British Journal of Biomedical Science in 2021. What have we learned?

The British Journal of Biomedical Science in its attempts to continue to make steps forward as a leading international journal, has seen a significant rise in its impact factor (IF) rating over the past year. The IF figure for 2019 was 2.712 and for 2020 it has risen to 3.829 (Figure 1). Within the category of medical laboratory technology, the journal is now ranked 6 out of 29. These data mark a significant improvement in the academic standing of the journal as compared to many of its direct rivals. The emphasis on focussing on practice, research and education in all aspects of biomedical science and its application to the study of human disease and treatment continues to remain its primary objective. As well as focusing on the scope and full range of scientific disciplines within pathology, the journal has also made significant steps to embrace the importance of molecular techniques and how these methodologies have increased our understanding of disease processes. There is also a significant attempt to keep pace with the changing scope of molecular techniques and how their constant evolution brings an ever increasing armoury of investigative tools that can be applied across a wide spectrum of pathological entities, constantly challenging traditional discipline-specific perspectives to research and development. As seen throughout the articles published in 2021, volume 78 of the British Journal of Biomedical Science (BJBS) the molecular techniques discussed are often applied as an investigative tool to determine the clinical relevance of genes in an organism’s genome employing genetic screens. It also emphasizes the increasingly important role this technology has across all the traditional biomedical science disciplines. This approach helps us to understand how molecular genetics can be used as a powerful methodology for linking mutations to genetic sequences, may aid the search for treatments and or possible cures for various genetic based abnormalities. Many conditions and illnesses still cause considerable misery and suffering. Better laboratory diagnostics are therefore needed to provide more accurate information and lead to improved patient care – the aim being to provide for a higher quality of life for individuals with these conditions. Moreover some of the molecules and approaches described in the journal, such as analysis of micro-RNAs and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for a range of genes, may appear esoteric to many of us working in the laboratories, where more traditional methods hold sway. The important point here is to realize the pace of change in this area and also to recognize the importance of ‘biomarker’ studies as complementary to experimental studies on cell lines and animal based studies approach in the field, thus enabling a more synergistic approach to the study of disease mechanisms and pathological processes generally (Figure 2).