image: This is professor Allan Cripps. view more
Credit: Griffith University
Advancing the fight against pneumonia is the focus of a new online scholarly journal launched by Griffith University ePress.
With an aim to establish an international forum on this deadly disease, pneumonia.org.au is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal which brings together knowledge related to its pathogenesis, treatment and prevention.
Griffith's Professor Allan Cripps is the Editor in Chief of pneumonia, which features original research articles, case studies, reviews, critical commentaries, correspondence, highlights and news on all aspects of the disease.
"Pneumonia is the leading cause of death in children worldwide and kills an estimated 1.2 million children under the age of five every year," says Professor Cripps during the lead up to this year's World Pneumonia Day (November 12).
"Relatively few resources have been committed to addressing the problem of childhood pneumonia, particularly in resource-poor settings.
"However we are starting to see some fantastic support from organisations such as the GAVI Alliance which has assisted over 20 countries to introduce the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine which prevents the most common form of childhood pneumonia.
"And we have also seen unprecedented investment by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to support the research, development and delivery of life-saving vaccines for the world's poorest countries.
"Pneumonia is part of this overall pledge to raise the global profile of this forgotten killer and advance the fight against childhood mortality."
As the only scientific journal exclusively focused on the disease, pneumonia is starting to gain some momentum. The journal is now publishing in its second volume and has so far received over 20,000 page visits from every continent across 100 countries."
It has also been chosen as the assigned journal for the 9th International Symposium on Pneumococci and Pneumococcal Diseases (ISPPD-9) in Hyderabad, March 9-13, 2014.
"Now the journal is moving towards Scopus and PubMed listing in order to raise the profile of the disease amongst the academic community," says Professor Cripps.
The Editorial Board of pneumonia currently consists of 25 international members who are leading researchers from around the world.
"This international collaboration is particularly important for attracting researchers and authors from developing countries, as I am aware that authors from these areas find it difficult to pay the associated costs of publication to most scientific journals."
There are no fees for the submission of manuscripts to pneumonia.org.au, nor any costs associated with their publication or access online.
pneumonia.org.au is proud to support World Pneumonia Day. Established in 2009, it aims to raise awareness about pneumonia, promote interventions to protect against, prevent and treat pneumonia and to generate action in combating the disease. Please visit the website http://worldpneumoniaday.org/ and support this fantastic initiative.