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75 Years of Blood Excellence and Exploration

November 15, 2021

Now celebrating 75 years of publication, the Society’s flagship journal Blood is in the best shape of its life. It is the #1 cited journal in the field of hematology, has an average of 452 references daily, and recently reported an impact factor of 22.113. Each year, ASH News Daily checks in with the Editors of the journal, and for 2021, Editor-in-Chief Dr. Nancy Berliner (left) and Deputy Editor Dr. Andrew Roberts (right) shared their thoughts on the impact of COVID-19 on publishing, the Blood Podcast, and more.

ASH News Daily: Milestones like 75-year anniversaries prompt people to look back at the best and brightest. What is one of the biggest innovations published in the 75th year of Blood?

Editors Nancy Berliner, MD, and Andrew Roberts, MBBS, PhD: It is hard to understate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on almost all aspects of the experience of steering the journal through the past year. While not necessarily an innovation, we have prided ourselves on maintaining a high standard with regard to publications around COVID-19, a subject that has garnered nearly 200,000 publications on PubMed! COVID-19 has enormous impact on hematology, both because of the hematologic complications of the disease and the dangers that it poses to our vulnerable populations. We are proud of our insistence on limiting our published content to only the best of the work in this area, making it clear that the quality needs to meet the standards of our other published content.

AND: The Blood Podcast has been one of the most explosive communication tools of the past several years. Why do you think Blood podcasts are so popular with hematologists right now?

Editors: With the podcasts, we have tried to pick three interesting articles from each issue that can be presented succinctly and clearly. We are delighted that they have become so popular, and we think it is owing to the quality of the product engendered by the tireless efforts of the podcast scriptwriters and our team of Special Editors. Podcasts are generally popular, but the most common venue for listening to them is when commuting to and from work. We launched them just before the COVID pandemic and were worried they would get less uptake because everyone was staying home and working remotely. We were thrilled with the response we got despite the pandemic, and we anticipate that more people will listen as the closures wane and people spend more time going to and from the workplace. One tip — the readers read quite slowly, so if your commute is short, listen at 1½ speed!

AND: At some point as early-career hematologists, you opened a copy of the Blood journal for the very first time. What was your first impression, and what has been most remarkable about the journal’s growth over the years?

Editors: Blood grabs you when you read it for the first time as a hematologist-to-be. Thinking, “Now I understand” is a memory we each have. When I first started to read Blood, it was a monthly journal. It had a very formal presentation, with a list of articles on the front cover and no artwork. Over the years, the journal went first to every other week and now to weekly issues. There has been increasing attention to the visual experience of viewing the journal both in print and online, including artwork on the front cover, “kickers” highlighting important articles, a standard palette and appearance for figure graphics, and visual abstracts. All of this has led to a sleeker and more eye-catching journal. The one constant has been a commitment to quality science, cutting-edge information, and practice changing evidence.

AND: Global reach and diversity and inclusion are priorities across science publishing. How can your work as the Editor-in-Chief and Deputy Editor of the premier hematology journal have an impact in these areas?

Editors: Blood has a major commitment in both areas. Blood is an international journal, with its content of very wide relevance and reflecting the best hematology research from around the world. Our global outreach has resulted in international editions that are tailored to the needs of the international populations in Spain, Italy, Latin America, China, and Japan. These include local language translation of abstracts and selected full-length articles. The collaboration with local editors has been extremely successful and has widened our Blood family. Regarding diversity, we have made a major effort to improve the diversity of our reviewers, our editorial board, and our Associate Editor team. We have embraced ASH’s efforts to focus on improving our available data on aspects of gender and ethnic diversity to make us better able to monitor and improve our response to these issues.

AND: How are ASH and the Blood editorial team celebrating 75 years of journal excellence?

Editors: We had planned to have a series of events and celebrations to commemorate our 75 years as the flagship journal of ASH and the #1 journal in hematology. However, the pandemic and its associated challenges have made this a celebration of having survived one and a half years of remote activity! At the annual meeting we will mark this anniversary with a joint reception with Women in Hematology, as a celebration of this important milestone and also a celebration of the fact that three of the four Editors-in-Chief in the ASH portfolio of publications are women!

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