Editorial

Decades ago, I imagined a journal that would publish evidence to help clinicians with the difficult task of helping smokers quit. No such journal existed. It was obvious then that many smokers could quit unaided, but there were also many who struggled with nicotine addiction and who became unwell from their smoking but continued none the less. My aim was to help unravel the mysteries so that we could help prevent the many millions of deaths from such preventable illnesses. It became the journal for our clinical group in Australia, called the Australian Association of Smoking Cessation Professionals, and was soon also to become the Journal of the US group ATTUD. I was fortunate enough to recruit colleagues and friends from around the world who lent their names to an Editorial Board: K.O. Fagerstrom, John Hughes, Robert West, Hayden McRobbie, Mohmad Haniki Nik Mohamed, Carlos Andres Jimenez Ruiz and Matt Bars. The Australian Commonwealth Department of Health, Disability and Ageing was supportive and granted a start-up fund for a publisher. That publisher was Australian Academic Press. I was aided by a Sydney colleague Michelle DiGiacomo. In those days, our first issue came out in print in October 2006. Journal of Smoking Cessation is the world's only publication devoted exclusively to the treatment of smoking cessation. The journal is targeted specifically to the area of smoking cessation at the grass-roots level, focusing on observational studies that have practical implications for those assisting smokers to quit. It is a high-quality peer-reviewed publication with an international editorial board that has itself wide experience in the field of smoking cessation.

We are writing this Editorial for the newly re-formed Journal of Smoking Cessation with a plea that it maintains its original goals as well as the newer goals. Since the advent of the electronic cigarette industry and the various new nicotine delivery mechanisms, we are now dedicated to addressing the cessation of all nicotine-containing products.

Indeed, the implementation level of 'O' (offer help to quit) under the World Health Organization's MPOWER strategy is still the lowest in many ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries compared with broader national quitlines, cessation reimbursement, and best-practice coverage in places like Europe, the Americas, or Australia and New Zealand.

Most countries implementing MPOWER measures as best practice are outside Asia, underscoring the gap Asia urgently needs to close. This provides the journal with a niche and crucial role in strengthening this pillar, particularly for low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) in Asia, by sharing of knowledge contextualised to these countries' settings, culturally adapted quitting interventions (e.g., brief advice models, digital health interventions, community pharmacists' involvement), and beign relevant to Asian health systems. This will fill the existing lacunae, since much cessation research has historically been based in high-income and/or Western countries. In addition, further expansion of the journal will help Asia in supporting the training of health professionals, guiding cost-effective cessation service models, and amplifying Asian research voices, especially in tackling emerging nicotine products targeting young people and never-smokers. Hence, it is now timely to announce the name of the current Editor-in-Chief, Yanhui Liao (Department of Psychiatry, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China), who will take the journal even further towards the goals of affecting cessation and tobacco control policy.