CytoJournal editorial board had decided that ‘CytoJournal Monograph & Atlas Series (CMAS)’ will be a great opportunity for cytopathology scholars to contribute and disseminate their work under ‘Open Access charter’ without losing the copyright to their work.

This is especially an excellent opportunity for highly competitive and productive budding junior stalwarts with participation from established veterans to share their leadership. CytoJournal will try to find avenues to involve as many people of wider spectrum as possible. At this brainstorming stage, the group suggested a few ways of achieving this.

The benefits of the project (to be mentioned a few) are-

1. Authors retain their copyright.
2. Authors work is not lost from Public Domain
3. Both junior and senior authors get benefits.
4. We expect the cost to be significantly lower than commercial alternatives.

Each monograph/Atlas should contain the following

1. Brief description of the background and salient features of entities.
2. The focus should be mainly on differential diagnosis and surgical pathology counterparts with the role of special studies (immuno, molecular and new trends).
3. The clinical pathologic correlation and some account of clinical management (we can always include some clinicians in few such as thyroid, Urine, and respiratory) and investigation (role of ultrasound, CT or MRI).
4. Should be heavily illustrated with sketches as indicated.

Each CytoJournal Monograph/Atlas will be:

1. Up to 100 printed pages (letter size). (upper limit of pages is not strict).
2. Will have 4 to 5 chapters with first introductory chapter connecting all chapters in the monograph/atlas.
3. Each chapter should be stand-alone and will be initially published as CytoJournal article (with a note that it is one of the chapters from particular CMAS)
4. After all the articles are published in CytoJournal, the monograph will be available in print form through on-line subscription to different types of members and for general sale through any vendor(s).
5. The monographs should be updated in the future depending on the scientific and standard of practice changes in the field, as judged by the editorial board with input from readers.

The current editorial structure for the CMAS project is as follows:

CMAS Committee:
(The central force in executing this project with the input from CytoJournal Executive editor)
Co-chairs
Shikha Bose, MD (Cedars-Sinai Medical Center)
Zubair Baloch, MD, PhD (University of Pennsylvania Medical Center)

CytoJournal Co-editors-in-chief

Lester J. Layfield, MD University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA

Vinod B. Shidham. MD, FRCPath, FIAC Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, USA
CytoJournal Executive editor
Vinod B. Shidham, MD, FRCPath, FIAC (Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, USA)

Each Monograph has ‘editor(s)’ with a team of ‘Contributing Authors’ selected by that ‘editor(s)’ for that Monograph.

To achieve practical flexibility we should keep the list open and let individual monograph/atlas editors to select the topics. We will number them in chronological order as and when they are complete (E. g. CMAS# 1, CMAS# 2, & so on). The CMAS committee would steer the possible chapters and identify potential monograph editors on ongoing basis. Qualified experts and group of experts are encouraged to contact and propose the monograph/atlas on different topics in cytopathology. Below is the tentative list prepared by Dr. Zubair Baloch as a starter. It is categorized by organ system. They will be published on the first-come/first-finalized basis subject to the quality. We will use it for tracking the topics but the order is subject to modifications.

The current tentative CMAS list is as follows (this is incomplete and subject to modifications):

Head and Neck

1. Thyroid & Parathyroid-
2. Salivary Gland and other head & Neck structures

Fluids

1. urine cytology-(In initial phases)
2. CSF
3. Serous cavity fluids (Second edition of ‘Cytopathologic Diagnosis of Serous Fluids’ in process as CMAS #2)

GI Tract

1. GI tract EUS guided- Pancreas (In initial phases)
2. Liver
3. Anal cytology

Respiratory tract

Lymph nodes

GYN Cytology (In process as CMAS #3) 

Pediatric Cytopathology

Litigation in cytopathology and quality assurance issues

Other

FNAB procedure- Art & Science
CellBlockistry – Chemistry & Art of Cell Blocking. (Already published as CMAS #1)

GI tract EUS guided – Other
Kidney and Adrenal

Other deep-seated organs

Brief details for the editors of the individual monograph/atlas-

The proposal for any topic for CMAS (including those in the list above) may be sent to cytojournal@cytojournal.com.

The editor(s) of individual CMAS would enjoy royalty sharing for sale of the printed version of their monograph/atlas with Cytopathology Foundation Inc after crossing the break-even point for the project. Such royalty may be donated as a tax-deductible donation to Cytopathology Foundation Inc (non-profit entity) to further similar future projects for open access in cytopathology.