PLoS Medicine is Five

Five years ago, PLoS Medicine, the second journal in the PLoS stable, sent its first call for submissions. It has quickly gained reputation as one of the top medical journals.

In the editorial published last night, the Editors look back at the five years so far, and also look forward into the future:

In the age of the Internet, five years can seem like an eternity. PLoS Medicine issued its first call for papers five years ago and the inaugural issue went live online five years ago this October--for those of you who are nostalgic, check out the original call for papers [1]. Anniversaries often prompt reflection, and over the past few months we've taken a close look at our original plans for PLoS Medicine, what's happened since the journal launched, and most importantly how the journal should evolve in the future. We now propose a refocusing of the journal's priorities that will, we believe, align them more closely with the world's health priorities...

So, what is the vision for the future?

The PLoS Medicine editors also emphasize the need to look beyond just the biological causes of disease. As the world faces up to the challenges of a changing climate, a turbulent economic system, continued global conflict - and now a possible influenza pandemic - they now wish to reinforce the important place in health research of work that encompasses the social, environmental, and political determinants of health, as well as the biological.