Editor in Chief’s Report Medical & Biological Engineering & Computing

Summary

Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing (MBEC) remains healthy with high submission rates. One aim is to continue to improve the quality of published papers. This will help to increase the impact factor further. We are now targeting bioengineering departments in universities and hospitals, to encourage them to take out a library subscription.

MBEC submissions

Acceptance rate

The acceptance rate for 1999 was 39%, and with 1 paper still being revised, gives a maximum potential rate of 40%. This compares with 46% in 1998 and 51% in 1997. We are continuing to improve the quality of papers published. Authors of good-quality papers should not be discouraged.

Time to first decision

Editorial decisions on MBEC papers (excluding Cellular Engineering) are made in under 3 months for over 80% of papers. By the end of June 2000, first decisions have been made on all MBEC papers received before March 2000, and on all but 7 MBEC papers received before April 2000.

Time to publication

In practical terms the publication delay has been eliminated, with approximately 65% of papers being published within 9 months of first receipt. All MBEC papers in the March 2000 issue were first received in or after May 1999, and 11 out of the 12 papers published in that issue were first received between June and October 1999; all papers were received in their final form between October 1999 and January 2000. All papers published in May 2000 were first received between June 1999 and November 1999, and in their final form (except one) between January and February 2000.

Cellular Engineering submissions

Submissions

Cellular Engineering papers have been incorporated in MBEC as a separate section since the beginning of 1998. This section is edited by Professor Åke Öberg. The 8 papers published in the March 2000 and May 2000 issues have all (except one) been published in under a year from the first-received date.

Special Issue

Following the publicising of MBEC by Dr Odile Damour at the conference on 'Tissue Engineering & Biomaterials' held in Lyons in December 1998, 7 papers resulting from that conference were published in the March 2000 MBEC in a Special Issue, under the Guest Editorship of Dr Lucie Germain of LOEX, Quebec, for the Cellular Engineering section. Including an editorial, this accounted for 49 pages.

Impact factor

We continue to improve publication times and quality. At the time of writing this report the impact factor for 1999 is not yet available. It was noted that the impact factor had risen by 0.32 between 1996 and 1998. We are aiming to raise it still further. We can all help by ensuring that researchers are aware of recent relevant papers in MBEC. We have produced a list of papers published in MBEC for 1999.

Editorial Board

We have 8 new Board Members and 12 have retired. We have written to thank all past Members.

Supplements

Two Supplements to MBEC have been published for 1999.

• Proceedings of the 11th Nordic-Baltic Conference on Biomedical Engineering (June 6-10 1999, Tallinn, Estonia), MBEC Vol. 37, Supplement 1, 1999
• Proceedings of the European Medical & Biological Engineering Conference (November 4-7 1999, Vienna, Austria), MBEC Vol. 37, Supplement 2, 1999

No other supplements will be published in this format. When requests are received, they will be forwarded to Professor Niilo Saranummi for consideration for the MBEC Conference Series.

Editor in Chief Alan Murray with Editorial Assistant Anna Newson.

Subscriptions

Data for 1999 show that library subscriptions have fallen. The publisher informs us that this is much less than for other journals. Generally, libraries are cutting back on subscriptions. It was also noted that, in 1999, only 68 members of IFMBE purchased a personal subscription.

Professor Jean-Pierre Morucci and Professor Dov Jaron have agreed to write a personal letter to contacts in universities/departments/etc who do not currently subscribe to MBEC.

Overall, the journal is financially healthy, but the fall in library subscriptions must be halted. Members of IFMBE are asked to help by ensuring that their departments subscribe at the library rate.

Online version of MBEC

The online version of MBEC is now available for 2000 at a reduced cost if the paper version is also taken.

Marketing

The publishers are now regularly providing publicity material for all IFMBE conferences. We aim to establish a single contact person for each conference.

Medline

There had been a delay in getting MBEC papers listed in Medline, but this has now been improved.

Alan Murray, Editor in Chief July 2000

Email: alan.murray@ncl.ac.uk