Establishment of an SEBM/EBM China Outreach Office in Shanghai

Abstract

One major goal of my time as Editor-in-Chief (EIC) of Experimental Biology and Medicine (EBM), which began on July 1, 2006 was to globalize the journal. This goal was pursued in many different ways. From the beginning of my first term as EIC, while we increased the number of scientific categories covered by the journal, we more than doubled the size of the Editorial Board and the Associate Editors (AEs). These added members of the EBM Editorial Board and our new AEs came from all over the globe. This was done to increase EBM’s visibility worldwide. On January 1, 2008, we opened an Asian EBM office at the National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) and Dr. Huan-Yao Lei became our first EBM Asian Editor. With Huan-Yao’s passing, Dr. Shao-Jeng (Sean) Tsai, also from NCKU, became the EBM Asian Editor. Both Huan-Yao and Sean have done a masterful job of handling manuscripts from Asia Pacific including having colleagues help to refine the written English of many manuscripts thereby improving the publication success rates. In July 2008 we opened a European EBM Office at King’s College London with Dr. Farzin Farzaneh as our first European Editor. Farzin has also performed a wonderful service for the journal in both the handling of manuscripts and, for a subset of the manuscripts, having a colleague help with written English. The globalization of our journal, as hoped for, has led to a large increase in manuscripts received. From the beginning of 2006 to the end of 2012 our annual manuscript submissions has increased by 54%. This increase is largely due to an explosion of manuscripts received from Asia Pacific which represents 58% of our current manuscript submissions. China alone represents 50% of our current 2013 submissions. So in every way that can be quantified our globalization of the journal has been a huge success. Our Editorial Board and AEs are now international; our manuscripts submitted have increased with Asia Pacific representing 58% and Europe 17% of current submissions and our success rates for publication for those manuscripts from Asia Pacific are greatly increased. A more long-term goal of the globalization of the journal was that it would translate, in time, to a globalization of the Society of Experimental Biology and Medicine (SEBM). EBM is the journal established and operated by the SEBM. One manifestation of this globalization of SEBM would be a membership that comes from all over the world. SEBM is a unique society with a wonderful history. It is unique in its focus on multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research which is at the crossroads of experimental biology and clinical medicine, and its focus on supporting the career development of young researchers. This is a focus which should resonate with biomedical scientists worldwide. With the goal of translating the globalization of EBM to a worldwide membership for SEBM, the SEBM Council approved the opening of an SEBM/EBM China Outreach Office. With 50% of the EBM manuscripts coming from China, and the tremendous expansion of biomedical research in that country, it was the logical first location for an SEBM/EBM Outreach Office. After consideration by a Task Force that I chaired, and the receipt of several outstanding applications, the SEBM Council approved the opening of this office at the Shanghai JiaoTong University School of Medicine with the Shanghai Cancer Institute and Renji Hospital. The goals of the SEBM/EBM China Outreach office are to increase the profile of SEBM and EBM in China leading to increases in SEBM memberships, EBM personal and library subscriptions and further increases in manuscript submissions. Many approaches will be taken to accomplish these goals with one being a jointly planned annual international conference to be held in Shanghai. The first annual international scientific conference will focus on Cancer Research and takes place from October 28th to 29th 2013. It will include an SEBM Symposium on Stem Cell Biology and Cancer, an EBM Editor’s workshop which I will be organizing, several research platform sessions and a poster session. More details about this international SEBM/Shanghai JiaoTong University conference can be found in the announcement on page 856 of this issue. The Shanghai JiaoTong University School of Medicine recommended Professor Yiqian Wu, pictured below, to be the Director of the SEBM/EBM China Outreach Office. Based on Professor Wu’s outstanding experience in China’s biomedical publishing field the SEBM Council unanimously supported this recommendation. Professor Yiqian Wu was in 2004 appointed as the Editorial Director of the journal TUMOR. During her time in this position she helped the journal to be listed in EMBASE, DOAJ, and other important Chinese medical key journal databases. Under Professor Wu’s leadership TUMOR is now ranked as the