Happy birthday AME Medical Journal: we are three years old

Three years ago on Oct 18, 2016, the multidisciplinary open access journal AME Medical Journal (“AMJ” for short) was born with an aim to bring comprehensive academic knowledge to young physicians and surgeons in a vivid and interesting way and in turn, benefiting patients, and a promise to challenge the traditions of publishing (Figure 1). The yearly observation of the journal is rewarding (1,2). Getting one year older, AMJ is consolidated in terms of publication quality with a growing number of readerships. The past one year has witnessed some exciting progresses of AMJ in tandem with its branded sister AME Case Reports (“ACR” for short) (3). The coming October 18, we are going to launch the third AME-branded journal, namely AME Surgical Journal (“ASJ” for short) (4). Strategically, AMJ, ACR and ASJ will epitomize the focuses of AME office on the publication of medicine, clinical cases and surgery. The definition of the focuses will further facilitate the journal’s forward step and better carry on the dream of AME (5).

Figure 1 Happy birthday AME Medical Journal: we are three years old.

The third anniversary of AMJ

Since its launch, AMJ has strived to keep abreast of developments in a wide spectrum of medical fields. We are mostly grateful to a number of dedicated editors, reviewers, and authors. Their continuous support has been essential to the development of the journal. We will continue to seek out the highest quality and most influential research.

Below is the annual report of AMJ. The data is updated till 30 Sept. 2019.

Articles published and international authors

We are delighted by AMJ’s growth, visibility, and rate of development. It is reflected in the contributions of authors that have come from many parts of the world, including USA, Italy, Canada, Japan, Germany, UK, etc. The wide international spread of authors is one unique characteristic of the journal.

In 3 years, we have published a total of 339 articles, including 29 original articles, 50 review articles, 28 case reports, 185 invited editorials focused on hot issues in a wide spectrum of medical fields (Figure 2). All articles are available online (http://amj.amegroups.com/issue/all).

Figure 2 Article types of published articles.

The authors come from a large variety of countries, demonstrating international diversity in the published works. Of the 343 corresponding authors who have contributed to AMJ, 31 countries/regions are represented (Figure 3).

Figure 3 Geographical distribution of corresponding authors.

Widespread locale of Editorial Team

Figure 4 demonstrates AMJ’s internationally diverse editorial board: 31% of the editorial board members come from the USA, 17% from China, 10% from Japan, 9% from Italy, 8% from UK, 4% from Germany, 4% from Canada, 4% from Switzerland, and 13% from other regions including France, Poland, Ireland, etc. The widespread locale allows closer international collaboration between AMJ and its authors.

Figure 4 Geographical distribution of Editorial Board.

Under our joint-efforts, AMJ is gaining momentum and attracting interest from readers worldwide. Based on data from Google Analysis, AMJ had an increasing number of visitors (all together 76,575 worldwide and 180,949 pageviews) and the main readers are from US, China, India, UK, Canada, etc. Figure 5 shows the top 10 countries that our readers are from.

Figure 5 Top 10 countries—geographical distribution of AMJ readers.

Published focused issues in AMJ

To date, AMJ has published 4 focused issues led by prominent experts worldwide in various fields. Each issue targets a specific significant topic, gathering remarkable experts of the topical field in one place.

For further details please refer to http://amj.amegroups.com/post/category/focused-issues.

Ongoing focused issues in AMJ

Currently, there are also five issues under progress:

• Focused Issue on Rare Genitourinary Malignancies (edited by Dr. Philippe E. Spiess, Department of Genitourinary Oncology, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, Tampa, FL, USA).
Link: http://amj.amegroups.com/post/view/focused-issue-on-rare-genitourinary-malignancies
• Focused Issue on Malignant Pleural Effusion (edited by Dr. Dragan R. Subotic, Clinic for Thoracic Surgery, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland).
Link: http://amj.amegroups.com/post/view/focused-issue-on-malignant-pleural-effusion
• Focused Issue on Bladder cancer (edited by Dr. Marco Moschini, Clinic of Urology, Luzerner Kantonsspital, Lucerne, Switzerland).
Link: http://amj.amegroups.com/post/view/focused-issue-on-bladder-cancer
• Focused Issue on Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (edited by Dr. Shahzad G. Raja, Department of Cardiac Surgery, Harefield Hospital, London, UK).
• Focused Issue on Immune Response in Lung Cancer (edited by Dr. Kei Suzuki, Boston Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA).

While we are excited about the upward trend of AMJ, we understand AMJ is still at its childhood. What will bring the AME Medical Journal to the next level? Teamwork will be most essential. Meanwhile, we will continue to focus on the original intention of sharing advanced research result, spectacular surgical techniques and precious experience, inspiring academic sparkles and finally bringing better treatment for patients.

Acknowledgments

Funding: None.

Footnote

Provenance and Peer Review: This article was commissioned by the editorial office, AME Medical Journal. The article did not undergo external peer review.

Conflicts of Interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Open Access Statement: This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits the non-commercial replication and distribution of the article with the strict proviso that no changes or edits are made and the original work is properly cited (including links to both the formal publication through the relevant DOI and the license). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

References

1. Editorial Office. Happy birthday AME Medical Journal: we are one year old. AME Med J 2017;2:157. [Crossref]
2. Editorial Office. Happy Birthday AME Medical Journal: we are two years old. AME Med J 2018;3:101. [Crossref]
3. Cao Z. Welcome to the AME Case Reports. AME Case Reports 2017;1:1. [Crossref]
4. Wang SD. AME Surgical Journal: a journal that hopes to provoke surgeons’ inspiration. AME Surg J 2019;1:1.
5. Wang SD. AME Medical Journal: burnishing AME dream. AME Med J 2016;1:1. [Crossref]