was a great experience to reshape such an established anatomical journal as Acta Anatomica and to ini-tiate a process of molding. When we started, we felt that there was a particular need in actual research, i.e., to build bridges between the increasingly specializing fields, and that functional aspects would be a logical arching element. In our editorial of 1993 (Acta Anat. 146/1 in 1993, http://www.karger.com/Article/Pdf/147412) we wrote:
While we anticipate an explosion of new knowledge in the area of morphogenesis and we will put special emphasis on this field, we plan to keep the scope of the Journal broad. One of the main characteristics of living systems, that of their regulative capacities, is indeed observed at all levels of organization, and we are convinced that everyone of us can gain a lot from ‘looking over the fence’ in order to see how the same or a similar functional problem may be solved in another system or at another level. What directs the hierarchy of events that lead to pattern formation? What selects the sets of transcription factors, what regulates the regulatory genes? What is the cellular basis, and what are the functional consequences of changes in morphological organization seen at the macroscopic level? How can the limits of regulative processes be defined on the basis of the underlying mechanisms? We want Acta Anatomica to be a forum for these kinds of questions.
As a next step we decided (in 1999) to make the journal concentrate on the emerging fields of tissue engineering and stem cell research, while focusing on aspects of cell and developmental biology. To make this apparent, we renamed the journal: Cells Tissues Organs – in vivo, in vitro. In the Editorial announcing this change (CTO 164/1 in 1999, http://www.karger.com/Article/Pdf/16636) we stated:
Increased emphasis will be placed on emerging fields such as tissue engineering, artificial organs, in vitro systems, transplantation biology, ... fields that are beginning to use the discoveries of cell biology, developmental biology...
This focus is reflected by the Special Topic Issues (STIs) which have been a characteristic feature of CTO in all these years. We are confident that readers agree we have even set landmarks with some of the STIs. For example, the issues 154/1 (1995) and 156/3 (1996), both still under the name of Acta Anatomica, have been the first special issues of any existing journal, focusing on the emerging research topic Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transitions (EMT), a field which from then on started booming considerably. They were guest-edited by Don Newgreen and contained an often-cited introductory paper by Elizabeth (Betty) Hay. These STIs became a series and were followed by issues focusing on the progress in EMT research (issues 179/1–2, 185/1–3, 193/1–2, and 203/2) emphasizing development and tumor research, based on presentations selected from the meetings of the international TEMTIA conferences. This series is still being continued.
CTO has also been (to the best of our knowledge) the first international journal to devote one of its STIs to the emerging (and later booming) field of research on embryonic stem cells, already in 1999 (issue 165/3–4; Embryonic Stem Cells as a Developmental Model in vitro; edited by A.M. Wobus and K.R. Boheler). This was followed by two other STIs in the field of stem cell research (171/1 and 188/1–2). Other STIs focused on a wide spectrum of topics of actual research interest. An overview of all STIs can be found here:
When looking back on this history, it is our hope that Cells Tissues Organs will receive renewed impulses and will flourish under the guidance of the new chief editors and will continue to be seen as a very special and attractive journal in the landscape by many authors and readers. While we are, understandably, somewhat proud of the accomplishments during our quarter-century leadership, we are well aware that this success has not been forged by us alone. We express our deepest thanks to these colleagues who have served as Associate Editors under our tenure:
A. Bader
S.F. Badylak
R. Bellamkonda
F. Bojsen-Möller
A.I. Caplan
G.J. Christ
L. DeBartolo
A. Engler
F. Eckstein
M. Frotscher†
Luigi Gallo
R.J. Gilbert
B.K. Hall
S.W. Herring
K.K. Hirschi
A.G. Jacobson†
U. Just
P.J. Kingham
W. Kummer
D. Mack
K.G. Marra
A. Müller
W.L. Murphy
L.E. Niklason
W.L. Neuhuber
D. Newgreen
R. Putz
A. Ratcliffe
J. Rohwedel
H. Sauer
G.C. Schoenwolf
M. Shoichet
E. Thompson
C. Viebahn
A. Wobus
Thanks also go to the following Editorial Board Members:
J.D. Aplin
D.L. Allen
G. Aumüller
R. Balling
F. Beck
M. Bergmann
A.A. Biewener
A.L. Boskey†
A. Brehmer
B.N. Brown
R.C. Burghardt
G. Burnstock
B. Christ†
G.R. Cunha
P. Ekblom†
A. C. Enders
C. Farnum
R. H. W. Funk
N. Fusenig
A. Gibson
M. Glickstein†
P. Groscurth
J.W. Hermanson
P. Kaufmann†
C.J. Kirkpatrick
P. Köpf-Maier
D.H. Leach
J. Lichtman
P. Motta†
O. Ohtani
J.D. Porter
P.J. Reier
R. Roy
D. Scheuermann
R. Segal
F. Sinowatz
M. Sittinger
T.Skutella
G.B. Stark
J. Trotter
E. van der Zypen
G. Weitzer
C.G. Widmer
Additionally, we are grateful to the literally hundreds of active and productive scientists around the world who have provided constructive and useful peer review to papers submitted to Acta Anatomica and Cells Tissues Organs. It is through their efforts that we were able to maintain the high scientific standards for papers published under our guidance.
Finally, very special thanks go to the Karger publishing house for all they have done for us. We have had the privilege of working with two outstanding publishing managers: Thomas Nold and Paul Lavender; many excellent production editors: starting with Fredo Fischer followed by several colleagues, and in recent years Ruedi Jappert and Patrick Näf; the marketing coordinator, at present Franziska Suter, and our wonderful Editorial Assistants: Luzene Hill in Atlanta and Evelyn Lieberherr, Anita Zürcher, Linda Haas, Beatrice Brogli, and Angela Lorenz in Basel. Above all, our great appreciation goes to Thomas Karger, the late Steven Karger, who passed away clearly before his time, and Gabriella Karger for their complete and unending support of everything we did. This has been a great experience for both of us.
Hans-Werner Denker
Arthur W. English