Infectious Diseases of Poverty,the first five years

Although the focus in the area of health research may be shifting from infectious to non-communicable diseases,the infectious diseases of poverty remain a major burden of disease of global health concern.A global platform to communicate and share the research on these diseases is needed to facilitate the translation of knowledge into effective approaches and tools for their elimination.Based on the“One health,One world”mission,a new,openaccess journal,Infectious Diseases of Poverty(IDP),was launched by BioMed Central in partnership with the National Institute of Parasitic Diseases(NIPD),Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention(China CDC)on October 25,2012.Its aim is to identify and assess research and information gaps that hinder progress towards new interventions for a particular public health problem in the developing world.From the inaugural IDP issue of October 25,2012,a total of 256 manuscripts have been published over the following five years.Apart from a small number of editorials,opinions,commentaries and letters to the editor,the predominant types of publications are research articles(69.5%)and scoping reviews(21.5%).A total of 1081 contributing authors divided between 323 affiliations across 68 countries,territories and regions produced these 256 publications.The journal is indexed in major international biomedical databases,including Web of Science,PubMed,Scopus and Embase.In 2015,it was assigned its first impact factor(4.11),which is now 2.13.During the past five years,IDP has received manuscripts from 90 countries,territories and regions across six continents with an annual acceptance rate of all contributions maintained at less than 40%.Content analysis shows that neglected tropical diseases(NTDs),followed by the“Big Three”(HIV/AIDS,malaria and tuberculosis)and infectious diseases in general comprise 88%of all publications.In addition,a series of 10 thematic issues,covering 118 publications in all,was published as separate parts of the first five volumes.These publications were cited 975 times,which equals an average of 8.3 times per publication.The current challenge is to identify cutting-edge research topics and attract and to publish first-rate publications leading to increasing importance and impact of the journal in its field.

Combating infectious diseases of poverty: a year on

The Infectious Diseases of Poverty journal,launched a year ago,is a platform to engage outside the traditional disciplinary boundaries,and disseminate high quality science towards the improvement of health.This paper reviews the milestone achievements during its first year of operation.The journal has filled an important niche,addressing some of the main priorities in the Global Report for Research on Infectious Diseases of Poverty.Highlights include the publication of three thematic issues on health systems,surveillance and response systems,as well as co-infection and syndemics.The thematic issues have foregrounded the importance and innovation that can be achieved through transdisciplinary research.The journal has been indexed by PubMed since April 2013,with the publication of a total of 38 articles.Finally,the journal is delivering to wider range readers both in developing and developed countries with sustained efforts with a focus on relevant and strategic information towards elimination of infectious diseases of poverty.