Changing of the guard…the old and the new

Blood is the premier journal of hematology. As we transition to new leadership, we recommit to representing the full scope of our burgeoning discipline through the presentation of cutting-edge science and transformative clinical advances. Over the past 7 years, under the inspired leadership of Bob Löwenberg, Blood has been transformed by new features and a new appearance both in print and online. Its impact factor sits at an all-time high (16.562), and its readership is broader than ever. As we look forward to assuming the leadership of the journal, we seek to build on Dr. Löwenberg’s accomplishments, preserving popular new manuscript types and adding a few value-added features of our own.

In 2020, Blood will launch weekly podcasts to accompany the release of each new issue of the journal. Through the collaboration of the editors, special section editors, scriptwriters, and professional narrators, we hope to highlight leading selections from each issue to increase engagement through the opportunity to “hear” as well as read the journal. We also hope to use podcasts to increase the visibility of our immensely popular Review Series. In addition, we will expand the How I Treat series, having explored ways to enhance it over the last year. Finally, we will deliver more Blood Spotlight reviews to keep the readers up to date on new drugs and paradigm-changing practice innovations.

The international scope of the journal will continue to grow. We have expanded the reach of the journal through local Spanish, Italian, and Latin American versions of the journal with local-language commentaries and translated abstracts. We are launching local editions of Blood in China and Japan, with anticipated further expansion to come.

Our primary goal remains to serve our readers and authors. We urge you to submit your very best work to the journal, where we make speedy standard review as well as Fast Track review a priority. We welcome any advice or suggestions on how we can improve the relevance of our content to fit your scientific and practice needs. We are excited to assume the helm of this treasured resource.