- International Journal of Personalized Medicine
- Open access · CC BY 4.0
Aims and Scope
IJPM is a clinical personalized-medicine journal that also includes basic, molecular, biomarker and translational research. Clinical research, including clinical studies on diagnosis, treatment and patient management, is in scope alongside laboratory and computational work.
What the journal sets out to do
- To publish rigorous research on personalized approaches to the diagnosis, treatment and management of patients, including clinical studies.
- To publish the basic, molecular, biomarker and translational research on which individualized care depends, from discovery to validation.
- To advance the methods, assays and analytic models used to stratify patients and to predict response to treatment and outcome.
- To make this research openly available, so that researchers, clinicians and educators can read and reuse it freely.
Research areas
IJPM is a clinical personalized-medicine journal that also includes basic, molecular, biomarker and translational research. The areas below are illustrative and form part of a wider field, including:
- Clinical personalized and precision medicine
- Clinical studies of diagnosis, treatment and patient management
- Trials and observational studies of individualized therapy
- Biomarker discovery and validation
- Pharmacogenomics and drug response
- Genomic, proteomic, metabolomic and multi-omic profiling
- Molecular diagnostics and liquid biopsy
- Patient stratification and risk prediction
- Assay development and analytical validation
- Computational biology, machine learning and decision support
- Basic and molecular mechanisms relevant to individualized care
- Translational research from laboratory to clinic
- Companion diagnostics and targeted therapy
- Regulatory science and biostatistics for personalized medicine
- Implementation of personalized medicine in practice
- Ethical, legal and social aspects of personalized medicine
Contributions from the clinical, laboratory, biological, data and computational sciences are welcome when they address a question in personalized medicine. A topic that is not named above is within scope when it meets that test.
Designs and approaches welcomed
IJPM considers quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods research. Study designs are reported within the article types listed below; cohort, cross-sectional and modeling studies, for example, are submitted as Original Research.
- Clinical studies
- Trials, cohort, case-control and cross-sectional studies of diagnosis, treatment, prognosis and patient management.
- Biomarker discovery
- Genetic, proteomic, metabolomic and genomic studies of markers of susceptibility, drug response and outcome.
- Validation
- Analytical and clinical validation, replication in independent cohorts, reproducibility and cross-platform verification.
- Molecular and laboratory research
- Mechanistic and experimental studies that underpin individualized care.
- Computational and predictive modeling
- Statistical and machine-learning models built on clinical and molecular data, with their validation.
- Evidence synthesis
- Systematic reviews, meta-analyses and scoping reviews.
- Methodological research
- New, adapted or validated methods and protocols for measurement, analysis and study design.
- Data resources
- Datasets, biobanks and cohorts described to support reuse.
What makes a manuscript a fit
Manuscripts are assessed for their relevance to personalized medicine, the soundness of their methods and whether their conclusions are proportionate to the evidence. Clinical, laboratory, computational and single-center studies are all considered.
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Clinical research
Clinical studies on diagnosis, treatment and patient management are in scope, whether they test a personalized approach or report outcomes that inform one.
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Basic and molecular research
Mechanistic, molecular and biomarker studies are in scope when they bear on the diagnosis, treatment or management of patients.
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Translational research
Work that carries a discovery toward clinical use, or that brings clinical observations back to the laboratory, is in scope.
Unsupported opinion, meaning assertion without evidence or reasoned argument, is outside the journal's scope.
Article types
The journal publishes the article types below. Guidance on the structure, abstract and reporting standard for each type is given in the Instructions for Authors.
- Original Research Empirical clinical, translational or laboratory studies in personalized medicine, including clinical studies of diagnosis, treatment and patient management.
- Validation Study Analytical or clinical validation of a biomarker, assay, signature or prediction model.
- Methods New, adapted or validated methods and protocols for measurement, analysis, modeling or study design.
- Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Systematic syntheses of evidence on a defined question, with or without meta-analysis.
- Review Article Critical, narrative or scoping syntheses of the literature on a defined topic.
- Data Note Descriptions of datasets of value for personalized-medicine research, their collection, quality and access.
- Short Communication Concise reports of a focused or preliminary finding.
- Perspective Evidence-based argument or viewpoint on a current question in personalized medicine.
Where a manuscript sits between types, authors choose the closest type and explain the choice in the cover letter, and the editors confirm the classification. A study protocol is classified as Methods, and a narrative or scoping review as a Review Article.
Scope questions
Is my topic within scope?
A manuscript is within scope when it addresses a question in personalized medicine, whatever its discipline or setting. If you are unsure, send the title and abstract to the editorial office at [email protected] before submitting.
Are clinical studies within scope?
Yes. IJPM is a clinical personalized-medicine journal, and clinical studies on diagnosis, treatment and patient management are in scope.
Does IJPM consider basic, molecular and biomarker research?
Yes. Basic, molecular, biomarker and translational research is part of the journal's scope.
Can I submit work that has been posted as a preprint?
Yes. Posting a preprint is compatible with submission to IJPM. Cite the preprint and its DOI in the cover letter.
Preparing a submission
Read the Instructions for Authors and the Editorial Policies before submitting.