New Medicine and Health Sciences Sections in PeerJ Life & Environment

PeerJ Editor Adya Misra introduces our new medicine and health sciences sections: Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disorders, Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation, and Global Health.

When PeerJ launched in 2013 our aim was to be a disruptor and a catalyst for change in the world of academic publishing. This has not changed. We remain committed to dramatically lowering the cost to publish in high quality and globally visible journals; committed to giving the researchers that write and peer review research articles more influence over the publishing process and recognizing them for their contributions; and committed to innovating editorially and technologically, in partnership with research communities, to give scientists the publishing tools and services they want with a unique and exciting experience.

As we continue to adapt to life with a new disruptor – COVID 19 – we believe that our mission and goals must serve and adapt to changing needs within research communities. A novel coronavirus that has played havoc with our lives has put important public health issues in the spotlight and generated burgeoning areas of research within viral evolution, vaccine development, epidemic management and building resilience on an individual and community level.

To better cater for clinical and medical research communities at PeerJ we are excited to announce three new sections within PeerJ, our multidisciplinary journal of life and environmental sciences: Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disorders, Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation, and Global Health. Whilst we have published research in these areas for many years, these are our first Sections dedicated to clinical and medical research.

We have also broadened the scope of one of our current sections – Brain and Cognition – to include Mental Health. We continue to see growth in research and public health initiatives focused on mental health and we hope that, by creating a prominent space for mental health research, we can play a role in highlighting the importance of this topic to individuals and policy makers.

With these sections we hope to create engaged communities of researchers who identify with our mission to act as a catalyst for change, challenge the norms of academic journal publishing and help make open access publishing more globally accessible. As with our current sections, we will appoint Section Editors to each new section to provide editorial oversight and community leadership, ensuring a fair and consistent peer review process in line with the highest standards of scientific practice in their fields. With everything we do at PeerJ, we hope to publish high quality research, without any predetermined notion of impact.

Launching these new Sections is the start of a new chapter for medicine and health sciences publishing at PeerJ. We will continue to innovate and strive to expand our horizons by working with experts in the clinical and medical sciences to create a home for their research at PeerJ.

Call for Editorial Board Members to join these Sections

If you identify with our mission to act as a catalyst for change in science communication, and you’re an experienced researcher with an independent research program in any of these fields, we encourage you to apply to join the Editorial Board of PeerJ. If you are interested please send your CV to Adya Misra.

Adya Misra is a PeerJ Staff Editor with extensive expertise in clinical research and investigating post-publication concerns of research integrity. Prior to PeerJ she held editorial roles at PLOS Medicine and PLOS ONE. She obtained her PhD in Mitochondrial DNA Disease at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Mitochondrial Research, Newcastle University, UK and completed related postdoctoral research at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm. Adya worked at the Institute for Cancer Research, UK within Cancer Genomics before starting her first editorial role.