With humility and deep admiration, my letter to you, my SITC family, is in honor of the legacy of Dr. Pedro J. Romero, who is stepping down as Editor-in-Chief of the
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer (
JITC). Dr. Romero has served SITC and
JITC with incredible dedication, care, and strategically insightful direction as our founding Editor-in-Chief from the journal’s conception, to its launch, and through its meteoric rise. It goes without saying that our community owes a great deal of gratitude to Dr. Romero for growing
JITC into the globally recognized scholarly journal that it is today.
I had the honor of working with Dr. Romero on the journal as a Section Editor for several years, and directly bore witness to his commendable leadership, gracious attitude, and steadfast strategic vision. During Dr. Romero’s decade at the helm of
JITC, he shepherded over 2,400 manuscripts to publication, accumulated more than 40,000 citations, enlisted north of 2,500 unique reviewers and led 170 leaders from 16 countries, elevating a relatively small, online, open access publication to one that has achieved great success.
Three years ago, SITC created the annual
Pedro J. Romero Service to JITC Award in honor of Dr. Romero’s unprecedented leadership, which recognizes an individual who has made significant contributions and demonstrated outstanding commitment to
JITC. Nominations for this award along with SITC’s other Annual Awards are now being collected through May 1. Please help us build upon his great name by recognizing influential supporters of the journal.
To learn more about what’s next for the journal, including the announcement of Dr. James L. Gulley assuming the role of Interim Editor-in-Chief, I encourage you to read
last week’s JITC Digest featuring a special message from Dr. Romero.
With deep gratitude, we thank Dr. Romero again for all his contributions over the years! The SITC family simply can’t thank him enough.