Introductory remarks for the Asian Journal of Andrology

Jie-Ping WU (ƽ), Honorary Editor-in-Chief  
Geoffrey MH Waites, Chairman of the Advisory Board

Asian J Androl  1999 Jun; 1: 1

The Asian Journal of Andrology (AJA) was conceived at the First Asian & Oceanic Congress of Andrology in 1992 by the Executive Council of the Asian Society of Andrology to be its official publication. Prof Shao-Zhen QIAN was appointed the Editor-in-Chief, and Profs Zhi-Ping GU, Natwar R Kalla and Hiroyuki Oshima, the Associate Editors-in-Chief. The Council delegated the production of AJA to the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The AJA was approved by the Chinese Government in 1998. Hereafter, an Advisory Board of international scientists and an Editorial Board and a Corresponding Editors Board of Asian scientists were formed and this, the first issue, represents the outcome of their careful work.

The creation of a new andrology journal is a major event, especially when there are already several such journals in existence. It implies that a special need has been recognized which the new journal will fulfil. Andrology is expanding rapidly in Asia and special andrology departments have been established in the majority of general hospitals and polyclinics. In addition, reproductive research centres now exist in Universities and Institutes. This means that there is a new and increasing population of Asian scientists with interest and, in some cases, overseas training in certain areas of andrology.

The principal objective of AJA is to facilitate information exchange and promote research activity in andrology. Therefore, the Journal invites original papers and reviews on all aspects of andrology from both Asian and Western scientists. After peer review, the selected articles will be published in English. Moreover, the Editorial Department also plans to print AJA in some Asian languages to expand the reader population. In this way we hope to provide a bridge promoting information exchange between Asian and Western andrology across all national boundaries, while at the same time assisting those new Asian andrologists to be drawn closer to the international scientific community.

The review articles selected for publication in AJA will increase awareness of the literature by providing up-to-date reference lists, while at the same time giving the recent history of how the subject has developed. Although the relatively high costs for submission and subscription to Western journals may limit their availability and popularity in a number of Asian countries, the publication of AJA and the increasing access to the Internet abstracting services will enable alternative ways to follow up.

We shall be pleased if you, our readers, would send us your articles or comments/criticisms. The latter would be considered for inclusion in a Letters to the Editor column should your views be of general interest. We hope that you will help us to maintain high standards and to promote the aims of AJA so that it will be accepted by the international scientific community as one of the important andrology journals in the world.

Jie-Ping WU, M.D.                                                                                     Geoffrey M.H. Waites, Sc.D., Ph.D.