Healthy foods research: a publication strategy to maximize impact.

Intense current interest in healthy foods, combined with new technologies in communication, have prompted changes in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (JAFC) to allow it to remain a primary means for disseminating new research information about the chemistry of foods and agriculture. JAFC has added categories covering bioactive substances that may contribute to health benefits of foods, molecular nutrition, and safety and toxicology in order to highlight these topics along with its traditional coverage of food chemistry, analytical methods, and composition of foods. JAFC has also increased the speed of manuscript processing and its international presence. The changes at the Journal enable scientists in publicly funded laboratories, universities, and other research organizations to increase their emphasis on information dissemination and technology transfer. Scientists working in the broad area of foods and health now have various paths for relaying research results promptly to the many constituencies in this topical area, but JAFC retains its status as a primary peer-reviewed vehicle for dissemination.