Embarking on a new journey with the allergy, asthma & immunology research.

Impact on an international scale: Growing our reach within the allergy and asthma fields for the past 2 years

Since the Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Research (AAIR) launched its first issue in October of 20091 and thanks to the exceptional quality of all contributors, it only took 18 months for the AAIR to receive the honor of being listed on the SCIE which occurred in June, 2011.2 Recently, in 2012, we were awarded our highest impact factor (IF) of 2.65. This is a significant achievement as it is the highest score that a medical journal published in Korea has received. The AAIR is devoted to publishing timely clinical, basic, and translational research papers, as well as instructive case reports. Our journal circulated on a quarterly basis (Jan, Apr, Jul, Oct) for the first 2 years and was recently extended to a bimonthly (Jan, Mar, May, Jul, Sep, Nov) circulation since 2012.3 All of this has all been made possible due to the strong support and sponsorship of 2 major academic societies in Korea, the Korean Academy of Asthma, Allergy and Clinical Immunology (KAAACI) and the Korean Academy of Pediatric Allergy and Respiratory Disease (KAPARD). I would like to express my greatest thanks to all those involved in growing the journal to the extent that they have. My sincerest thanks to all the editorial and advisory board members, authors, reviewers, and editors for their tireless effort. Moreover, I want to express my special thanks to Prof. Choon-Sik Park, the former editor-in-chief, Profs. You-Sook Cho and Woo Kyung Kim, a managing editor, and Prof. Choon Shil Lee, an advisory board member, for their professionalism and dedication to their work for our journal.

Continuing to build on past success

First, we are keen to continue our promotion of the AAIR as a world class journal for clinical and basic research on asthma, allergy, and clinical immunology. Now our editorial team is embarking on a new journey this year to accelerate our process for receiving, evaluating, and publishing the highest quality papers in our field. Let me take the time to acknowledge the AAIR would not be as successful without all your great contributions. We want to take this opportunity to thank you again and encourage submissions of your very best research to the AAIR as well as extend invitations for cutting edge reviews. Our IF is on the rise for the AAIR. In 2011, we had score of 1.91 which increased in 2012 to 2.65. In the Allergy category, our IF ranks 10th out of 23 journals.

Secondly, to continue to improve our IF, we would like to ask for everyone to cite relevant articles that were published in the AAIR when you submit manuscripts to other SCI journals. Additionally, the AAIR is working on alternative ways to easily distribute articles from the journal in an effort to reach far beyond what traditional methods previously could. We have developed mobile versions of the journal for easier reading on smartphones and tablets as well as an online newsletter. You can also share articles from our journal on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook with just a simple click. Our goal is to spread our content and reach more people than we could with the traditional channels.

Thirdly, the prevalence of allergic disease is rapidly increasing and will further increase due to environmental and climate changes. According to each region, the phenotypes of allergic diseases and genetic and epigenetic mechanisms are different in the pathogenesis and management. The AAIR will highlight regionally specific topics in addition to its continued focus on the current global trends within our field.

Finally, as the new editor-in-chief and on behalf of all of the editorial team, I look forward to the excellent and continued support from all the members of the KAAACI and KAPARD. Thank you.