Moving upwards - the journal of cachexia, sarcopenia and muscle in 2016.

The good news first, the Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle (JCSM) has not only maintained its impact factor, but it has even increased it again, now reaching 7.883 as has been published by Thomson Scientific a few weeks ago. This places JCSM again as the number 9 ranked journal amongst all journals in ‘Medicine, General and Internal’ (Table 1) and as number 2 ranking publication amongst all nutrition journals, amongst which; however, JCSM is still not offficially listed by Thomson Scientific (Table 2). This new impact factor re‐confirms the inaugural impact factors of 7.413 for 2013 and 7.315 for 2014. As before, we would like to sincerely thank all authors, reviewers and editorial board members for their great efforts to produce JCSM at good quality, and we greatly appreciate and value also the interest and support of all those who enjoy reading JCSM and cite the papers published there.

Table 1

Top ten journals in the field ‘Medicine: General & Internal’, adapted from reference 1

	Journal name	Impact factor 2016	Items published in 2014 & 2015
1	New England journal of medicine	59.558	701
2	Lancet	44.002	547
3	Journal of the American medical association (JAMA)	37.684	449
4	British medical journal	19.697	519
5	Annals of internal medicine	16.440	325
6	JAMA internal medicine	14.000	332
7	PLOS medicine	13.585	246
8	BMC medicine	8.005	379
9	Jounal of cachexia sarcopenia and muscle	7.883	60
10	Journal of internal medicine	7.803	198

Table 2

Top ten journals in the field ‘Nutrition & Dietetics’, where the journal of cachexia, sarcopenia and muscle is officially not listed

	Journal name	Impact factor 2016	Items published in 2014 & 2015
1	Progress in lipid research	11.238	63
2	Annuals review of nutrition	6.784	37
3	American journal of clinical nutrition	6.703	671
4	Nutrition reviews	5.591	149
5	Critical reviews in food science and nutrition	5.492	185
6	International journal of obesity	5.337	484
7	Proceedings of the nutrition society	4.703	111
8	Journal of nutritional biochemistry	4.668	398
9	Advances in nutrition	4.576	158
10	Clinical nutrition	4.487	318

This year is special for JCSM for several reasons. One is the publication of an additional (5th) issue in May this year, the other the launch dedicated daughter journals. Indeed, JCSM appears to have sparked more scientific interest in the field of body wasting, cachexia and sarcopenia; and thus, the number of submissions to the main journal remains on the increase. With a 78% rejection rate – knowing that we have to decline publication of many good papers, simply for lack of space – we hope to be able to give some of these a home in our new daughter journals – JCSM Rapid Communications and JCSM Clinical Reports. These journals will be published online only on an open access basis, and we hope that they will help to create a family of journals dedicated to this fascinating field of research into cachexia, sarcopenia and muscle, and that they will help in clinical decision making and in serving as a source of clinical information and case reports as well.

The main journal, JCSM, at the time of this writing this editorial on 18 July 2016, the journal has received 158 submissions in 2016 alone (Figure 1). Last year at this time, we had received 106 submissions .51 Given these higher numbers of submissions, in 2017, we will move to six issues per year to allow publication of more accepted papers. If all goes well, in 2018, we could then possibly move to publication of eight issues per year.

Figure 1

Number of manuscript submissions to the Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle by year of publication. *Numbers for 2016 are estimated on the number of submissions until 18 July 2016 (Reprinted from 51).

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. Articles that are available for the longest time are – not surprisingly – those that have been cited most (Table 3). Our ‘facts and numbers’ editorials remain popular (Tables 4 and 5), and we invite our readers to submit their work or to suggest topics for ‘facts and numbers’ editorials that are relevant to our readers.

Table 3

Top twenty of 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	181	2
2.	von Haehling	An overview of sarcopenia: facts and numbers on prevalence and clinical impact	Editorial	2010	94	3
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	88	4
4.	Lenk	Skeletal muscle wasting in cachexia and sarcopenia: molecular pathophysiology and impact of exercise training	Review	2010	86	5
5.	Mak	Wasting in chronic kidney disease	Review	2011	66	6
6.	Fanzani	Molecular and cellular mechanisms of skeletal muscle atrophy: an update	Review	2012	63	7
7.	Elkina	The role of myostatin in muscle wasting: an overview.	Review	2011	63	8
8.	Cesari	Biomarkers of sarcopenia in clinical trials‐recommendations from the International Working Group on Sarcopenia	Original Article	2012	60	9
9.	Lainscak	Body mass index and prognosis in patients hospitalized with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease	Original Article	2011	55	10
10.	Morley	From sarcopenia to frailty: a road less traveled	Editorial	2014	54	11
11.	von Haehling	From muscle wasting to sarcopenia and myopenia: update 2012	Editorial	2012	52	12
12.	Lainscak	The obesity paradox in chronic disease: facts and numbers	Editorial	2012	44	13
13.	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	43	14
14.	Fearon	Myopenia‐a new universal term for muscle wasting	Editorial	2011	43	15
15.	Sakuma	Sarcopenia and cachexia: the adaptations of negative regulators of skeletal muscle mass	Review	2012	42	16
16.	Schefold	Intensive care unit‐acquired weakness (ICUAW) and muscle wasting in critically ill patients with severe sepsis and septic shock	Review	2010	41	17
17.	Busquets	Myostatin blockage using actRIIB antagonism in mice bearing the Lewis lung carcinoma results in the improvement of muscle wasting and physical performance	Original Article	2012	39	18
18.	Wakabayashi	Rehabilitation nutrition for sarcopenia with disability: a combination of both rehabilitation and nutrition care management	Review	2014	37	19
19.	Farkas	Cachexia as a major public health problem: frequent, costly, and deadly	Review	2013	37	20
20.	Rozentryt	The effects of a high‐caloric protein‐rich oral nutritional supplement in patients with chronic heart failure and cachexia on quality of life, body composition, and inflammation markers: a randomized, double‐blind pilot study	Original Article	2010	35	21

Table 4

Top twenty of best cited articles published 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	54	11
2.	Wakabayashi	Rehabilitation nutrition for sarcopenia with disability: a combination of both rehabilitation and nutrition care management	Review	2014	37	19
3.	von Haehling	Prevalence, incidence and clinical impact of cachexia: facts and numbers‐update 2014	Editorial	2014	29	22
4.	Morley	Are we closer to having drugs to treat muscle wasting disease?	Editorial	2014	26	23
5.	Anker	Muscle wasting disease: a proposal for a new disease classification	Editorial	2014	24	24
6.	Ebner	Highlights from the 7th Cachexia Conference: muscle wasting pathophysiological detection and novel treatment strategies	Meeting Report	2014	23	25
7.	Heymsfield	Assessing skeletal muscle mass: historical overview and state of the art	Review	2014	21	26
8.	Pietra	Anamorelin HCI (ONO‐7643), a novel ghrelin receptor agonist, for the treatment of cancer anorexia‐cachexia syndrome: preclinical profile	Original Article	2014	20	27
9.	Morley	Prevalence, incidence, and clinical impact of sarcopenia: facts, numbers, and epidemiology‐update 2014	Editorial	2014	17	28
10.	Fragala	Biomarkers of muscle quality: N‐terminal propeptide of type III procollagen and C‐terminal agrin fragment responses to resistance exercise training in older adults	Original Article	2014	15	29
11.	Toledo	Formoterol in the treatment of experimental cancer cachexia: effects on heart function	Original Article	2014	13	30
12.	Rhee	Resistance exercise: an effective strategy to reverse muscle wasting in hemodialysis patients?	Editorial	2014	12	31
13.	Argiles	Cachexia: a problem of energetic inefficiency	Review	2014	11	32
14.	Poetsch	The anabolic catabolic transforming agent (ACTA) espindolol increases muscle mass and decreases fat mass in old rats	Original Article	2014	11	33
15.	Henwood	Assessing sarcopenic prevalence and risk factors in residential aged care: methodology and feasibility	Original Article	2014	10	34
16.	Ormsbee	Osteosarcopenic obesity: the role of bone, muscle, and fat on health	Review	2014	10	35
17.	Alchin	Sarcopenia: describing rather than defining a condition	Review	2014	9	36
18.	Mirza	Attenuation of muscle wasting in murine C2C12 myotubes by epigallocatechin‐3‐gallate	Original Article	2014	9	37
19.	Kirkman	Anabolic exercise in haemodialysis patients: a randomised controlled pilot study	Original Article	2014	8	38
20.	Palus	Muscle wasting: an overview of recent developments in basic research	Review	2014	8	39

Table 5

Top ten of the best cited articles published 2015 in the journal of cachexia, sarcopenia and muscle

	First author	Title	Type	Year	Times cited	Reference
1.	Chen	Ghrelin prevents tumour‐ and cisplatin‐induced muscle wasting: characterization of multiple mechanisms involved	Original Article	2015	7	40
2.	Sasso	A framework for prescription in exercise‐oncology research	Editorial	2015	6	41
3.	Stephens	Evaluating potential biomarkers of cachexia and survival in skeletal muscle of upper gastrointestinal cancer patients	Original Article	2015	6	42
4.	Calvani	Biomarkers for physical frailty and sarcopenia: state of the science and future developments	Review	2015	4	43
5.	Ezeoke	Pathophysiology of anorexia in the cancer cachexia syndrom	Review	2015	4	44
6.	Fearon	Request for regulatory guidance for cancer cachexia intervention trials	Editorial	2015	4	45
7	Morley	Rapid screening for sarcopenia	Editorial	2015	3	46
8.	Browen	Skeletal muscle wasting in cachexia and sarcopenia: molecular pathophysiology and impact of exercise training	Review	2015	4	47
9.	Faber	Improved body weight and performance status and reduced serum PGE(2) levels after nutritional intervention with a specific medical food in newly diagnosed patients with esophageal cancer or adenocarcinoma of the gastro‐esophageal junction	Original Article	2015	4	48
10.	Trobec	Influence of cancer cachexia on drug liver metabolism and renal elimination in rats	Original Article	2015	4	49

Finally, we would like to draw your attention to the up‐coming Cachexia Conference, to be held on December 10–11, 2016 in Berlin, Germany. The conference now goes annually, and it has been a source of stimulating ideas and exchange between clinicians and researchers in the field of cachexia and wasting. More information can be found at the following link: http://society‐scwd.org.

Conflict of interest

None declared.