After more than 50 years of its birth, the Iranian Journal of Medical Sciences (IJMS), formerly known as Pahlavi Medical Journal, is now regarded as a reputable, regularly published medical journal in the region.

The IJMS has started its evolution since 1970, initially as a biannual journal, and one of the leading English Medical Journals published in Iran. From 2002, IJMS was published quarterly. Since 2014, it has been published bimonthly, and from January 2024, IJMS will be published on a monthly basis.

This journal is an international peer-reviewed bimonthly biomedical publication, the aim of which is to provide a scientific medium of communication to researchers throughout the globe. It benefits from editorial freedom. Our editorial policy is consistent with the principles of editorial independence presented by the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME). The IJMS is also an active member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and an advocate of ethical considerations in medical writing.

During these years, IJMS has taken an important step toward achieving higher visibility, and its published articles from 1976 to 1978 were indexed in Medline, formerly known as Index Medicus, and were accessible through the PubMed database. ¹ According to the records of the Scopus database, the IJMS coverage years were from 1979 to 1981, and again from 1989 to the present. ² Therefore, all the published articles from 1989 could be accessible through this distinguished database. ² In 2012, IJMS was archived by PubMed Central (PMC) and has since been visible through the PubMed database. ¹ Since January 2016, IJMS articles have been indexed in the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) of the Thomson Reuters (ISI) database, and articles published from January 2016 are now visible in this database. ³ Since January 2021, IJMS has been accepted into the Medline database, which is the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s premier bibliographic database. IJMS was previously indexed in PubMed Central, but MEDLINE is a more selective subset of PubMed, consisting of the top 5200 biomedical journals, and indexing in MEDLINE also means that articles are now also indexed with NLM Medical Subject Headings (MeSH terms) and other metadata. Furthermore, in June 2023, for the first time, IJMS was evaluated by Clarivate Analytics (ISI) and received an Impact factor of 2.4. ³ It is worth mentioning that the journal has the highest Impact Factor among Iranian journals indexed in the Web of Sciences core collection database in the “MEDICINE, GENERAL & INTERNAL” category.

IJMS is also indexed or visible through various databases including, EMBASE, Chemical Abstracts, CINAHL EBSCO, Academic Search Complete, CAB, ProQuest, DOAJ, Index Medicus for the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region, Index Copernicus, ISC, Google Scholar, Open J-Gate, Geneva Free Medical Journals, Electronic Journals Library, Free Medical Journals (Amedeo), Academic Journal Database, New Jour, EMR Medex, SID, Magiran, Iranmedex, MedLib, RICeST.

Since we are going to move toward a new era and are going to be published every month, we need active participation by submitting original articles, performing faster and more accurate peer reviews, as well as receiving invaluable feedback from our advocates. This support will ensure our vision to attract more original, clinical and basic science research with an emphasis on clinical applications.

The IJMS continues to welcome scientific contributions from all parts of the world. It also invites all respected researchers to be a part of its team as reviewers.

References

1. NLM Catalog [Internet]. Bethesda (MD): U.S. National Library of Medicine; 2007. Iranian Journal of Medical Sciences. [Cited: 2023 Oct 23]. NLM ID: 8104374 [Serial]. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/8104374.
2. SCOPUS Source List [Internet]. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier; 2004. Iranian Journal of Medical Sciences. [Cited: 2023 Oct 23]. Available from: https://www.scopus.com/sourceid/15240.
3. Journal Citation Reports [Internet]. Bethesda (MD): Clarivate Analytics; 2023. Iranian Journal of Medical Sciences. [Cited 2023 Oct 23]. Available from: https://jcr.clarivate.com/jcr-jp/journal-profile?journal=IRAN%20J%20MED%20SCI&year=2022&fromPage=%2Fjcr%2Fhome.