allergopedia | |
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allergopedia • encyclopedic journal of allergens, haptens and irritants • open access | |
Welcome to allergopedia!We are living in a world where the number of known sensitizers - allergens and haptens - is constantly rising. As of October 2025, the Allergen Nomenclature database, run under auspices of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS) listed 1147 high-molecular weight allergens. Dr Anton de Groot, a Dutch dermatologist who has screened the medical literature for nearly 4 decades, came to the number of 5200 in 2022, these being mainly low-molecular weight allergens / haptens. These figures illustrate the sheer number of sensitizers around us. The scientific encyclopedic journal allergopedia was created with the aim of enabling all interested parties - researchers, health care providers, and patients to keep up-to-date in this field. A second, perhaps even more important goal was to create a platform for communication and exchange of ideas between all those interested. I realized the demand for such a platform when looking at the popularity of my Polish-language website, www.alergolog.eu, which had 1.5 million views in 2025. This seemed quite remarkable, considering that fewer than 50 million people worldwide speak Polish. It cannot be ruled out that these numbers were recently inflated by large language model AI bots scraping the internet for data – see Stokel-Walker (2026). Nevertheless, interest in a website presenting descriptions of sensitizers in an encyclopedic form, which has been ongoing for 20 years, remains a fact that inspired the creation of a similar service in English, a step that would make the information directly accessible to the 1.5 billion English-speakers around the globe. Moreover, English could be a better source language for translations into other languages, which are welcome provided the terms of the Creative Commons license are respected. The choice of an encyclopedic journal format with peer-reviewed short monographs with references seemed a necessary step to take in this world of evidence-based medicine. Inevitably, the founder of a new journal must fill it with content until other authors take notice and are driven to publish. It's no surprise, then, that almost all the articles in the inaugural issue were written by the Editor-in-Chief, generously supported by the members of Scientific Advisory Board. However, I firmly believe that this is a temporary situation and look forward to collaborating with the thriving community of allergists, dermatologists, pulmonologists, rhinologists, gastroenterologists, pediatricians, and all researchers and scientists interested in sensitizers, whether allergens or haptens, or indeed irritants – many contact allergens can directly damage the skin barrier and cause an irritant reaction, thereby blurring the distinction between contact allergens and irritants. Our journal is open to all authors interested in submitting:
See our Instructions for Authors. We look forward to accepting your valuable contributions to our journal! Professor Radosław Śpiewak, Editor-in-Chief | |
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Allergopedia online: https://allergopedia.info • ISSN 3072-564X |