Clinical Microbiology Reviews: Genesis of a Journal

Abstract

In 1986 planning for a new ASM review journal, Clinical Microbiology Reviews (CMR), began. CMR would publish articles primarily of interest to persons concerned with pathogenesis, laboratory diagnosis, epidemiology, and control of human and veterinary pathogens. The first issue was published in January 1988, with quarterly publication since then. The journal quickly became successful in terms of subscribers and impact on the field, earning a strong national and international reputation. The achievements of CMR are owed to many persons, including the editorial board, the production team, and especially the contributing authors.

IN THE BEGINNING

In 1985, the Publications Board recommended to the Council Policy Committee of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) that the ASM publish a new quarterly journal. This publication, the Society’s ninth journal, would be called Clinical Microbiology Reviews (CMR), although at first it was referred to as Reviews of Clinical Microbiology. The journal was conceived as a quarterly counterpart to the prestigious and long-term publication Microbiological Reviews (now called Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews). CMR would concern itself primarily with articles of interest to persons concerned with pathogenesis, laboratory diagnosis, epidemiology, and control of human and veterinary pathogens. The recommendation of the Publications Board to establish this new journal was approved by the Council Policy Committee.

The search for the first editor of CMR resulted in the appointment of Josephine A. Morello of the University of Chicago Medical Center. In concert with the ASM Publications Board, she recognized the need for this journal in the rapidly evolving field of clinical microbiology. After a lull in which the field had seen few advances, the development of diagnostic DNA probes and other molecular techniques, as well as an expanding population of immunocompromised patients susceptible to “old and new” infections, had resulted in an explosion of novel information. As with other areas of microbiology, it had become extremely difficult to keep up with the field only by reading original papers. Although attendance at national meetings affords the opportunity to interact with colleagues and to attend seminars and symposia where new material is presented and synthesized, many bench technologists, an important audience for the new publication, are not able to attend such meetings. Thus, this quarterly review journal would provide a forum accessible to a broad constituency.

ASSEMBLING AN EDITORIAL BOARD

The first planning and advisory meeting for the new journal was held in March 1986 during the 86th Annual Meeting of the ASM in Washington, D.C. The participants were chosen not only because of their expertise in diverse areas of clinical microbiology but also because they were potential editorial board members. Present were Albert Balows, Don Brenner, Judith Domer, Kenneth Ryan, James Smith, Thomas Smith, Joseph Staneck, and Kenneth Thompson. Helen Whiteley, chair of the ASM Publications Board; Linda Illig, managing editor of Journals Division; and Kirk Jensen, director of publications, also attended. Consensus about the need for this new journal was not unanimous among the participating clinical microbiologists (e.g., “Who would have time to read yet another journal?”), but all agreed to lend support and to suggest potential topics for reviews. Considering the time that would be needed to solicit, receive, and review completed manuscripts and for the production process, the first issue of CMR was scheduled for publication in January 1988, to be followed by issues in April, July, and October and quarterly during these months thereafter.

The first editorial board was composed of Judith Domer, Kenneth Ryan, Christine Sanders, Thomas Smith, Joseph Staneck, and Kenneth Thompson. Together, they provided expertise in the areas of clinical microbiology encompassing general clinical microbiology, antimicrobial agents, mycology, microbial pathogenesis, infectious diseases, virology, and immunology. Lynne Garcia joined the board with the second issue to represent the area of parasitology, and Betty Ann Forbes and Daniel F. Sahm joined in 1993 to help with the new focus on molecular biology. Table 1 lists the present and former members of the CMR editorial board and their primary areas of specialization, although each provided expertise in other categories as well. Their efforts were invaluable in the start-up and subsequent success of the journal.

TABLE 1.

Alphabetical listing of CMR editorial board members, 1988 to 1998

Editorial board member	Dates of servicea	Area(s) of specialization
Joseph M. Campos	1990–1992	General clinical microbiology
Judith E. Domer	1988–present	Mycology
Prabhavathi B. Fernandes	1991–1993 (April)	Antimicrobial agents
Betty Ann Forbes	1993 (April)–present	Molecular biology, virology; editor in chiefb
Lynne S. Garcia	1988 (April)–present	Parasitology; editorc
Kevin Hazen	1996 (April)–present	Mycology
Timothy E. Kiehn	1990–1992	General clinical microbiology, mycobacteriology
J. Michael Miller	1992 (April)–present	General clinical microbiology
Josephine A. Morello	1988–1997 (July)	Editor, editor in chiefc
Andrew Onderdonk	1998–present	General clinical microbiology, veterinary microbiology
Michael A. Pfaller	1993–1995	Epidemiology, mycology
Kenneth J. Ryan	1988–1992	Microbial pathogenesis, infectious diseases
Daniel F. Sahm	1993–present	Antimicrobial agents, molecular biology
Christine C. Sanders	1988–1990	Antimicrobial agents
Thomas F. Smith	1988–1992	Virology
Steven C. Specter	1992 (April)–present	Virology, immunology
Joseph L. Staneck	1988–1989	General clinical microbiology
Gregory A. Storch	1996 (April)–present	Infectious diseases, virology
Kenneth D. Thompson	1988–present	Virology, immunology; editorc

^aTerms are from January through December except where noted. 

^bAppointed editor in chief in July 1997. 

^cIn July 1992, the editorial board structure was changed so that the editor became editor in chief and two editors were appointed. 

FILLING PAGES

On the basis of the Microbiological Reviews experience, it was expected that receiving sufficient manuscripts to produce the journal in a timely fashion would be a daunting task. To insure a steady flow of manuscripts and avoid duplication of topics, the editorial board agreed to meet in a marathon session for one day each year to suggest and select the subject matter that it considered deserving of in-depth reviews. Once the topics are selected, the editorial board members have the task of contacting potential authors to convince them about the need for reviews on the subjects for which they are acknowledged experts.

The editorial process.

To assure consistent quality of the review articles, an outline describing the extent and scope of the paper is requested a few months before manuscript receipt. The outlines are reviewed for content and completeness by several editorial board members, and comments and suggestions are forwarded to the authors. Each completed manuscript is peer reviewed by at least two persons actively working in the pertinent field and sometimes by the editorial board member who solicited the article. The editor in chief also reviews every manuscript before returning the reviewers’ assessments and her own to the author. Her comments often provide suggestions intended to improve comprehension for CMR’s wide audience with diverse backgrounds and ensure consistency with ASM editorial style. Final manuscript review and acceptance are also functions of the editor in chief.

The result.

Although some skeptics of the journal predicted that the number of potential pertinent subjects was finite, the progress in the field has been such that each year more than 70 topics have been proposed and between 21 and 36 topics have been published in regular issues from 1988 through 1998 (Table 2). It soon became evident, however, that colleagues who agreed to contribute reviews were burdened by many other professional responsibilities (and often personal hardships) that prevented timely completion of their articles, or even completion at all. Thus, approximately 40 to 50% of promised manuscripts never materialized and the time to completion varied from an average of 2 years to more than 7 years.

TABLE 2.

Articles and pages published in CMR, 1988 to 1998

Yr	No. of articles published	No. (%) of solicited articles	No. (%) of non-U.S. articlesa	No. of pages published
1988	28	23 (82)	1 (4)	446
1989	24 (48)b	20 (83)	2 (8)	436 (585)b
1990	21	15 (71)	4 (19)	396
1991	28	23 (82)	4 (14)	502
1992	25	21 (84)	3 (12)	432
1993	22	19 (86)	2 (9)	444
1994	29	21 (72)	9 (31)	604
1995	32	27 (84)	7 (22)	616
1996	33	27 (81)	9 (27)	586
1997	36	26 (72)	13 (36)	792
1998	31	21 (68)	11 (35)	657

^aAuthored or coauthored by a person(s) residing outside the United States (see also Table 3). 

^bNumbers in parentheses include a 24-article, 149-page supplement, “Perspectives on Pathogenic Neisseriae,” from the Sixth International Pathogenic Neisseriae Conference. 

As the reputation of the journal grew, many authors considered CMR as the primary vehicle for publishing their review work. Although from 68 to 86% of each volume was filled with invited articles, the remaining 14 to 32% was comprised of articles that had not been solicited by the editorial board members (Table 2). These included a few unsolicited articles sent to Microbiological Reviews but deemed too clinically oriented for that journal and thus referred to CMR by its editors in chief. In a fortunate happenstance, the first article published in CMR, “Clostridium difficile: Its Disease and Toxins” by D. M. Lyerly, H. C. Krivan, and T. D. Wilkins (4), was referred from Microbiological Reviews. This article, describing clinical, laboratory, and pathogenetic features of an organism of increasing medical concern, was a model for future submissions and to date has been one of the top 10 CMR articles cited by others (see Table 4). In 1989, as a promotion for CMR, a supplementary issue, containing 24 articles from the proceedings of the Sixth International Pathogenic Neisseriae Conference, was published.

TABLE 4.

Twelve most frequently cited articles in CMR^ab

Author(s)	Title	Yr
M. A. Karmali	Infection by verocytoxin-producing Escherichia coli	1989
K. P. Klugman	Pneumococcal resistance to antibiotics	1990
B. E. Murray	The life and times of the enterococcus	1990
V. A. Fischetti	Streptococcal M protein: molecular design and biological behavior	1989
J. S. Wolfson and D. C. Hooper	Fluoroquinolone antimicrobial agents	1989
D. M. Lyerly, H. C. Krivan, and T. D. Wilkins	Clostridium difficile: its disease and toxins	1988
W. L. Current and L. S. Garcia	Cryptosporidiosis	1991
J. R. Johnson	Virulence factors in Escherichia coli urinary tract infection	1991
F. C. Tenover	Diagnostic deoxyribonucleic acid probes for infectious diseases	1988
T. G. Emori and R. P. Gaynes	An overview of nosocomial infections, including the role of the microbiology laboratory	1993
C. B. Inderlied, C. A. Kemper, and L. E. M. Bermudez	The Mycobacterium avium complex	1993
M. A. Pfaller and L. A. Herwaldt	Laboratory, clinical, and epidemiological aspects of coagulase-negative staphylococci	1988

^aListed in order of frequency from most cited. 

^bSource: reference 1 (citations as of 4 January 1999). 

In keeping with the expanding international focus of the ASM, the number of invited and unsolicited articles authored or coauthored by persons residing outside the United States increased from 1 (4%) in 1988 to 13 (36%) in 1997 (Table 2). By the end of 1998, submissions from 24 countries had been published (Table 3).

TABLE 3.

Countries of authors or coauthors residing outside the United States

Country	No. of articlesab
Canada	11
England	10
France	7
Australia	4
Belgium	4
Germany	4
Italy	4
The Netherlands	4
Switzerland	4
Spain	3
Austria	2
Finland	2
Norway	2

^aMore than one country counted if coauthors resided in different countries. 

^bOne contribution each came from authors or coauthors residing in the following countries: Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Denmark, Ireland, Japan, the Philippines, South Africa, Sweden, Thailand, and Wales. 

KEEPING UP WITH THE “HOT” TOPICS

As described earlier, each year the editorial board is faced with the challenge of proposing current and cutting-edge subjects that are significant to the general field of clinical microbiology. To determine how successfully this responsibility has been attained, an on-line search of the most frequently cited CMR articles was made through the Institute for Scientific Information’s Web of Science (1). Table 4 lists the 12 CMR articles cited most often as of 4 January 1999. Each article was cited 150 or more times in other publications, and the top article (3) was cited more than 500 times. Table 5 lists other popular topics published in CMR, those articles cited 100 or more times. Because the citations are cumulative, more recently published articles have not yet achieved sufficient “hits” to be included in these two lists. Table 6 includes the five most-cited articles from 1995 through 1997, and the search revealed citations to a number of articles published in 1998, one of which had already been cited 22 times (5).

TABLE 5.

Topics of CMR articles cited 100 or more times^abc

First author	Topic	Yr
R. Weber*	Human microsporidial infections	1994
A. P. Johnson*	Resistance to vancomycin and teicoplanin	1990
E. O. Major	JC virus, pathogenesis and molecular biology	1992
A. Schuchat	Epidemiology of listeriosis	1991
J. F. Prescott	Rhodococcus equi, human and animal pathogen	1991
J. H. Rex	Antifungal susceptibility testing	1993
J. L. Penner	The genus Campylobacter: a decade of progress	1988
J. M. Janda	Vibrio spp., epidemiology and pathogenesis	1988
P. H. Gilligan	Microbiology of disease in cystic fibrosis	1991
J. M. Janda	The genus Aeromonas: advances in taxonomy, pathogenesis, and infection	1991
M. B. Coyle	Corynebacteria, clinical and laboratory aspects	1990
Y. Rikihisa	Ehrlichiae and ehrlichial diseases	1991
H. F. Chambers	Methicillin-resistant staphylococci	1988
J. W. Figueroa	Infectious disease associated with complement deficiencies	1991
R. C. Barnes*	Human chlamydial infections, laboratory diagnosis	1989
A. van Belkum	DNA fingerprinting of microorganisms by PCR	1994
T. B. May	Pseudomonas aeruginosa, alginate synthesis and cystic fibrosis	1991
C. M. Litwin	Role of iron in regulating virulence genes	1993
R. J. Chiodini	Crohn’s disease and mycobacterioses	1989
R. A. Fromtling*	Overview of azole derivatives	1988
R. R. Brubaker*	Yersiniae, factors promoting acute and chronic disease	1991
S. A. Morse*	Haemophilus ducreyi and chancroid	1989
L. G. Wayne*	Mycobacterial agents of newly recognized or infrequent disease	1992
C. L. Hatheway	Toxigenic clostridia	1990
B. W. Catlin	Branhamella catarrhalis, gaining respect as a pathogen	1990
A. G. Barbour	Lyme borreliosis: laboratory aspects	1988

^aExcludes articles listed in Table 4. 

^bListed in order of frequency from most cited. Consecutive articles indicated by asterisks are cited the same number of times. 

^cSource: reference 1 (citations as of 4 January 1999). 

TABLE 6.

Five most frequently cited articles in CMR, 1994 to 1997^a,b

Yr	First author	Topic
1994	R. Weberc	Human microsporidial infections
	A. van Belkumc	DNA fingerprinting of microorganisms by PCR
	W. E. Kloos	Clinical significance of coagulase-negative staphylococci
	M. K. Hostetter	Candida sp. interaction with epithelial and endothelial surfaces
	O. Olsvik	Magnetic separation techniques in diagnostic microbiology
1995	N. Woodford	Current perspectives on glycopeptide resistance
	D. M. Livermore	β-Lactamases in laboratory and clinical resistance
	T. G. Mitchell	Cryptococcosis in the era of AIDS
	E. De Clercq	Antiviral therapy for human immunodeficiency virus infections
	C.-C. Kuo	Chlamydia pneumoniae (TWAR)
1996	E. Bergogne-Bérézin	Acinetobacter spp. as nosocomial pathogens
	J. O. Falkinham	Epidemiology of infection by nontuberculous mycobacteria
	D. N. Fredricks	Sequence-based identification of microbial pathogens
	S. K. Fridkin	Epidemiology of nosocomial fungal infections
	D. R. Lucey	Type 1 and type 2 cytokine dysregulation in human diseases
1997	G. Funke	Clinical microbiology of coryneform bacteria
	R. D. Perry	Yersinia pestis—etiologic agent of plague
	C. M. Black	Laboratory diagnosis of Chlamydia trachomatis infections
	B. E. Dunn	Helicobacter pylori
	R. A. Miller	Role of oxidants in microbial pathophysiology

^aListed in order of frequency from most cited. 

^bSource: reference 1 (citations as of 4 January 1999). 

^cIncluded also in Table 5. 

From CMR’s inception, its scope has stated that “Appropriate reviews would include those addressing pathogenetic mechanisms, specific or groups of microbial pathogens, clinical and laboratory aspects of newly recognized or reemerging infectious diseases, recently developed antimicrobial agents and their application, and new diagnostic laboratory technology.” As borne out by an inspection of the most commonly cited articles (Tables 4 to 6), the chosen scope has accurately reflected the themes of essential use and interest to CMR readers; reviews pertaining to all of these topics are included in the lists.

MEASURING SUCCESS

The information in Tables 4 to 6 validates that CMR has been a source of important information for its readers. Even from its first year, however, it was apparent that CMR would become an unqualified success. More than 5,000 ASM members and nonmembers subscribed during the first year, and the number doubled to almost 10,000 by 1994. Whereas most journals require approximately 5 years to become financially viable, CMR was financially successful after only the second year. Although the level of subscriptions for most journals has varied, CMR has held third place among the 10 ASM journals (Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology, the 10th ASM journal, was established in 1994) after the Journal of Clinical Microbiology and Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews. By the end of its first year of publication, the Literature Selection Technical Review Committee of the National Library of Medicine had recommended that CMR be included in its MEDLARS system, available on-line to more than 17,000 (at that time) individuals and institutions worldwide.

Table 7 provides additional information for the years 1990 through 1997 available from the Institute for Scientific Information (2). Except for its first 2 years of publication (1988 and 1989), in terms of citations, CMR has ranked among the top three microbiology journals published worldwide, with an impact factor that has risen from 2.4 to 8.6 or higher. The impact factor relates to the average number of times articles published within the past 2 years have been cited. These data are especially significant because the top two ranked journals (the former Microbiological Reviews and Annual Reviews of Microbiology) publish articles relevant to the entire field of microbiology, in contrast to the more limited scope of CMR.

TABLE 7.

CMR citation rankings, 1990 to 1997

Yr	Impact factora	Rank among microbiology journalsb
1990c	2.447	11
1991	5.797	3
1992	8.367	2
1993	7.208	3
1994	7.511	3
1995	8.922	3
1996	9.410	3
1997	8.585	3

^aThe impact factor relates to the number of times the journal is cited in scientific publications in the previous 2 years. See reference 2 for source. 

^bEleventh of 59 journals in 1990, 3rd of 71 journals in 1997. 

^cData for citations in 1988 and 1989 papers. 

Thus, the early promise of CMR has continued through its now 11 years of publication. In 1997, Josephine A. Morello completed her final term as editor in chief of CMR and was succeeded by Betty Ann Forbes of SUNY Health Science Center at Syracuse, N.Y. Dr. Forbes’ commitment to the high quality and timeliness of the submissions ensures CMR’s continued success.