Task Force of the European Federation of Medical Informatics Journals: Background, Rationale and Purpose

The European Federation for Medical Informatics (EFMI) is a non-profit scientific and professional organization established in 1976 that today consists of 31 national members [1], [2], [3], [4].  All European countries are entitled to be represented in EFMI by an appropriate national medical informatics society. The term ‘medical informatics' is used to include the whole spectrum of health informatics and all its sub-disciplines and allied disciplines. The Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) defines medical informatics as [4], [5]:  ‘The field of information science concerned with the analysis and dissemination of medical data through the application of computers to various aspects of health care and medicine.' This definition was introduced in 1987 as a MeSH term.

Medical informatics scientific and research production in Europe is growing both in quantityand quality. Promoting high-quality research is a major goal of EFMI [1], [4], [6]. EFMI has two highly respected official general journals, the International Journal of Medical Informatics (former title: International Journal of Bio-Medical Computing), currently edited by Charles Safran and Jan Talmon, and Methods of Information in Medicine, currently edited by Reinhold Haux. EFMI also publishes several sub-speciality official journals covering the spectrum of medical informatics sub-disciplines. The time-honoured method to disseminate high-quality scientific research is via the proceedings of the MIE annual conference. EFMI also plays a major role in education and in the harmonization of medical informatics sub-disciplines through the organization of STCs. Both MIE and STC proceedings are peer reviewed and published by IOS Press (Amsterdam, The Netherlands). Usually, MIE proceedings are indexed in Medline/PubMed. Most medical informatics journals are published in local languages, but many of them also incorporate English summaries or contain combined articles published in domestic and English language. Altogether, EFMI provides highly effective means for worldwide dissemination of medical informatics research conducted in Europe. However, in addition to the proceedings, journal editors have the opportunity to do more to disseminate knowledge and increase the understanding of our discipline.

Editor-in-Chiefs of medical informatics journals are invited to create a joint mission statement and set out the objective and purpose of all EFMI journals. We believe that the joint statement will foster the dissemination of scientific knowledge and increase our understanding of medical informatics as a discipline. Additionally, we intend to produce and issue a core document stating the fundamental principles upon which all medical informatics journals editors should agree. The common goals will be identified and agreed on the scope and standard of papers that should be published in EFMI medical informatics journals. The reasons for setting out the statement are:

• To promote editorial excellence by enforcing the use of standards and guidelines(International Committee of Medical Journals. Editors guidelines; Committee of Publication Ethics; other relevant documents [7]);

• To improve the quality of scientific studies published in EFMI medical informatics journals by imposing same standards for evaluating studies in medical informatics (guidelines already accepted as official EFMI document, but there were no further steps taken to ensure their use);

• To promote scientific publishing excellence by enforcing standards of paper formatting (‘camera-ready' manuscript format; Vancouver referencing style);

• To improve diffusion of scientific knowledge through the medical/health informatics area (recognition and diffusion of EFMI research, education, clinical practice guidelines in EU countries should be promoted);

• To increase collaboration among EFMI medical informatics journal editors and schedule regular meetings of the Task Force;

• To explore the potential for using shared pool of reviewers, sharing information on review process and sharing expertise: technical editorial information, experiences, initiatives, publishing resources and tools (such as the open source Open Journal System or commercial/publisher solutions);

• To encourage articles not suitable for medical informatics journals to be published elsewhere and support the communication with editors of such journals;

• To provide a common voice when issues of common interest arise and enhance collaboration between national societies and EFMI bodies;

• To promote European initiatives in stimulating publications and top-quality research.