The recently launched journal Progress in Biomedical Engineering aims to explore the most significant and exciting areas within the interdisciplinary field of biomedical engineering. Editor-in-chief Metin Sitti, a director at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, talks to Tami Freeman about the journal’s objectives and expectations.
What are the main goals of this new journal?
Progress in Biomedical Engineering was launched as a high-quality journal covering the most significant and exciting areas of biomedical engineering. The first issue was published in July 2019. Our goal is to publish high-impact review and perspective articles that critically analyse the current state-of-the-art progress, report and discuss current scientific and engineering challenges, propose paradigms or approaches to tackle such challenges, and provide a future perspective and vision. The journal aims to have a double-digit Impact Factor within five years of publication, and be one of the top high-impact journals in the field.
What sort of subject areas are covered?
The journal’s broad scope covers all areas within the interdisciplinary field of biomedical engineering. This includes research topics such as biomaterials, biomechanics, theranostics, drug delivery, artificial intelligence in healthcare, biomedical devices, medical robots and biomedical imaging systems.
The diverse range of published content enables timely and impactful discussions between scientists, engineers and clinicians, and facilitates the understanding and improvement of human health and global healthcare.
Who are the targeted readers?
All our published content is currently free to read and free to publish. We aim to make this content accessible to a broad audience, understanding that some of our readers may be engineers or clinicians working in other fields wishing to keep informed of developments outside their own specialization, or looking for an introduction to a new field. All of our authors are asked to convey the importance and relevance of their article’s subject matter to readers both within and outside their specialist discipline.
Why was it decided to only publish review and perspective articles?
The journal aims to provide a venue for discussing advances in research that accelerate the scientific understanding and technological developments in biomedical engineering and global health.
Review articles can provide the community with an overview of the progress of the field, highlight emerging trends and identify key research directions. Perspectives, written by experts in the field, provide additional personal insights into how the field may develop in the future and spotlight emerging areas of research. Together, these types of articles can provide a unique platform for knowledge sharing, and offer researchers the opportunity to collaborate and shape the future direction of research.
Are all articles invited or can researchers also submit content?
The journal is invite-driven, with most review and perspective articles commissioned by the editorial board and publisher. However, we welcome and encourage article proposals from the community, especially from early career researchers who are looking for mentorship opportunities, with the editorial board able to provide comments and feedback on proposals submitted prior to the formal peer review process.
Would you say that the first year of publications has been a success?
Absolutely! Our journal has published some outstanding articles already, across all areas of biomedical engineering and by authors from diverse academic backgrounds and geographies, showcasing the inclusive nature of our journal and the prestigious reputation we are aiming to create.
What are your hopes for the journal’s future in the coming years?
We look forward to the journal’s continued success in publishing high-impact review and perspective articles, championing diversity and inclusivity in our authorship to ensure our journal reflects and engages with the global communities we aim to represent. We anticipate the journal will contribute to the biomedical engineering community significantly in future years, with strong support from our authors, readers, reviewers and the wider community.
- To celebrate the journal’s first anniversary, the team produced a video in which Metin Sitti, along with associate editor Eric Brey, and authors Ali Khademhosseini and Selda Sherifova, discuss the journal’s content and strategy, describe the publishing process, and take a look at some of its first published papers.
