Research and experimental medicine papers from Taiwan’s first English-language journal for biomedicine last year ranked as the most influential in Asia, the Ministry of Science and Technology said yesterday as the journal marks its 25th anniversary.
The ministry celebrated the anniversary of the Journal of Biomedical Science at a news conference in Taipei, which was attended by the journal’s current and former editors-in-chief.
The journal, launched by the ministry in January 1994, is the first international journal in biomedical science operated by a Taiwanese team, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Shieh Dar-bin (謝達斌) said.
Its impact factor, which reflects the yearly average number of citations its published articles received, rose from 0.99 in 1999 to 5.203 last year, Shieh said, citing information in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) database released by the US Institute for Scientific Information earlier this year.
When the Journal of Biomedical Science first started publishing, only about three in every 100 submissions by Taiwanese researchers were accepted by international journals, said Chang Chuan-chiung (張傳炯), the journal’s founding editor-in-chief and Academia Sinica academician renowned for his research on snake venoms.
In research and experimental medicine, JCR ranked the Journal of Biomedical Science as No. 1 among 19 similar publications in Asia and 20th of 136 similar journals worldwide last year, said Chang Wen-chang (張文昌), its current editor-in-chief and chairman of Taipei Medical University’s board of trustees.
In cell biology, the journal was ranked fourth among 18 similar publications in Asia and 49th among 193 similar publications worldwide, he said, adding that the field is more competitive for studies involving both animal and plant cells.
The key to improving the Journal of Biomedical Science’s clout is to publish special issues on “trending topics” or subjects showcasing Taiwan’s research edge, such as enterovirus 71, dengue fever, hepatitis B, immunotherapy and neurodegenerative diseases, Chang Wen-chang said.
Over the past five years, the Journal of Biomedical Science had received 24 percent of submissions from China, 12 percent from India, 8 percent from Taiwan and 3 percent from the US, he said, adding that quality, not nationality, is the primary consideration for publication.
The journal is published by UK-based BioMed Central, part of global publisher Springer Nature, which helps it reach more readers in the US and Europe, he said.
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