Sexually Transmitted Diseases (2000)

ALTHOUGH VOLUME 1, NUMBER 1 of our journal was published in September 1974 as the Journal of the American Venereal Disease Association, our roots can be traced to much earlier in the 20th century. The American Journal of Syphilis, our predecessor journal, was first published in 1917. Dr. Joseph Earle Moore became its editor in 1935. Earle Moore was considered the doyen of American syphilologists. He became Director of the Syphilis Clinic at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1929. The clinic was called Department L (for lues) because the word syphilis could not be used at the time. He established a 70-week treatment schedule for syphilis using alternating courses of arsenic and bismuth, described the natural history of neurosyphilis, and noted the association of false-positive serologic tests for syphilis with other illnesses. Moore was also involved in the early evaluation of penicillin for the treatment of syphilis. Penicillin, of course, changed everything. A 70-week course of heavy metals gave way to a few injections of the new wonder drug. Special clinics closed and investigators sought other challenges. Earle Moore's journal, known in its final years as the American Journal of Syphilis, Gonorrhea and Venereal Disease, ceased publication in 1954. In Moore's words, the journal was discontinuing publication “in part because of diminished clinical interest of physicians and students, in part because investigators, turning to disease problems of more immediate importance, are no longer providing worthwhile manuscripts in sufficient numbers to fill its pages.” Our organization, the American Sexually Transmitted Disease Association (ASTDA), began in 1934 as the American Neisserian Medical Society, an organization which was devoted exclusively to gonorrhea. The American Neisserian Medical Society met regularly until 1942. In 1941, it voted to adopt the American Journal of Syphilis, Gonorrhea and Venereal Disease as the official journal of the society. The American Neisserian Medical Society did not meet during the Second World War. By 1947, when the organization reactivated, the availability of penicillin had revolutionized the management of gonorrhea to the point that a society devoted only to this one disease was not warranted. Accordingly, the organization increased its scope to encompass all sexually transmitted conditions and became the American Venereal Disease Association. The American Journal of Syphilis, Gonorrhea, and Venereal Disease remained the official journal of the Association and a reduced subscription rate was available to its members. The predictions that penicillin would change syphilis and gonorrhea into diseases of primarily historical interest, needless to say, turned out to be incorrect. Both diseases staged comebacks in the 1960s, fueled at least in part by the war in Vietnam, changes in social mores, and decreased funding for control programs. Recognition of the “Venereal Disease Epidemic” of the 1960s led to increased concern and to increased funding. In 1972, the AVDA, stimulated by the growing importance of the field, decided once again to explore the feasibility of publishing a journal, and appointed a committee for this purpose, chaired by Dr. Rudolph H. Kampmeier. This led to the decision to publish the Journal of the American Venereal Disease Association (JAVDA) with Kampmeier as editor. The first issue, was published in September 1974, 20 years after the last issue of the American Journal of Syphilis, Gonorrhea and Venereal Disease. Rudolph Kampmeier, 76 years old in 1974, agreed to serve as founding editor of JAVDA “for a period of two years to get the show on the road.” He was Professor Emeritus at Vanderbilt University where he had had a distinguished academic career. He directed the Medical L (Syphilis) Clinic there from 1936 until 1949, when it closed. He served as President of the American College of Physicians and editor of the Southern Medical Journal. He was elected to the Association of American Physicians and received the Rodman Sheen Award from the American Medical Association. He wrote almost 1,000 published articles including over 40 that appeared in this journal. His classic textbook Essentials in Syphilology was published in 1943 by JB Lippincott Company. The publication of this book began a long association between Rudie Kampmeier and Lippincott. Having recruited an editor, the next step was to identify a publisher. The major publishing houses showed little interest. Woodbine, a small publisher located in Birmingham, agreed to take on our fledgling journal. As a marketing technique, the first two issues of the journal were mailed gratis to over 25,000 potential subscribers. For the inaugural issue alone, the cost of mailing lists, mailing labels, printing, and postage came to over $20,000. At the outset, the journal had about 100 subscribers who paid annual rates of $5.00 (AVDA members) or $10.00 (nonmembers). When the initial mailings of free journals failed to produce an avalanche of new subscribers, the AVDA found itself deeply in debt, extrication from which would take a number of years. The journal matured nicely during Rudie Kampmeier's editorship, publishing four on-time issues a year during 1975 and 1976. In 1975, Woodbine Publishers, whom the AVDA still owed over $20,000, informed us that they would not be able to serve as our publisher beyond the end of 1976. Finding a publisher for a new quarterly journal with a small circulation, minimal advertising revenue, and a large debt was not an easy task. Fortunately, Rudie Kampmeier called on ties with JB Lippincott that went back to the 1940s. As a result of Rudie's personal intervention, Lippincott decided to take a chance on the journal, a decision that has proven to be mutually beneficial, and which quite literally prevented the premature demise of our journal. True to his word, Rudolph Kampmeier asked to be relieved of the editorship at the end of 1976, at the completion of his promised two years. I was appointed to a 5-year term as editor on June 28, 1976, to be effective with the January-March 1977 issue. I do not recall that there was any competition for the position. In 1976, I was a 38-year-old Associate Professor of Medicine at the Channing Laboratory, which was part of the Harvard Medical Unit at Boston City Hospital. In 1977, Harvard's lengthy relationship with Boston City Hospital came to an end. The Channing Laboratory moved to the Harvard Medical School campus and I took a job at the Massachusetts State Laboratory Institute as Director of the Diagnostic Laboratories. I remained in Boston until 1982 when I moved to my current position as Director of the Infectious Diseases program at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn. Our journal's editorial office, such as it was, accompanied me during this peripatetic phase of my career. My first issue as editor (Volume 4, Number 1) was published in the spring of 1977. It had a new editorial board, a new name, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, and a new cover (affectionately referred to by some readers as the “brown journal”). Our finances stabilized. We eventually paid off our debt to Woodbine. The journal became self-sufficient, although the only important source of income was from individual subscribers, mostly AVDA members, who, then as now, received a subscription to the journal as a benefit of membership. The quality of the manuscripts published in our journal gradually increased. I was, however, unable to attract enough suitable manuscripts to allow publication of more than four 64-page issues each year. In 1986, after 10 years as editor, I stepped down. My immediate successor, Dr. Michael Rein, resigned after a brief term. Dr. Julius Schachter took on the journal on an interim basis, and was subsequently formally appointed to the editorship. Julius Schachter, PhD, was in his early 50s when he became editor of Sexually Transmitted Diseases. He was a Professor at the University of California at San Francisco, where he had spent his entire career. Well known to the STD field and highly respected for his work on chlamydia, Schachter was well positioned to take on our journal. Under Julie Schachter's leadership, Sexually Transmitted Diseases has matured. The numbers of submitted manuscripts has increased, initially allowing bimonthly and more recently monthly publication. Institutional subscriptions have gradually increased and now provide most of our income. Advertising revenue has also increased. Once an economic millstone, our journal has become the major source of revenue for the ASTDA. These days, I write mostly textbook chapters and review articles. No matter what topic I review, I find that many of the key original articles appeared in Sexually Transmitted Diseases. Needless to say, the formal citation indices confirm my impression of the impact and importance of our journal. In 1998, we ranked third of 34 journals in dermatology and venereal diseases, and 12th of 36 journals in infectious diseases. These first 25 years have been interesting and rewarding. One wonders what the next 25 years will bring.