Open talk about open access

On January 1, 2026, Ian Young, MD, became the new editor in chief of the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine’s (ADLM’s) The Journal of Applied Laboratory Medicine (JALM). As a previous deputy editor and associate editor of ADLM’s journal Clinical Chemistry, he is already familiar with the association’s publications.

Young serves as the chief scientific advisor for the Department of Health in Belfast, Northern Ireland, U.K., and as the department’s director of research and development for health and social care. He is also a professor of medicine at Queen’s University Belfast and consultant chemical pathologist at Belfast Health and Social Care Trust.

We spoke to Young about the path he took into clinical chemistry, the trends he sees in laboratory medicine, and how he’s working to ensure the success of the journal’s new gold open access model. Under this model, journal content is free to read and reuse at the time of publication. The content also still undergoes the same rigorous peer-review and quality-assurance processes as traditional subscription-based academic journals.

What brought you to laboratory medicine?

I got an undergraduate degree in biochemistry and did my medical training in the U.K., where a medical degree generally requires 5 years of study with the option of an additional residency.

Through all of that, I maintained a strong interest in biochemistry, which drew me towards metabolism and diagnostics in clinical biochemistry. Then I trained as a chemical pathologist, as we call it in U.K. terms.

Clinical practice in the U.K. works a bit differently than in the U.S. As a medically qualified chemical pathologist, I have seen patients throughout my career. I’ve run outpatient clinics while also being involved with the laboratory. In other words, I’ve been able to combine being a physician with being a laboratory specialist and academic — and a few other things along the way.

What is your 5-year goal for JALM?

To start, I want to say how fortunate I am to inherit a journal that is already in a good place, thanks to the excellence of former editor Robert H. Christenson, PhD, and his team.

As I look ahead to the next 5 years, I’m committed to ensuring the success of JALM’s transition to a gold open access journal. This model offers many advantages. For one thing, the work published in the journal can be immediately accessed by anyone anywhere, regardless of the resources available to them. Additionally, authors can be confident that their work will be accessible to a bigger audience, and the widespread availability of new JALM content will showcase ADLM and its community on a global level.

At the same time, the journal will remain focused on publishing high-quality work that is relevant to the field. That hasn’t changed. Every issue will help move laboratory medicine forward.

I also want to increase the international reach of the journal while maintaining significant representation of ADLM members among its authors.

How will open access affect those who want to publish in JALM?

It’s important to emphasize that nobody should feel inhibited from publishing in the journal by lack of resources. Authors concerned about open access fees can contact the journal office to discuss their specific situation and options.

We have a few ways to help people with the cost of publishing. Many prospective authors work in countries where the publisher or university press can reduce or waive publication fees entirely because of where the author is based. Additionally, many institutions have agreements with publishers that allow people affiliated with their institution to publish without charge. We encourage anyone interested in publishing in the journal to check if that is the case for their institution. Authors who are ADLM professional members members will also receive a substantial reduction in publication fees.

ADLM strives to keep publication fees as low as possible, and JALM is very competitive with other open access journals in the field.

What’s driving adoption of the open access model?

It’s a topic of active discussion in the U.S. and internationally. Increasingly, major funders require the research they finance to be published in gold open access journals or similar publications. Another driver is open access supporters who are very active in the research world. Obviously, there are others who are less enthusiastic about this publishing model, but I’m keen to embrace the advantages it offers.

What trends do you see emerging in laboratory medicine?

I think anybody working in our field recognizes the transformative potential of artificial intelligence and data analytics in relation to both test selection and interpretation.

We also continue to see substantial advances in our understanding of basic biology, particularly in the molecular space. These developments will translate to new diagnostic tests and approaches, even if their entry into routine practice is often slower than we anticipate.

Additionally, I’m interested in the global trend of focusing on the clinical utility of diagnostic testing rather than analytic accuracy alone. We need tests to be high-quality and standardized, but we must also address important questions around their impact in particular clinical situations.

Finally, I think there’s increasing interest in the sustainability of laboratory medicine. How does our field impact resource utilization, and how can we ensure that we do our work as efficiently as possible?

What hurdles does laboratory medicine face in the next 5 to 10 years?

To an extent, the hurdles our field faces are influenced by local factors in country-specific environments. Funding models are very important and differ across countries, although they generally share a drive towards increased efficiency.

I’m also concerned that more advanced technologies are not equally available to all patients, both across and within countries. Important breakthroughs should be implemented as equitably as possible.

What’s one exciting thing your lab is working on right now?

In my laboratory and my area of research, we’re looking at how using nutritional biomarkers can give us better insight into someone’s diet than relying on their answers on dietary questionnaires. Surveys aren’t always accurate because our memories aren’t perfect. We also have a tendency to tell people what we think they want to hear. Ideally, biomarkers would not lie.

If you could magically make something happen in laboratory medicine, what would it be?

I would like to ensure that all the tests we use in the laboratory are perfectly standardized, so that every lab would always provide the same result given a particular sample.

What advice would you give to early career laboratory medicine professionals?

I’ve always been struck by something I read when I was young from Samuel Johnson, who was the compiler of the first meaningful English dictionary. He said that everyone he knew who was very successful started work early in the morning and continued all day. In other words, be prepared to put in the effort.

The second thing I would say is that, if you don’t love what you’re doing, you need to be doing something else.

Jen A. Miller is a freelance writer who lives in Audubon, New Jersey. +Bluesky: @byjenamiller.bsky.social

Read the full March-April 2026 issue of CLN.