EJNMMI Physics—Access is open for open access

Abstract

At the 2013 Annual Meeting of the European Nuclear Medi-cine Association (EANM) in Lyon, Springer launched a newcompanion journal to the European Journal of Nuclear Med-icine and Molecular Imaging (EJNMMI):the EJNMMI Phys-ics journal. EJNMMI Physics will be a partner journal ofEJNMMI Research, of which Angelika Bischof Delaloye hasbeentheeditor-in-chiefsince2011[1]. Thewell-versed readermay stop here with a grunting sound: “YAJ! ” (“yet anotherjournal”). However, there is more to this announcement.The development of nuclear medicine is indebted to manycontributions from physicists, including the discovery of ra-dioactivity by Henri Becquerel, the isolation of radioactiveisotopes by Marie Sklodowska-Curie, the discovery of thepositron by Carl David Anderson and the discovery of theneutron by James Chadwick, subsequently leading to thediscovery of artificial radioactivity by Irene and FredericJoliot-Curie, who received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in1935.Itisperhapssurprising,therefore,thatatpresentthereisno journal dedicated to the field of physics in nuclear medi-cine, and it is very noticeable that such papers are scatteredacross a range of journals that either cover general physics inmedicine or are more focussed on clinical issues. With theincreasing emphasis on molecular imaging and personalisedmedicine, physics can only become more central to futuredevelopments, and a platform is needed to focus such ideas.EJNMMI Physics will fill that gap by providing a publica-tion platform for the exchange of scientifically sound infor-mationonphysicsand physics matters inthe realm ofnuclearmedicine. In recognition of today’s multi-disciplinary ap-proach to nuclear medicine and nuclear medicine physics,the journal will publish original materials and studies with afocus on applied physics, mathematics and multi-modalityimaging instrumentation as well as imaging system engineer-ing and prototyping in nuclear medicine. This includesphysics-drivenapproachesoralgorithmssupportedbyphysicsthatfosterearlyclinicaladoptionofnuclearmedicineimagingand therapy regimens.The journal is open for a variety of contributions, rangingfrom original articles and short communicationsto, for exam-ple, artefact reports that will describe both a methodologicalproblem leading to a visual or quantitative distortion of nu-clear medicine imaging and a solution to the problem. Inaddition, opinion papers, pictorial assays and review articlesaddressing controversies and timely developments will bepublished, relevant to both nuclear medicine physics andinstrumentation. One section, “Young Investigator Reports ”,will provide young medical physicists with a submissioncategory suitable for summary reports of their research activ-itiesaspartoftheirthesiswork.Thisjournalisnotintendedtoreplace theEJNMMIas the publication of choicefor physics-related articles that are of interest to the wider clinically