Fifty Years of Clinical Chemistry, Three Pioneering Editors (History‪)‬

Dr. Harold D. Appleton, a Dedicated Beginning When Dr. Harold D. Appleton took over the small, semi-regular newsletter, The Clinical Chemist, from Dr. Andre Kibrick, he "ate, drank and slept 'The Clinical Chemist,'" according to Irving Sunshine, PhD. Dr. Appleton took over as editor in 1950 after working for 1 year as assistant editor under Dr. Kibrick. During his editorship, Appleton developed the newsletter into an excellent format of 12-20 pages per issue that included short review articles, abstracts, and descriptions of methods as well as news of the American Association of Clinical Chemists (AACC) (1). In addition, he introduced more advertising so that the newsletter could become self-supporting (1). Meeting several times between 1952 and 1954, the executive board of the fledgling AACC discussed whether an archived journal in clinical chemistry would be a viable endeavor and finally agreed to initiate one in 1954. In the September 1952 issue of The Clinical Chemist, Dr. Appleton foreshadowed the coming of our Journal by writing, 'With the increase in membership dues in 1953 earmarked for the expansion of the newsletter, we hope to bring to our readers review articles of current scientific interest written by noted investigators and to slowly open our pages to original research. This will serve as the nucleus for a future "Journal of Clinical Chemistry".' In this same issue he urges AACC members to recruit advertising for The Clinical Chemist and wrote, "A page of advertising means another 2000 word article." At its April 14, 1954, Executive Committee meeting the association approved beginning a journal, Clinical Chemistry. This was announced by Dr. Appleton in the June 1954 issue of The Clinical Chemist, when he wrote, 'this more elaborate effort [the expanded Clinical Chemist] also proved inadequate for the needs and the Association has now decided to move into the "major league" with a regular journal.' At that time he also wrote, "With the publication of Clinical Chemistry we may well feel that our specialty has come of age." Interestingly, part of the decision to start Clinical Chemistry came from a policy change at the Journal of Biological Chemistry (2). The "JBC," the journal of choice for publishing new methods in clinical chemistry, decided it would no longer publish methods or clinical papers and would consider only papers dealing in basic research. On the other hand, medical journals during this time considered clinical chemistry papers to be too "chemical", leaving the field wide open for an increasing number of new clinical chemistry methods and presentations.