Periodicals in andrology: an overview.

Andrology is a medical specialty which is concerned with male reproductive and sexual functions. There are several peer-reviewed andrology journals.123456789 As shown in , we highlighted alphabetically on some selected andrology periodicals.

However, there are additional periodicals which are not included in . For example:

Archives of Andrology, which started in 1978 and ceased in 2007. It was succeeded by Systems Biology in Reproductive Medicine

National Journal of Andrology, which started in 1995 and still published, is available online at http://www.oriprobe.com/journals/zhnkx.html

The Journal of Andrology, Sexual Medicine and Gender (JSMAG), which is the official journal of the Andrology, Gender, Aging, and Sexual sciences Society of India (AGASSI) (http://www.agassi.in/). It was formed in 2004. It is available online at http://www.journalonweb.com/jsmag/

Advances in Andrology, which is just launched, is available online at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aandrol/.

Researches in andrology are being published from all over the world. However, a study showed that USA, China, and Japan lead the world in andrology researches for the number of papers published.1

During the past year, significant changes have been made regarding the andrology periodicals. These changes are not limited to the number of journals which is obviously increasing but to the accessibility and contents of these periodicals. These changes include online access to supplemental data, online-only sections, free and compiled sections, and open access to the authors’ manuscripts (PDF).6

In addition, new features have emerged in medical publication. Like video abstracts and postpublication peer-review. As it may appear from , few journals have changed their titles and sponsor organizations. Many andrology journals utilized the social media websites like Facebook, to inform the readers about the new issues of their journals. Some journals have used Open Access publishing which provides immediate, worldwide, access to the full text of all published articles.8

Professional societies play a good role in establishing andrology journals, for examples the European Academy of Andrology which is founded in 1992, and the American Society of Andrology (ASA) which is founded in 1975. The Journal of Andrology first appeared in January 1980, 5 years after the ASA was founded.2

In this commentary, we meant to provide through a tabulation view (), highlights on some andrology periodicals.

COMPETING INTERESTS

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Table 1

Selected peer-reviewed journals in andrology