Dr. Una McCann is a Professor, Associate Program Director JHBMC GCRC and Director of Anxiety Disorders Program at Behavioral Pharmacology Research Unit, Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. Dr. Una has completed her M.D. from Duke University Medical School in 1986.

Dr. Una McCann's research interests include: Amphetamine-induced monoamine neurotoxicity (i.e., MDMA, Methamphetamine, ephedrine or amphetamine-induced monoaminergic neurotoxicity), and the neurobiology of anxiety disorders.

1. What makes an article top quality? 

Response: Novel question, good experimental design, good writing, changes or significantly contributes to the knowledge base regarding a field.

2. Do you think that journals determine research trends?

Response: No.  Science and scientists do.

3. What makes a good position paper?

Response: If you mean an editorial expressing an opinion on a key topic by “position” paper, it would be a thorough and balanced review of the issue at hand, as well as good writing.

4. What are the qualities you look for in an article?

Response: Scholarliness, novelty, contribution to the field, good writing quality.

5. Can you give us a broad indication of the types of themes a scientific journal should cover?

Response: Those that will advance the field in question.

6. What sorts of research methods and frameworks do you expect people to use, and how will they balance conceptual and applied research?

Response: I don’t care about the specific methods, only that they should be well-informed and scholarly.  A nice balance between pre-clinical and clinical, as well as conceptual and applied is a good thing.

7. How would you describe the journal’s mission and editorial objectives to our readers?

Response: To publish top quality, scholarly and informative articles related to sleep and sleep disorders.

8. If you could be granted dream articles, what would they be on?

Response: Is this a pun?  If not, I’m interested in fundamental questions such as “why do we sleep?” as well as the role of sleep disturbance in psychiatric disorders (e.g., in PTSD, sleep disturbance perpetuates the illness).

9. Are there any particular areas which you would like to see, or expect to see, collaborate?

Response: No- a broad-based approach is good.

10. How does the research published percolate through to practitioners?

Response: Meetings, collaborations, presentations.

11. How can a publisher ensure the authors/readers a rigorous peer review and quality control?

Response: That’s the job of its editors.

12. Your editorial policy is to be eclectic and welcome perspectives from other disciplines and schools. How does this translate into the types of contributions you encourage?

Response: As above, a wide-ranging perspective from both preclinical and clinical camps is ideal.

13. What do you see as the merits of journals, as opposed to book series, as a means of scholarly communications?

Response: Journals should convey “the latest” developments, whereas books typically contain accepted standards.

14. How do you differentiate Journal of Sleep Disorders: Treatment & Care with other journals in the field?

Response: There aren’t many journals that specialize in this rather narrow topic.