The Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle stays the front‐runner in geriatrics and gerontology

The Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle (JCSM) is an international, peer-reviewed journal that is published together with the Society on Sarcopenia, Cachexia and Wasting Disorders and with the support of Wiley publishing. Since JCSM is an open-access journal, all articles are immediately available for free to the entire scientific community. JCSM is devoted to promoting research on cachexia and sarcopenia in chronic illnesses. Other main interests include physiological and pathophysiological changes in body composition in an aging population with and without underlying illness. More recently, a number of publications have also covered the intriguing area of neuromuscular disorders, and Professor Jens Schmidt has joined the editorial team with an excellent knowledge of the area.1-8 Special research interests otherwise include lipolysis, muscle wasting, and biomarkers for metabolic changes. The Journal is therefore attractive for many different medical specialities such as clinicians, physicians, trialists, basic scientists, pharmacologists, nurses, physiotherapists, biochemists, biologists, dieticians, and students. Editor-in-chief is Professor Stefan D. Anker, co-editor-in-chief is Professor Stephan von Haehling, and senior consulting editor is Professor Andrew J. S. Coats. The editorial team is composed of Monika Diek and Corinna Denecke, which we very much want to thank for their great work. We also want to thank our many different associate editors and reviewers, as well as the authors themselves that constantly submit new papers. JCSM was first published in 2010 and is now in its 10th issue. The number of issues has steadily increased over the years from 2 since 2010, to 4 since 2011, to 5 since 2016, to 6 since 2017, and lastly to 7 since 2018. Worldwide, all journals are constantly comparing each other with the help of different scores and ratings. In Europe and the United States, the most important rating is the Thomson Scientific impact factor. It is calculated by adding up all citations that are made in the current year for articles published in the last 2 years, divided by the number of original articles and reviews published in the last 2 years. Therefore, the impact factor is always published about 6–7 months after the end of each year—for instance, in summer 2019, the 2018 impact factors were released. For the second time in a row, JCSM has received a two-digit impact factor: 10.754 (2018), which we think is a tremendous accomplishment (Figure 1). Since 2013, JCSM has managed to increase its impact factor by 45%. For comparison, we looked at two other journals that also publish in the fields of cachexia, nutrition, and aging associated changes in the body: 'Nutrition' (2018 impact factor 3.591) and 'The Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging' (JNHA, 2018 impact factor 2.660). Since 2013, Nutrition was able to increase its impact factor by 18%, while the impact factor of JNHA remained constant. Looking at the most cited scientific papers in JCSM from 2016, 2017, and 20189 (Tables 1-3), one can see that there is great interest in original articles and reviews but also some of the Editorials gather a lot on interest. A total of 33 scientific papers published between 2016 and 2018 have already been cited ≥25 times (counted until 16th of August 2019). In the same time, in the journal Nutrition, a total of 25 scientific papers have been cited ≥25 times (Tables 4-6), while six scientific papers in JNHA have been cited ≥25 times (Tables 7-9). We also looked at the top cited scientific papers ever published in the three journals (Tables 10-12) and found that on average, the top 10 papers in JCSM were cited 152 times, in Nutrition 670 times, and in JNHA 406 times—which is mainly due to the fact that Nutrition has been listed in Scopus265 since 1987 and JNHA since 1997, while JCSM started only in 2010. So far, JCSM has published 563 papers, Nutrition 6198 papers, and JNHA 2396 papers. On average, JCSM has published 56 papers/year, Nutrition 188 papers/year, and JNHA 104 papers/year, which of course are major determinants of the respective journal's impact factor. This also underscores that all three journals have different approaches towards the number of papers published per year. We are grateful and look forward to more submissions of excellent research in the field of wasting and muscle disorders and are confident to maintain high quality in the Journal. None declared.