Between 2000 and 2004, the number of PubMed entries per year containing the keyword 'cough' has increased by forty percent. This partially reflects a general increase in the number of scientific publications over this period but it also represents a specific growth in interest in cough-related research. This interest spans a number of medical and scientific disciplines other than respiratory medicine, such as gastroenterology, rhinology, paediatrics, infectious disease, pharmacology, neurology, neuroanatomy, genetics, inflammation, etc. The need for a single journal that brings together clinicians and scientists in all of these disciplines with the aim of achieving a better understanding of cough-related disease has been long overdue. So it gives us great pleasure to welcome you to
Cough. Besides being the only journal to specialise in this particular area of research,
Cough is special for other reasons. Embracing the modern era of information technology,
Cough is an entirely online journal. Our online submission system allows for rapid review and revision of manuscripts and when accepted, articles appear in the journal immediately. More significantly,
Cough is an Open Access journal. All articles are freely and universally accessible without subscription. Authors of published articles retain the copyright to their work and the full text of each article is permanently archived in PubMed Central. It will be of interest to contributors that free online access can increase the impact of a paper [
1].