Respirology year-in-review 2008: Clinical science

Respirology continues to serve as the pre-eminent regional respiratory journal for Asian and Pacific countries and submissions have continued to increase, as has the quality of published papers. Rather than reporting mostly descriptive data, many authors have endeavoured to also examine disease mechanisms with the aim of improving our understanding of the underlying disease process. We are starting to move from descriptions of the disease and where it occurs to a more developed style able to provide mechanistic information that may ultimately contribute to the development of treatment solutions and better disease management. The shift in emphasis reflects a growing maturity of Respirology and indicates that as an academic journal it can contribute significantly to future dissemination of new scientific knowledge related to respiratory diseases. It is expected that this `maturity? will encourage authors to send their `good? papers first to Respirology and indeed the journal is now receiving many manuscripts from areas outside of our traditional support base.