We mark the completion of 2004, the first full publication year for this editorial team, with a strong sense that Laboratory Investigation is moving forward successfully. This journal is devoted to high-quality original research that advances the understanding of human disease, based on both human and experimental studies. Particular emphasis is given to original research exploring the mechanisms of disease, including insights gained into the structural and molecular pathogenesis of disease, and the biological basis for morphologic manifestations of disease. Opportunity is also given to major articles presenting technical advances in the investigation or diagnosis of disease.

Of the 155 peer-review papers published in 2004 (volume 84), approximately 10% each addressed diseases of the nervous system, cardiovascular system, gastrointestinal tract, and liver. In the 4 to 7% range were diseases of the hematopoietic system, bone and soft tissue, head and neck, kidney, breast, lung, and urogenital tract. Endocrine, skin, and infectious diseases made up the remainder. Full-length reports describing advances in the molecular diagnosis of human disease constituted 7% of the articles. This broad distribution reflects the diversity of human disease and its pathologic manifestations. Priority is given to high-quality articles specific to their disease/organ discipline and those which report scientific findings of more general interest to our diverse readership. We hold to the hope that monthly perusal of the journal will enable our readers to stay abreast of the breadth of scientific advances in the pathogenesis of human disease—certainly one of the requisites of being a top-quality pathologist. I can speak for the entire editorial group in stating that service as Editors constitutes one of the best educational experiences we have ever had in this marvelous discipline!

In selecting papers for publication, we have highlighted articles of clear general interest to our readership in the monthly feature entitled, ‘Inside Lab Invest’. This article gives background and comment on three to five articles per issue and can also be found online: www.laboratoryinvestigation.org. Another monthly column, ‘Pathology Elsewhere’, reports on recent key publications and that relevance to articles published in the same issue. Judging from the ‘web hits’ on these articles, these two features are widely read; time will tell whether our highlighted selections garner similar attention in the cited literature. Four ‘Minireviews’ were published in 2004, and we hope to increase the regularity of these reviews in the coming year.

There is every indication that Laboratory Investigation is garnering attention from a growing base of scientists worldwide. Under this editorial team (July 2003 to present), submissions have increased 50% when compared to 2002–2003. The quality of submissions is superb. Submitted manuscripts are subjected to rigorous editorial evaluation to determine appropriateness for the journal and to assign an initial scientific priority, drawing upon the diverse scientific expertise of our senior editorial team, with consultation from Editorial Board members as needed. Approximately 45% of manuscripts pass this initial review and undergo external peer-review evaluation. The turnaround time for initial editorial review averages 5 days. For external review, a decision is usually rendered within 30 days, with ‘in-house’ editorial processing time representing 5 to 7 of those days. Our overall ‘turnaround time’ for reaching an initial decision on submitted papers averages 16 calendar days. For a manuscript that is rejected with opportunity to resubmit, there is a 94% likelihood that the manuscript will ultimately be published in the journal; decision time on the resubmitted paper is usually less than 5 days. Finally, accepted articles are published online usually within 5 weeks, and hardcopy within 16 weeks. Thus, a successful article can go through the review/revision process and move to publication with a minimum of delay—67 days on average (including the authors’ revision time) from initial submission to date of online publication, and 112 days until hardcopy publication. We consider this level of performance an absolute requisite for serving authors who submit their manuscripts to the journal. We thank more than 380 outstanding external referees who have provided comprehensive reviews of manuscripts (listed below).

The journal has benefited immensely by becoming a member of the Nature Publishing Group family—a relationship that began with our January 2004 issue. The electronic journal platform supports the rapid review process described above. The journal ‘look’ has been well received, from cover art to format of the published articles. The journal web site is part of the Nature web site family of journals, one of the most prominent publishing houses in the scientific and medical literature. The monthly visitor count to the journal home page has increased eight-fold when compared to the fall of 2003, and the number of registrants receiving electronic notification of the journal's Table of Contents has increased 18-fold. For nonsubscribers visiting the journal web page, highlighted articles (as denoted by ‘Inside Lab Invest’) can be downloaded for free from the journal web site. Perhaps most importantly, the Nature Publishing Group provides outstanding support to the Editorial team, thus helping to ensure that the highest quality product is presented to our readers.

In closing, we feel that Laboratory Investigation holds a solid position in the ranks of pathology and research/experimental medicine journals, with every opportunity to gain a pre-eminent position moving forward. Over the past year, we have had the privilege of publishing first-rate experimental research, bona fide ‘bench-to-bedside’ research articles, and some stunning ‘bedside-to-bench-to-bedside’ advances in the diagnosis of human disease. Human and experimental disease is awe-inspiring in both its molecular and morphologic manifestations. Our goal is to reveal the scientific reasons for these manifestations, and to support advances in the diagnosis and understanding of patients with these disease processes. We look forward to serving you in the coming year.

List of Reviewers for Volume 84, 2004

Acker, Till

Acs, Geza

Adler, Kenneth B

Ahmed, Asif

Albini, Adriana

Aldenborg, Frank

Alpini, Gianfranco

Alvarez, Fernando

Andoh, Akira

Antonescu, Cristina

Aoki, Masahiro

Aplin, John D

Apte, Minoti V

Asa, Sylvia

Atkinson, Mark

Auerbach, Robert

Bahn, Sabine

Bar, Tzachi

Barbaro, Giuseppe

Barber, Alistair

Basson, Marc

Batstone, G Richard

Baum, Bruce

Baumann, Heinz

Benjamin, Laura

Bennett, Anton M

Benya, Sergei

Berg, Daniel

Berliner, Judith

Bernstein, Kenneth

Birembaut, Philippe

Bodine, David

Bosman, Fred

Botchkarev, Vladimir

Brain, Susan

Braunschweig, Richard

Breyer, Matthew

Bridge, Julia

Büchler, Markus

Bueb, Jean-Luc

Burden, Steven J

Burton, Graham

Buxbaum, Joel

Campbell-Thompson, Martha

Camps, Jordi

Cassatella, Marco

Chader, Gerald J

Chan, Wing

Chang, Chia-Yau

Chang, Lung-Ji

Chen, Anping

Chen, Phang-Lang

Choi, Sun-Jin

Coleman, William

Corless, Christopher

Crane-Godreau, Mardi

Crestani, Bruno

Croitoru, Kenneth

Croker, Byron

Czerniak, Bogdan

Dahlgren, Liselotte

Dalla-Favera, Riccardo

D'Amore, Patricia

Daugherty, Allan

Daum, Severin

DeArmond, Stephen

Dimri, Goberdhan

Dixit, Vishwa

Doetschman, Thomas

Dong, Lijin

Drinkwater, Norman

Duchmann, Rainer

Ebina, Masahito

Eble, Johannes

Efferth, Thomas

Eiserich, Jason P

El-Rifai, Wael

Ensoli, Barbara

Farkas, Daniel

Fassler, Reinhard

Fearon, Eric

Feng, Carl

Feron, Olivier

Finnegan, Alison

Fisher, Aron

Fisher, Susan

Fletcher, Jonathan

Fogt, Franz

Forrester, John

Fox, James

Franklin, Rich

Freund, Jean-Noel

Fridman, Rafi

Friedman, Joel

Friess, Helmut

Fujiwara, Hisayoshi

Futscher, Bernard

Gabbiani, Giulio

Gallagher, Hugh

Galli, Stephen

Gao, Shan

Garcia, Marcel

Gariano, Ray

Garkavtsev, Igor

Gibson, Michael K

Gilkeson, Gary

Gilligan, Diana

Ginsberg, Stephen

Gladson, Candece

Goggins, Michael

Goldenring, James R

Grando, Sergei

Grau, Georges

Greiner, Timothy

Gröne, Hermann-Josef

Grotendorst, Gary

Gulley, Margaret

Hammerman, Marc R

Hansen, Peter Riis

Hardikar, Anandwardhan

Harfe, Brian

Harris, Nancy

Hassanein, Ashraf

Heffelfinger, Sue

Hemby, Scott

Hes, Frederik

Hickey, William

Hinton, David

Hogarty, Michael

Holliday, Shannon

Homer, Robert

Hopfner, Karl-Peter

Horii, Akira

Horkko, Sohvi

Housset, Chantal

Huppertz, Berthold

Hutt-Fletcher, Lindsey

Iczkowski, Kenneth

Iiai, Tsuneo

Ikeda, Eiji

Ingbar, David

Iruela-Arispe, Luisa

Jaeschke, Hartmut

Jaffe, Elaine

Jager, Dirk

Jahrling, Peter

Jain, Rakesh

Jennette, J Charles

Johnson, Colin

Kalluri, Raghu

Kamp, David

Kane, Agnes

Kanwar, Yashpal

Karpus, William

Kasahara, Hideko

Kasinath, Balakuntalam

Kelly, Darren

Kelvin, David

Ketteler, Markus

Killian, J Keith

Kim, Hyeyoung

Kimmel, Paul

Kiss, Robert

Kiuru-Enari, Sari

Kleinman, Hynda

Klocker, Helmut

Knudsen, Beatrice

Kobori, Hiroyuki

Kobzik, Lester

Körbling, Martin

Kovacs, Kalman

Krane, Stephen

Krause, Diane

Kreipe, H Heinrich

Kuhajda, Francis P

Kuver, Rahul

Lagunoff, David

Lakhani, Sunil

Lakkis, Fadi

Lamps, Laura

Lasota, Jerzy

Lecour, Sandrine

Lehmann, Alan

Leung, Donald

Leung, Po Sing

Ley, Klaus

Li, Jin-Ping

Li, Jisu

Liao, Daiqing

Lichtenberger, Len

Lim, Megan

Lingen, Mark

Liou, Gregory

Litherland, Sally

Little, Randie

Liu, Chen

Locker, Joseph

Lorentz, Axel

Louie, Diane

Louis, David

Ludwig, Andreas

LuValle, Phyllis A

Madaio, Michael

Madsen, Karen

Makino, Hirofumi

Malkas, Linda

Mandell, Kenneth J

Manne, Upender

Marc, Ladanyi

Maria-Engler, Silvya

Martin, John

Martinez-Hernandez, Antonio

Masini, Emanuela

Masliah, Eliezer

Mattie, Mark

Mazzanti, Roberto

McCuskey, Robert

McIndoe, Rick

McKenna, Robert

McKinnon, Peter

McManus, Bruce

Mehal, Wajahat

Melief, Cees

Menko, Sue

Michalopoulos, George

Miettinen, Markku

Mignatti, Paolo

Milstone, David

Mischel, Paul

Mokry, Jaroslav

Monaco, Salvatore

Mora, Jaume

Morel, Laurence

Morris, Andrew

Moscinski, Lynn

Moses, Marsha A

Mufson, Elliott

Murphy, George

Mustoe, Tom

Nakano, Toru

Nakshatri, Harikrishna

Nanda, Navreet

Nanus, David

Nardone, Gerardo

Natarajan, Viswanathan

Neel, Benjamin G

Newsome, Philip

Nicosia, Roberto

Nicosia, Santo

O'Connor, Kevin

Odorisio, Teresa

Odze, Robert

Oh, Paul

Ohashi, Ryuji

Ohgaki, Hiroko

Ohshima, Toshio

Olovsson, Matts

Olson, Susan

Oppenheim, Joost

Otonkoski, Timo

Ovstebo, Reidun

Owens, Gregory

Pardo, Annie

Paschen, Wulf

Patterson, Paul

Pearse, David B

Peck, Ammon

Pepper, Michael

Perez-Fontan, J

Pinzani, Massimo

Piris, Miguel A

Polverini, Peter

Popp, Mick

Poppema, Sibrand

Proost, Paul

Prystowsky, Michael

Pyne, Susan

Quinn, Frederick

Qumsiyeh, Mazin

Rahman, Sakhawat H

Raines, Elaine

Ramadori, Giuliano

Rand, Kenneth

Ray, Patricio

Reddi, A Hari

Reddy, Janardan

Reddy, Pavan

Reifenberger, Guido

Reimann, Jörg

Reutelingsperger, Chris

Reynolds, Albert B

Robertson, Keith

Roskams, Tania

Roylance, Rebecca

Rubin, Mark A

Sahni, Sanjeev

Sapi, Eva

Saubermann, Lawrence

Schmitt-Graff, A

Schneider, Barbara

Schnitt, Stuart

Schulte-Hermann, Rolf

Seetharam, Bellur

Sen, Malini

Seruca, Raquel

Seth, Arun

Shi, Shan-Rong

Shih, Ie-Ming

Shupe, Thomas

Siegal, Gene

Siemann, Dietmar

Silliman, Christopher

Siminovitch, Katherine

Sladky, John

Snell, William

Soto, Carlos Enrique

Spencer, Melissa

Spiegel, Sarah

Spitz, Francis

Sporn, Michael

Stagg, Andrew

Steinman, Ralph

Stolz, Donna

Striker, Gary

Strongin, Alex

Sugrue, Steve

Suhr, Ole

Svetlov, Stanislav

Swift, Galvin H

Tamm, Ernst

Tang, Dean

Telford, Sam

Theise, Neil

Thorgeirsson, Snorri

Tidball, James

Tokita, Kazutaka

Trucco, Massimo

Tsao, Ming

Tsilibary, Effie

Tuder, Rubin

Uitto, Jouni

Ushio-Fukai, Masuko

Van der Velden, Vincent HJ

Vignery, Agnes

Visakorpi, Tapio

Visner, Gary

Vito, Pasquale

Vlodavsky, Israel

Walsh, Kenneth

Walter, Michael

Wang, Kevin

Warmann, Steven

Washington, Mary K

Watanabe, Hideomi

Weiss, Lawrence

Wells, Rebecca

White, III, Charles

White, James

Whitehouse, Chris

Wick, Mark

Wiendl, Heinz

Winters, Gayle

Winter, William

Wright, George L, Jr

Wunderlich, John R

Yamashita, Uki

Yang, Lily

Yasukawa, Masaki

Yeh, I-Tien

Yin, Zhinan

Yuen, Kwok-yung

Zavolan, Mihaela

Zelterman, Daniel

Zhong, Robert

Zhou, XJ Joseph

Zimmermann, Arthur

Zucker, Stanley

Three Anonymous Reviewers