In June 2009, BMC Medicine received its first official impact factor of 3.28 from Thomson Reuters. In recognition of this landmark event, the BMC Medicine editorial team present and discuss the vision and aims of the journal

BJ Coburn

E Garfield

GA Petsko

JC Latourelle

Jigisha Patel

JM Appleford

Joanne M Appleford

M Raff

Melissa L Norton

Mick Aulakh

R Krüger

Robin L Cassady-Cain

English

PubMed

Springer - Publisher Connector

BioMed CentralBMC Medicine
ssOpen AcceEditorial
A vision of the future for BMC Medicine: serving science, medicine 
and authors
Robin L Cassady-Cain*, Joanne M Appleford, Jigisha Patel, Mick Aulakh and 
Melissa L Norton
Address: BMC Medicine Editorial team, BioMed Central Ltd, 236 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1X 8HL, UK
Email: Robin L Cassady-Cain* - robin.cassady-cain@biomedcentral.com; Joanne M Appleford - jo.appleford@biomedcentral.com; 
Jigisha Patel - jigisha.patel@biomedcentral.com; Mick Aulakh - mick.aulakh@biomedcentral.com; 
Melissa L Norton - Melissa.Norton@biomedcentral.com
* Corresponding author    
Abstract
In June 2009, BMC Medicine received its first official impact factor of 3.28 from Thomson Reuters.
In recognition of this landmark event, the BMC Medicine editorial team present and discuss the
vision and aims of the journal.
Editorial
BMC Medicine recently celebrated its 5th anniversary of
publishing high quality research with an editorial reflect-
ing on our progress and on developments for the journal
in 2009[1]. Now another highly anticipated milestone
has been achieved with the announcement of the jour-
nal's first "official" impact factor of 3.28 by Thomson Reu-
ters.
While one can discuss the pros and cons of the impact fac-
tor system, and others have done so tirelessly [[2-4] for
example], it cannot be denied that the receipt of an impact
factor is a major event in the life of a young journal. As
such, this is an opportune moment to present our vision
and aims for the future of BMC Medicine.
In this era of translational medicine, clinicians must
understand the latest relevant information that may influ-
ence the practice of medicine. Whether one is a practicing
physician, a clinical researcher, or a member of the lay
public, understanding how specific scientific research will
affect clinical practice may be difficult, especially when
that research comes from an area outside of one's own
personal experience and expertise. We expect that BMC
Medicine will play an increasingly important role in facili-
tating the understanding of biomedical discovery and in
appreciating the connection between these discoveries
and clinical practice. This understanding and appreciation
will guide future research in all fields of investigation that
impact on the management of human disease.
The journal will accomplish this through the publication
of high quality research, supported by interpretation of
this work in accompanying reviews, minireviews and
commentaries to outline the wider implications and
potential future directions of the research. We are com-
mitted to publishing high quality studies that fall into one
of three general categories: clinical investigations with
clear and immediate ramifications for medical practice,
clinical research that does not have immediate ramifica-
tions for medical practice, but that will inform the direc-
tion of future research, or basic biomedical work with a
strong potential to influence clinical research.
Published: 7 October 2009
BMC Medicine 2009, 7:55 doi:10.1186/1741-7015-7-55
Received: 21 September 2009
Accepted: 7 October 2009
This article is available from: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/7/55
© 2009 Cassady-Cain et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), 
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Page 1 of 2
(page number not for citation purposes)
BMC Medicine 2009, 7:55 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/7/55Publish with BioMed Central   and  every 
scientist can read your work free of charge
"BioMed Central will be the most significant development for 
disseminating the results of biomedical research in our lifetime."
Sir Paul Nurse, Cancer Research UK
Your research papers will be:
available free of charge to the entire biomedical community
peer reviewed and published immediately upon acceptance
cited in PubMed and archived on PubMed Central 
yours — you keep the copyright
Submit your manuscript here:
http://www.biomedcentral.com/info/publishing_adv.asp
BioMedcentral
We see a need for increased collaboration between basic
and clinical researchers, and we believe that BMC Medicine
can facilitate this process. In order to achieve this, we will
publish our basic biomedical research articles with
accompanying pieces highlighting the importance of this
research to a wider audience and outlining how the
research might inform clinical research or practice in the
future. An example of this is the commentary by Rejko
Kruger[5], which explains how the results of Jeanne
Latourelle and colleagues' research on genetic mutations
in Parkinson's Disease (PD) [6] increase our understand-
ing of gene penetrance in PD and comments on how
those results relate to current ideas about genetic coun-
seling for PD.
Further, the addition of reviews and minireviews summa-
rising important developments in current key fields will
increase the accessibility of research and educate non-
experts regarding how current research affects clinical
practice or disease management, For example, the recent
review by Brian Coburn and colleagues discusses the use
of mathematical modeling to predict the disease course of
swine flu as well as outlining the important parameters for
pandemic preparedness[7].
No vision of the future of BMC Medicine can be complete
without considering our authors. As editors, our service to
BMC Medicine's authors is as important as our service to
the medical community. Therefore we will continue to
uphold the three principles recently expounded by Raff
and colleagues [8]: that the peer review process should be
fast, friendly and fair.
Research needs to be published in such a way as to ensure
that the importance, timeliness and potential of the find-
ings are clear to the entire medical community. The edi-
tors of BMC Medicine are committed to the rapid
dissemination of research throughout both the biomedi-
cal and clinical communities worldwide, while continu-
ing to provide an excellent and efficient service to our
authors. We look forward to working with you, and for
you, in the times to come.
References
1. Appleford JM, Cassady-Cain RL, Patel J, Norton ML: BMC Medicine
celebrates its 5th anniversary.  BMC Medicine 2009, 7:3.
2. Garfield E: The history and meaning of the journal impact fac-
tor.  JAMA 2006, 295:90-3.
3. Not-so-deep impact.  Nature 2005, 435:1003-4.
4. Petsko GA: Having an impact (factor).  Genome Biology 2008,
9:107.
5. Krüger R: LRRK2 in Parkinson's disease - drawing the curtain
of penetrance: a commentary.  BMC Medicine 2008, 6:33.
6. Latourelle JC, Sun M, Lew MF, Suchowersky O, Klein C, Golbe LI,
Mark MH, Growdon JH, Wooten GF, Watts RL, Singer C, Gldwurm
S, Pezzoli G, Zini M, Saint-Hilaire MH, Hendricks AE, Williamson S,
Nagle MW, Wilk JB, Massod T, Huskey KW, Laramie JM, DeStephano
AL, Baker KB, Itin I, et al.: The Gly2019Ser mutation in LRRK2
is not fully penetrant in familial Parkinson's disease: the
GenePD study.  BMC Medicine 2008, 6:32.
7. Coburn BJ, Wagner BG, Blower S: Modeling influenza epidemics
and pandemics: insights into the future of swine flu (H1N1).
BMC Medicine 2009, 7:30.
8. Raff M, Johnson A, Walter P: Painful publishing.  Science 2008,
321:36.
Pre-publication history
The pre-publication history for this paper can be accessed
here:
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/7/55/prepubPage 2 of 2
(page number not for citation purposes)


A vision of the future for BMC Medicine: serving science, medicine and authors

Abstract In June 2009, BMC Medicine received its first official impact factor of 3.28 from Thomson Reuters. In recognition of this landmark event, the BMC Medicine editorial team present and discuss the vision and aims of the journal.</p

Aulakh Mick

Patel Jigisha

Appleford Joanne M

Cassady-Cain Robin L

Norton Melissa L

Directory of Open Access Journals

BMC Medicine

Crossref

Having an impact (factor). Genome Biology

Itin I, et al.: The Gly2019Ser mutation in LRRK2 is not fully penetrant in familial Parkinson's disease: the GenePD study.

LRRK2 in Parkinson's disease - drawing the curtain of penetrance: a commentary.

Modeling influenza epidemics and pandemics: insights into the future of swine flu (H1N1). BMC Medicine

Nature

Painful publishing. Science 2008, 321:36. Pre-publication history The pre-publication history for this paper can be accessed here:

The history and meaning of the journal impact factor. JAMA

file:///data/core-remote/dit/data/Springer-OA/pdf/c86/aHR0cDovL2xpbmsuc3ByaW5nZXIuY29tLzEwLjExODYvMTc0MS03MDE1LTctNTUucGRm.pdf

A vision of the future for BMC Medicine: serving science, medicine and authors

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Springer - Publisher Connector

Directory of Open Access Journals

Crossref