EDITORIAL Three years of Stem Cell Research & Therapy

This year we celebrate three years of publication of Stem Cell Research & Therapy. In this short space of time, as the number of journals in the stem cell and regenerative medicine field has grown and continues to grow dramat-ically, Stem Cell Research & Therapy has become established as the destination for high quality open ac-cess research into stem cell therapeutics. Why Stem Cell Research & Therapy? When submitting work to a journal, authors understand-ably wish to be assured of the journal’s quality. So what makes Stem Cell Research & Therapy the leading forum for translational stem cell research? Scope, indexing, and impact Stem Cell Research & Therapy was launched in 2010 and was the first journal to focus on translational stem cell research [1]. We also publish basic and clinical re-search with a particular interest in the use of stem cells for drug discovery and testing, stem cell manufacture, and biomaterials. As discussed in last year’s editorial [2], the journal was accepted for indexing in MEDLINE from volume 1. The selection process for MEDLINE is similar to the National Institutes of Health’s grant-making process; journals are reviewed by a committee, and sci-entific merit and quality of the editorial work are im-portant considerations in this process [3], so authors can be sure their article will be easily searchable via PubMed, and that Stem Cell Research & Therapy has been recog-nized as publishing content of suitable standard and value to the community. Similarly, Stem Cell Research & Therapy was accepted for tracking early by Thomson Reuters and received its first partial Impact Factor (of 3.21), an important metric in the research commu-nity, in the 2011 Journal Citation Report. A responsible and respected publisher Since 2000, BioMed Central has been a pioneer of the open access publishing model. A member of the Com-mittee on Publication Ethics (COPE), BioMed Central regularly reviews its editorial policies and processes to ensure that they meet the highest standards [4]. All of the research published in Stem Cell Research & Therapy is thoroughly peer-reviewed and deposited in a number of open access archives to ensure its continual availabil-ity [5]