Griffith University receives significant funding boost to combat pneumonia

Nov 11 2014

Griffith University’s bid to fight the childhood killer pneumonia has received a significant boost following the award of a $304,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The grant will provide ongoing investment in the online scholarly journal pneumonia which was launched by Griffith University ePress last year.

Already successful in establishing an international forum on this deadly disease, pneumonia is a peer reviewed, open-access journal which brings together knowledge related to its pathogenesis, treatment and prevention.

Griffith’s Professor Allan Cripps is the Editor in Chief of pneumonia, which features original research articles, case studies, reviews, critical commentaries, correspondence, highlights and news on all aspects of the disease.

“We are thrilled to receive this fantastic investment from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which we believe is a signal of recognition that pneumonia is a critical part of knowledge transfer within the pneumonia community,” says Professor Cripps.

“The investment will allow the journal to establish appropriate income streams to ensure financial self-sustainability and maintain its open access policy and continue to grow and expand its activities.

“In addition, this investment will enable the journal to expand its technical capability with the implementation of new and industry-standard publishing software, with increases in editing and publishing functionality.

“Pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria remain leading causes of death among children under age five – killing around 2 million children in 2013,” says Professor Cripps during the lead up to this year’s World Pneumonia Day (November 12).

“Relatively few resources have been committed to addressing the problem of childhood pneumonia, particularly in resource-poor settings.

“However we have seen some fantastic support from organisations such as the GAVI Alliance which has assisted over 20 countries to introduce the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine which prevents the most common form of childhood pneumonia.

“And we have also seen unprecedented investment by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support the research, development and delivery of life-saving vaccines for the world’s poorest countries.

“Pneumonia is part of this overall pledge to raise the global profile of this forgotten killer and advance the fight against childhood mortality.”

As the only scientific journal exclusively focused on the disease, pneumonia has gained significant momentum.

The journal is now publishing in its fifth volume and has so far received over 60,000 page visits from every continent across 143 countries.

“Now the journal is moving towards Scopus and PubMed listing in order to raise the profile of the disease amongst the academic community,” says Professor Cripps.

The Editorial Board of pneumonia currently consists of 33 international members who are leading researchers from around the world.

“This international collaboration is particularly important for attracting researchers and authors from developing countries, as I am aware that authors from these areas find it difficult to pay the associated costs of publication to most scientific journals.”