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New Journal / Editor-in-Chief Proposals

JMIR Publications is an open access academic publisher based in Toronto, Canada, and is the leading publisher of peer-reviewed journals in the ehealth domain. We are the leading open access publisher focusing on technology and bioengineering in health, and are expanding into other areas.

Our mission is to reinvent scholarly communication through grassroots, researcher-driven innovation in every aspect of peer-reviewed publishing, making use of Internet, social media, and mobile technologies, and we are currently expanding into other science domains. Recent successful journal launches include JMIR Infodemiology, JMIR Research Protocols and Interactive Journal of Medical Research (i-JMR).

To expand our journal portfolio, we are continuously looking for gaps in the journal market, societies interested in creating new journals or looking for new publishers, and visionary and highly regarded scientists, primarily working at the intersections between technology and medicine, to lead the creation and development of new journals in emerging disciplines and rapidly expanding research areas. Building on the JMIR brand, recent new titles include JMIR Bioinformatics and JMIR Biomedical Engineering. Individual titles without the JMIR branding in the title are also a possibility.

Proposed Editors-in-Chief must be highly regarded and cited individuals (evidenced by their list of publications and their h-index, generally at least 15-20) and must have a clear vision for their journal, including a plan to solicit editorial board members and the first 20 submissions. The application process (which can be done by a society or an individual) consists of developing a journal proposal containing these details. Ongoing tasks will be to guide submissions through the peer-review process, (light) academic editing of submissions, and liaising with the JMIR production team. An honorarium/stipend may be paid.

Applications process: To apply as Editor-in-Chief for new journals, or as a society/community proposing a new journal, please develop and submit a journal proposal, outlining the following:

  • A short bio of the Editor-in-Chief, and a dump of the most cited publications (e.g. from Web of Science, Google Scholar, or Scopus), ranked by the number of citations, showing the h-index of the applicant (e.g., first 20 publications which are cited more than 20 times = h-index of 20).
  • Name of the future journal ("JMIR [Discipline]" or an independent title not building on the JMIR brand)
  • Scope and mission of the journal
  • An estimate of the "market" size in terms of how many papers per year in this discipline are published, with projections (e.g., search PubMed). We are primarily interested in growing disciplines
  • List competitor/similar journals and their impact factors, and how the new journal would distinguish itself from them
  • Example titles for 10-20 articles to be published
  • A list of future possible editorial board members
  • A clear plan on how to solicit the first 20 papers for the new journal
  • A list of other publishers you may have contacted or are in negotiation with (and their terms, and what you like or dislike about them, if applicable)

Please email your application documents to ed-support@jmir.org with the subject line "editor-in-chief [journalname]".