Welcome to Integrative Medicine Reports

Welcome to the first volume of Integrative Medicine Reports. Although this marks the journal's first publication, the idea of this journal has been long in the works. As many of you know, I am an executive editor for the Journal of Integrative and Complementary Medicine. We were having such success with ?the Blue Journal? that many excellent articles were being turned away simply due to limited resources?space, reviewers, and hours in the day. This should be seen as a real cause of celebration?our field is expanding enormously. In addition, there are other types of articles that are generally less likely to be published at JICM including botanical research, animal research, and bench science. We are hoping to develop Integrative Medicine Reports into the journal of choice for these articles. Although starting a new journal comes with many challenges, it also comes with many opportunities. One of the first tasks of setting up a new journal is recruiting an editorial board. My focus has been to look for ?voices? that have not been represented in the integrative medicine community. As such I am happy to report we have editors familiar with traditional East African, Persian, and Brazilian medicines, and several individuals who are focused on equity issues within integrative medicine. I am still looking for more editorial board members and would like them to be more geographically representative with individuals from every part of the globe. I would also love to have individuals with expertise in underrepresented practices such as Uighur, traditional Greek, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander medicines. If promoting integrative medicine is a passion of yours, I would encourage you to contact me. I am excited about working with the Academy of Integrative Health & Medicine (AIHM). I was able to connect with Executive Director Dr. Tabatha Parker, ND, about AIHM and its goals and how the journal can support the AIHM mission. But let me thank her now, as that relationship is reciprocal, and she was able to provide connections to build additional voices on our editorial board. Looking forward, our short-term goal is to get the journal indexed. With the publication of the high-quality work that is being submitted to the journal, this will be happening in the coming months. After that, we will be applying for PubMed indexing and begin working on an impact factor score. As an online and fully open-access journal, we will be able to move quickly, and it is our hope to make a substantial contribution to the field of integrative medicine. As a new journal, I will be depending on the support of the integrative medicine community. Obviously, this means publishing new articles. However, it also means being willing to review articles when you are contacted. In many fields of medicine, reviewing is considered a vital part of one's career. In those fields, it is very easy to get reviewers. I would like our field to consider how vital publication is for the advancement of the field. Without new and rigorous research, it is likely that our field will languish. Publication depends on the reviewers to hold the research community to a high standard. It is my hope that everyone will take this duty seriously and promote the field for the betterment of patient and provider care. Thank you for your support and I look forward to the development of integrative health and medicine in the years to come.