By S. Terence Dunn, PhD Chair, Publications Committee e-mail: terence-dunn@ouhsc.edu

At the end of the year, all subdivisions and committees look back and take stock of their productivity. I can say assuredly that the members of the Publications Committee have been busy and have initiated many new projects this year. Four manuscripts were generated from various AMP Working Groups during 2008. These articles have undergone or are in the process of the formal internal review process before being submitted to JMD for consideration for publication. The bimonthly “Molecular Edge” articles, authored by various AMP members, have continued to be a popular contribution to ADVANCE for Administrators of the Laboratory. In addition, several other articles were formally reviewed by Pubs and published in a variety of other magazines and journals. In response to the increasing and diversified activities of the Publications Committee in review of these different manuscripts, we recently revised our policy to formalize the review process for the various types of articles.

The Web Editorial Board, comprised of a dozen or so AMP volunteers, was created to bring created to bring new content and functionality to the AMP website. Mary Lowery Nordberg is heading up this ambitious venture and with the help of a great cadre of designers and content-oriented individuals, I can assure you that we will be seeing big changes to the website in the upcoming year and beyond. The AMP Test Directories will be an integral component of the website development process and Alexis Carter is working as part of the Web Editorial team to bring some additional functionality; the directories were updated early in 2008 with a method by which individual labs can update the validated specimen types for each of the tests performed, and Alexis is currently implementing an improved search function.

Pubs also acquired a new member with the appointment of Qiulu Pan as Associate Moderator. He will be helping out Shuji Ogino with moderation of CHAMP, so look out for his name popping up on the CHAMP listserv occasionally. This represents a busy time of the year for Kathleen Murphy who will be reviewing presentations from the Annual Meeting in Grapevine for posting to the AMP Web Library. Thanks to Maricel Herrera, Mary Williams and the Session Moderators/Subdivision Chairs for all their help in hustling for copies of presentations before, during and after the meeting. As usual, Kathleen is always willing to receive other slide presentations for posting to the library that would be of educational value to our membership; so, if you have some slide sets that you would like to share, please contact her at kmurphy4@jhmi.edu.

Marlene Sabbath-Solitare and Teresita Cuyegkeng Redondo, our wonderful AMP Newsletter Editors, have (as usual) turned out on schedule three fabulous editions of the Newsletter this past year with the introduction of a new look (color) and feel (heavier paper stock) to the product. This year, we are testing an electronic Newsletter.  Please let us know how you like it.  The new electronic Newsletter is created in-house at the AMP Executive Offices.

In addition, The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics (JMD) celebrated its 10^th anniversary this year which was showcased with special events in the journal and at the 2008 Annual Meeting. JMD continues to show steady growth and generated a remarkable ISI Impact Factor of 3.48 this past June. After 10 years of service, Karen Kaul will be stepping down as Editor-in-Chief at the end of 2009. An active search is ongoing to identify the next Editor-in-Chief for JMD. 

Thanks to the Publications Committee for a wonderful 2008 and best wishes to all our members for a prosperous year ahead!