John A Lednicky
Senior Advisor Biological Sciences, Energy and Life Sciences Division, Midwest Research Institute, Kansas City, USA
What prompted you to submit a manuscript to Virology Journal?
The journal has high-quality articles, is widely read, and is easily accessible internationally. The fast publication times were also an important factor, because our research attracted overwhelming interest and we were prompted by scientist and biosafety officers at various institutes to publish quickly. I am still receiving questions and comments for the first article I published in the journal in 2004.
What was your assessment of the electronic submission and peer review process?
The electronic submission process was efficient, simple and user-friendly - essentially effortless. The reviewers were very thorough, fair, and raised good questions. We work for various clients that include the US Government, and so much of our data is considered sensitive/confidential/classified or client proprietary. Virology Journal understood the issues associated with our work, and were happy to publish our manuscript.
What do you think you gained from publishing in an open access journal?
The article appears to be widely read and we continue to get many inquires about the technique. The article has also been very good advertising for our institute: various potential clients have contacted us based on the organisms listed in the article. We have also been contacted by scientists who wish to incorporate the techniques outlined in our paper for different applications.
What are you working on right now?
- Aerobiology - inhalation exposure studies with H5N1 & other influenza viruses, and Yersinia pestis.
- Influenza virus vaccine safety and efficacy studies.
- Expanding the capabilities of our influenza virus and respiratory pathogen research center.
- Studies with canine distemper virus.
- Development of small-animal models for various select agents and respiratory pathogens.
- In-vitro and in-vivo therapeutics models for influenza and other viruses.
