IJBM — Interdisciplinary, International, and Outstanding Research on Factors Relevant to Health and Illness

What did we achieve in the 5 years of my term as the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Behavioral Medicine (IJBM)? It has been an interesting and rewarding experience to serve IJBM in this position. In this editorial, I will summarize the major developments during these 5 years and I will assess the current state of IJBM. The profile of IJBM has been defined as " original research and integrative reviews on interactions among behavioral, psychosocial, environmental, genetic, and bio-medical factors relevant to health and illness. The scope of IJBM extends from research on biobehavioral mechanisms; clinical studies on diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation; to research on public health, including health promotion and prevention " [1]. A thorough understanding of biobe-havioral mechanisms contributes to clinical and public health research. Public health research may benefit from insights derived from clinical studies, and vice versa. IJBM brings these differently focused but complementary domains together to integrate and extend knowledge on factors relevant to health and illness. IJBM is preeminently an interdisciplinary journal. I believe IJBM has indeed been successful in publishing high-quality papers in the three major domains of bio-behavioral mechanisms, clinical care, and public health. Recent examples in the domain of behavioral mechanisms are The Relationships Between Self-Rated Health and Serum Lipids Across Time [2] and Sleep Duration and Regularity are Associated with Behavioral Problems in 8-year-old Children [3]. Examples in the domain of clinical care include the papers Effects of a Weight Loss Intervention on Body Mass, Fitness, and Inflammatory Biomarkers in Overweight or Obese Breast Cancer Survivor [4] and Parents' Pain Catastrophizing is Related to Pain Cata-strophizing of Their Adult Children [5]. Recent examples in the domain of public health are the review on The Relevance of Fatalism in the Study of Latinas' Cancer Screening Behavior [6] and the review on Prevention of Type 2 Diabetes and its Complications in Developing Countries [7]. Clinical care and public health have been the most proliferative domains; IJBM could publish somewhat more papers in the field of biobehavioral mechanisms. The International Society of Behavioral Medicine is aiming to strengthen collaboration with more specialized scientific societies in behavioral medicine; this may help to attract more high-quality manuscripts on basic research. The profile emphasizing three major domains brings the risk of lack of focus. Researchers working in a specific field may feel that their audience is " diluted " by readers from the other …