June 2022

Letter From the JCTS Editor: Rocky Times

The most salient advice one can give at this time seems to be to hold on to your hat. We truly seem to be in a time of transition and the question may be transitioning into what? Hopefully it will be an opportunity to question many established dogmas and develop new and highly needed strategies for the future. It is also a time to seriously start to contemplate what kind of world we are leaving to our children and grandchildren. There are many serious issues to address that are in high need of attention – these include the stark effects of health care disparities, the growing tension in society partly driven by economic inequities and limited opportunities for many, the toll taken by gun violence, the increasing threats to a future peaceful world, not to mention a pandemic that we seem to barely keep at bay. Looming even stronger in the background, the still poorly understood but increasingly likely threat of dramatic society challenges driven by climate changes is waiting for solutions. We may this year witness a food shortage on the global scale due to war effects that could be a harbinger of things to come given climate challenges. Nevertheless, in spite of all these threats we should not discount our collective ability to take on such challenges given our considerable arsenal of innovation, technology and ability to harness resources – we just need the will. It is reassuring that the translational science community is being increasingly engaged on a broad scale. 

Given this perspective it may seem somewhat reductionistic to reflect on developments with regard to the Journal of Clinical and Translational Science (JCTS). Nevertheless, we are very pleased that 2022 is turning out to be a banner year for JCTS. Even though we are still not at the 6 month mark for the year, the journal has received close to 70% of the number of submissions for the previous year, 2021. Several of these submissions address ongoing thematic issues, and we are grateful to the authors who have responded to the calls. As the submission process is being completed we expect to publish these thematic issues in late summer – early fall. We have also received a number of inquiries and colleagues have expressed interest in developing additional thematic issues. We expect to be announcing some of these in the coming months and again encourage our colleagues with interest in these areas to consider submissions.

Beyond thematic issues, we are very pleased to note that the number of submissions for regular papers has also increased substantially. Our goal is to provide high quality reviews which we hope will be helpful to authors, as well as to give a timely response. We are privileged to be able to rely on a strong cadre of well qualified reviewers as well as a committed Editorial Board, important underpinnings for the journal. Among recent articles published are studies on the impact of the COVID pandemic on women in health care science research and on conducting community-engaged research, articles addressing recruitment and retention of clinical research professionals, the integration of special and underserved populations in translational research, an evaluation of a case based translational science course and papers on conducting research in criminal justice settings. In closing the circle, many of these papers address problems that were stated in the introduction. We hope that JCTS will continue to serve the community in a productive way to highlight critical issues and that papers published in the journal will contribute to our arsenal of tools to address urgent societal challenges. In this spirit, I wish all of you a relaxing summer and welcome everyone back to an exciting fall.

Lars Berglund, M.D., Ph.D., FAHA

Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Clinical and Translational Science (JCTS)

Lasker Clinical Research Scholars Program: Deadline Tomorrow

The National Institutes of Health, in partnership with the Lasker Foundation, is pleased to announce the 2022-23 Lasker Clinical Research Scholars Program. The program supports clinical researchers in the early stages of their careers, to promote their development to fully independent positions. Lasker Scholars are appointed as independent, tenure-track level investigators in the NIH Intramural Research Program for 5 years, followed by 3 years of funding at an extramural research  institution (up to $500,000 direct costs per year) or continued appointment in the intramural program.  Candidates must have a clinical doctoral degree and a professional license to practice in the United States, and cannot already have obtained tenure at a research institution. The application deadline is June 24, 2022.

More information can be obtained at the Lasker Scholar website, or by contacting Dr. Chuck Dearolf at LaskerScholar@nih.gov.

Career Center

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