STD at 50: Introduction to the Anniversary Issue

Last February, Bill Miller, Abby Norris Turner and I realized that the September 2024 issue of our journal would mark its 50th anniversary. We conceived the idea of celebrating this milestone with a special issue. We envisioned inviting a select but diverse group of colleagues in our field to submit free-style essays that would reflect on the authors' passion(s), their careers and the role the journal played in this narrative. All this in 800 to 1200 words and a limited number of references. And, oh yes, a tight deadline. As the only one “retired,” I offered to volunteer as the person on-point for the endeavor. “It's your baby, Kees,” Bill Miller said. Well, as babies go, the gestation was short but sweet. The reaction to our initial invitation was overwhelmingly positive and the follow-through was almost complete. Thanks so much to all who contributed so timely and enthusiastically and with such great insights. In my role, I had the pleasure and privilege seeing drafts of a variety of articles. Together, in my mind's eye, an image emerged of our field as a large colorful mosaic. At this point, after expressing my deep gratitude to the authorship, I also need to offer an apology. The mosaic, as beautiful as it is, is missing pieces. We were limited in the number of essays that we would ultimately be able to publish in the anniversary issue and the selection of authors was subjective. I am grateful to those contributors who suggested authors or topics that they felt needed to be included, and despite the looming deadline, many could be. However, to remedy the remaining deficit and to solicit more pieces to enhance the mosaic, the journal is open to receiving and publishing additional opinion pieces in forthcoming issues. We hope that many readers will feel inspired and submit their own contribution. We also hope to attract more commentary from our sister organizations, partners in public health practice, clinicians, community-based organizations, policy stakeholders and any retirees who have had the time to reflect on the STI field. In my view, there are three important reasons to consider the regular submission of such pieces to our journal: new insights of course, but also, reach and longevity. Organizations have easy online access these days and send out electronic newsletters or publish on their websites. The limitation of this approach is that reach is mostly limited to members/subscribers. By contrast the journal has a large readership nationally and internationally and reach is increased exponentially. Also, newsletters and website material are often difficult to find (especially for outsiders) and have varying longevity. Not so with our journal. All issues since the inception of the journal 50 years ago are available (and searchable) online. I hope these arguments will motivate our colleagues in the field to submit relevant content to the journal that is not necessarily constrained by the formal format of a journal article. I am confident that the essays in this special issue will lead the way!