Moving on up: the Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle.

As the editors of the Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle (JCSM), we are proud to announce that the journal has maintained its impact factor, which has now been published by Thomson Scientific as 7.3, placing it number 9 in the ranking of all journals in the field ‘Medicine, General and Internal’ (Table 1) and number 3 among all nutrition journals, among which, however, JCSM is not offficially listed (Table 2). The number of submissions has increased over the last year, but because we decided to stick with four print issues per year, this also means that our rejection rate is now in excess of 80% of submitted articles. Indeed, at the time of this writing, on 9 July 2015, the journal has received 106 submissions in 2015 alone (Figure 1). We are working hard to provide a timely peer review, which is not always easy as it is difficult at times to find appropriate reviewers. In addition, the journal aims to cover not only clinical medicine but also basic research into cachexia, sarcopenia, and muscle pathophysiology in its broadest sense. Authors can help in speeding the review process by suggesting referees who are able to provide a balanced, however, unbiased comment.

Table 1

Top 10 journals in the field ‘Medicine: General & Internal’, adapted from reference 31

	Journal name	Impact factor 2014	Items published in 2012 and 2013
1	New England Journal of Medicine	55.873	708
2	Lancet	45.217	589
3	Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)	35.289	453
4	Annals of Internal Medicine	17.810	311
5	British Medical Journal	17.445	605
6	Archives of Internal Medicine	17.333	138
7	PLoS – Medicine	14.429	233
8	JAMA – Internal Medicine	13.116	164
9	Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle	7.315	54
10	BMC Med	7.249	342

Table 2

Top 10 journals in the field ‘Nutrition & Dietetics’, where the Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle is officially not listed, adapted from reference 31

	Journal name	Impact factor 2014	Items published in 2012 and 2013
1	Progress in Lipid Research	10.015	65
2	Annual Review of Nutrition	8.359	39
	Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle	7.315	54
3	American Journal of Clinical Nutrition	6.770	657
4	Nutrition Reviews	6.076	157
5	Proceedings of the Nutrition Society	5.273	121
6	Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition	5.176	148
7	International Journal of Obesity	5.004	450
8	Advances in Nutrition	4.709	175
9	Clinical Nutrition	4.476	294
10	International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity	4.111	289

Figure 1

Number of manuscript submissions to the Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle by year of publication. *Numbers for 2015 are estimated on the number of submissions until 9 July 2015 (reprinted from von Haehling and Anker32).

It does not come as a major surprise that among the best cited articles since the first publication of the JCSM are those that are available for the longest time, that is, those published in 2010 and 2011 (Table 3). Editorials like our ‘facts and numbers’ series that try to summarize knowledge of a specific field in a comprehensive way remain a publication type that we are very much in favour of. This is also highlighted by the popularity of editorials published in 2014 (Tables 4 and 5). We invite scientists to submit such editorials with as many facts and figures as possible on a topic of interest to our readership to submit their work for consideration.

Table 3

Top 10 of the best cited articles since first publication of the Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle

	First author	Title	Type	Year	Times cited	Reference
1	von Haehling	Cachexia as a major underestimated and unmet medical need: facts and numbers	Editorial	2010	151	1
2	Lenk	Skeletal muscle wasting in cachexia and sarcopenia: molecular pathophysiology and impact of exercise training	Review	2010	68	2
3	Dalton	The selective androgen receptor modulator GTx-024 (enobosarm) improves lean body mass and physical function in healthy elderly men and postmenopausal women: results of a double-blind, placebo-controlled phase II trial	Original article	2011	67	3
4	von Haehling	An overview of sarcopenia: facts and numbers on prevalence and clinical impact	Editorial	2010	64	4
5	Mak	Wasting in chronic kidney disease	Review	2011	50	5
6	Elkina	The role of myostatin in muscle wasting: an overview	Review	2011	45	6
7	Fanzani	Molecular and cellular mechanisms of skeletal muscle atrophy: an update	Review	2012	44	7
8	Lainscak	Body mass index and prognosis in patients hospitalized with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease	Original article	2011	43	8
9	Cesari	Biomarkers of sarcopenia in clinical trials—recommendations from the International Working Group on Sarcopenia	Original article	2012	40	9
10	von Haehling	From muscle wasting to sarcopenia and myopenia: update 2012	Editorial	2012	39	10

Table 4

Top 10 of the best cited articles published in 2013 in the Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle

	First author	Title	Type	Year	Times cited	Reference
1	Farkas	Cachexia as a major public health problem: frequent, costly, and deadly	Review	2013	23	11
2	Patel	Serum creatinine as a marker of muscle mass in chronic kidney disease: results of a cross-sectional study and review of literature	Review	2013	22	12
3	Malmstrom	Low appendicular skeletal muscle mass (ASM) with limited mobility and poor health outcomes in middle-aged African American	Original article	2013	18	13
4	Vaughan	Cancer cachexia: impact, mechanisms and emerging treatments	Review	2013	17	14
5	Lenk	Effect of ghrelin and its analogues, BIM-28131 and BIM-28125, on the expression of myostatin in a rat heart failure model	Original article	2013	16	15
6	Gould	Cancer cachexia prevention via physical exercise: molecular mechanisms	Review	2013	13	16
7	Kalantar-Zadeh	Why cachexia kills: examining the causality of poor outcomes in wasting conditions	Editorial	2013	12	17
8	Nedergaard	Serological muscle loss biomarkers: an overview of current concepts and future possibilities	Review	2013	11	18
9	Der-Torossian	Metabolic derangements in the gastrocnemius and the effect of Compound A therapy in a murine model of cancer cachexia	Original article	2013	9	19
10.	Santarpia	Butyrylcholinesterase as a prognostic marker: a review of the literature	Review	2013	8	20

Table 5

Top 10 of the best cited articles published in 2014 in the Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle

	First author	Title	Type	Year	Times cited	Reference
1	Morley	From sarcopenia to frailty: a road less traveled	Editorial	2014	15	21
2	Anker	Muscle wasting disease: a proposal for a new disease classification	Editorial	2014	8	22
3	Morley	Are we closer to having drugs to treat muscle wasting disease?	Editorial	2014	7	23
4	Ebner	Highlights from the 7th Cachexia Conference: muscle wasting pathophysiological detection and novel treatment strategies	Meeting report	2014	6	24
	Heymsfield	Assessing skeletal muscle mass: historical overview and state of the art	Review	2014	6	25
6	Argiles	Cachexia: a problem of energetic inefficiency	Review	2014	4	26
	Pietra	Anamorelin HCI (ONO-7643), a novel ghrelin receptor agonist, for the treatment of cancer anorexia-cachexia syndrome: preclinical profile	Original article	2014	4	27
	Ormsbee	Osteosarcopenic obesity: the role of bone, muscle, and fat on health	Review	2014	4	28
9	Mirza	Attenuation of muscle wasting in murine C2C12 myotubes by epigallocatechin-3-gallate	Original article	2014	3	29
	Kim	Daily physical activity and physical function in adult maintenance hemodialysis patients	Original article	2014	3	30