A Message for Young Authors: The Past 100 Years and Future of the Tohoku Journal of Experimental Medicine

In the first Issue of the year 2020, we are pleased to announce the 100th Anniversary of the Tohoku Journal of Experimental Medicine (TJEM). As mentioned in the previous editorials (Shibahara 2009, 2010; Takahashi and Shibahara 2019), TJEM was founded in 1920 by professors of Tohoku Imperial University, Medical School; Toshihiro Fujita, Toyoziro Kato and Yasutaro Satake (Table 1). The first Issue of the TJEM was published on April 29, 1920 (http://www.journal.med.tohoku.ac.jp/firstpaper.html). The TJEM has been published continuously from April 1920 to today, except for the year of 1946 just after the World War II.

The Great East-Japan Earthquake (magnitude 9.0) attacked the Tohoku region (northeastern Japan), which included Sendai City, on March 11, 2011 (Shibahara 2011). However, the Issues of the TJEM have been continuously published without delay in spite of the damages by The Great East-Japan Earthquake with a devastating tsunami and the Fukushima Nuclear Accident. Since then, disaster-prevention science and earthquake/tsunami research, including earthquake archeology, are the important fields of the TJEM (Shibahara 2012; Ishigaki et al. 2013).

We would like to thank all the authors, the readers and the reviewers who contributed to the TJEM in the past 100 years. The TJEM published 10,577 papers in the 100 years from 1920 to 2019. The successful relation between the authors and the readers of the TJEM results in high citations of the articles published in the TJEM. The Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics, Philadelphia, PA) contains the database of the TJEM consisting of 7,477 publications since the Volume 73, Issue 2 in 1961, with total 58,683 citations at the present moment (January 1, 2020). Table 2 shows the top 3 articles of the TJEM which have been most frequently cited since 1961.

The top of the most frequently cited articles is the study on morphine glucuronides by Shimomura et al. (1971) from the Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyushu University. They demonstrated an analgesic effect of morphine-6-glucuronide, which was more potent than morphine. The second is the article on histometrical studies of human arteries by Furuyama (1962) from the Departments of Medicine and Pathology, Tohoku University School of Medicine. This article was written for the doctoral thesis of Michiko Furuyama, who was a graduate student in the Department of Pathology directed by Prof. Norio Suwa, one of the Chief Editors of the TJEM (Table 1). The third is the report on the establishment of the rat model of type 2 diabetes mellitus, Goto-Kakizaki rats, by Goto et al. (1976) from the Third Department of Internal Medicine, Hirosaki University School of Medicine. The Goto-Kakizaki rat is a genetic non-overweight type 2 diabetes model generated by repeated inbreeding of Wistar rats with glucose intolerance, starting from a non-diabetic Wistar rat colony. Goto-Kakizaki rats exhibit certain diabetic complications such as nephropathy and retinopathy, and are now widely used in the basic studies on type 2 diabetes mellitus all over the world. Prof. Yoshio Goto moved from Hirosaki University to Tohoku University as the Professor and Chairman of the Third Department of Internal Medicine in 1976. It should be noted that all three articles are still cited, and the number of citations is increasing continuously. In particular, the article on Goto-Kakizaki rats by Goto et al. (1976) was cited 12 times in 2019. The lists of the most frequently cited TJEM papers are found at http://www.journal.med.tohoku.ac.jp/top30/top30.html.

We then thank all the previous Editors, the Editorial Board Members and the Editorial Staffs for their sincere contributions to the TJEM in the 100 years. Twenty-one professors in Tohoku University School of Medicine served as Chief Editors of the TJEM during the 100 years, as listed in Table 1. In addition to the editorial work in the TJEM, they had to play central roles in the research, education and management of Tohoku University. Among them, four Chief Editors served as the President of the University after the mission of the TJEM: Prof. Yasutaro Satake (the President of Tohoku University, 1946-1949), Prof. Koichi Motokawa (the President of Tohoku University, 1965-1971), Prof. Goro Kikuchi (the President of Nippon Medical School, 1986-1992) and Prof. Takeshi Hoshi (the President of the University of Shizuoka, 1993-1999).

Morio Kita (Dr. Sokichi Saito, 1927-2011), one of the alumni of Tohoku University School of Medicine and a famous novelist and essayist, wrote on his memory of the examination of physiology by Prof. Koichi Motokawa in his essay, ‘Doctor Manbo Seishun-Ki (Essay on the days of youth)’. Morio Kita had to take examinations of physiology by Prof. Motokawa 4 times repeatedly until he passed, probably because his study in physiology was not enough. Nevertheless, Morio Kita respected and liked Prof. Motokawa, because he was a man of good morals and humor who was able to teach and foster medical students.

Now, the present Editors of the TJEM may sometimes have to request authors to do manuscript revisions more than 4 times before publication in the TJEM, like the examination of physiology by Prof. Motokawa. This is partly because we would like to publish articles of better quality in the TJEM, and partly because we hope to help young authors to become established medical scientists through the publication of their articles in the TJEM. As shown in the Guidelines of Authors of the TJEM (http://www.journal.med.tohoku.ac.jp/Guidelines/index.html), our mission is to publish peer-reviewed papers in all branches of medical sciences including basic medicine, social medicine, clinical medicine, nursing sciences and disaster-prevention science, and to present new information of exceptional novelty, importance and interest to a broad readership of the TJEM. However, another important mission of the TJEM Editors has been, and will be to educate and foster young authors to established medical scientists who contribute to the advance of medical science and the happiness of mankind.

Table 1.

Chief Editors in the 100 years of the Tohoku Journal of Experimental Medicine (TJEM).

^*Founding Editors of the TJEM.

Table 2.

The top 3 articles in the TJEM which have been most frequently cited since 1961.

^**The number of citations is following the analysis of the WEB of Science (Clarivate Analytics, Philadelphia, PA) on January 1, 2020.

References

•  Furuyama,  M. (1962) Histometrical investigations of arteries in reference to arterial hypertension. Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 76, 388-414.
•  Goto,  Y.,  Kakizaki,  M. &  Masaki,  N. (1976) Production of spontaneous diabetic rats by repetition of selective breeding. Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 119, 85-90.
•  Ishigaki,  A.,  Higashi,  H.,  Sakamoto,  T. &  Shibahara,  S. (2013) The Great East-Japan Earthquake and devastating tsunami: an update and lessons from the past Great Earthquakes in Japan since 1923. Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 229, 287-299.
•  Shibahara,  S. (2009) The upcoming 90th anniversary of the Tohoku Journal of Experimental Medicine. Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 218, 161-163.
•  Shibahara,  S. (2010) Sensing the soul of science via Sendai: the prologue to the tenth decade of TJEM. Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 220, 1-2.
•  Shibahara,  S. (2011) The 2011 Tohoku earthquake and devastating tsunami. Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 223, 305-307.
•  Shibahara,  S. (2012) Revisiting the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami: resilience and restoration. Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 226, 1-2.
•  Shimomura,  K.,  Kamata,  O.,  Ueki,  S.,  Ida,  S.,  Oguri,  K.,  Yoshimura,  H. &  Tsukamoto,  H. (1971) Analgesic effect of morphine glucuronides. Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 105, 45-52.
•  Takahashi,  K. &  Shibahara,  S. (2019) 100 years of the Tohoku Journal of Experimental Medicine, and the Tohoku Medical Megabank Project in the Japanese new era, Reiwa. Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 248, 1-2.