Federation Journal Committee

According to the IFMBE Bye- Laws, the Federation Journal Committee (FJC) is responsible for all aspects, except editorial, of the journal of the Federation and of related publications published by the Federation. The journal is of course Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing (MBEC) who's Editor is Alan Murray. The other major publication is IFMBE News, who's Editor is Ratko Magjarevic.

Membership of FJC consists of a chair - currently Brian Brown from Sheffield - and three other members, normally chosen from membership of the Member Society of the country in which the Journal is published; the Editors and Deputy-Editor; the Chairman of the Publications Committee and the Treasurer of the Federation. The committee aims to achieve as wide a geographical representation as possible in its membership. It meets twice each year and is responsible to the Administrative Council of the Federation.

Both MBEC and IFMBE News are very successful. The main current concerns of the FJC include encouraging the continuing growth in the impact factor of MBEC and seeking to increase the exposure of the journal particularly in North America. One of the ways being used to achieve these objectives is the free trial electronic access to the journal which has been available over the past year. MBEC has a healthy submission rate but Alan Murray is always happy to see more and particularly to receive ideas for review articles. Publishing is seeing rapid changes with the growth in electronic access and the FJC aims to use these changes to the benefit of the Federation's publications and of course to the membership.