Julio Licinio, MD, PhD, MBA, MS has made significant contributions to the fields of psychiatry and neuroscience, particularly through his extensive research and editorial leadership. Over his illustrious career, Dr. Licinio has been instrumental in advancing our understanding of complex psychiatric disorders, with a focus on depression, stress-related circuits, circadian rhythms, genetics, pharmacology, and pharmacogenomics. Dr. Licinio’s work has delved into the intricate mechanisms underpinning conditions such as obesity and depression, exploring their genetic and pharmacogenomic dimensions. This research has not only enriched the scientific literature but also paved the way for novel therapeutic strategies, contributing significantly to the field of precision medicine​. His exploration of the human microbiota and its impact on health further underscores his commitment to uncovering the multifaceted interactions between our environment, our biology, and psychiatric conditions​. As a testament to his prolific output, he has authored over 300 publications, which have had over 42,000 citations; his h-index is 90.  

In addition to his scientific accomplishments, Dr. Licinio has been recognized with prestigious honors, including his fellowship with the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, Matthew Flinders Distinguished Professor, and his role as State University of New York Distinguished Professor, highlighting his exceptional contributions to academia and medical research.​ One of Dr. Licinio’s notable contributions involves the implications of climate change on mental health, where he has explored the profound psychological impacts resulting from climate-induced stress and trauma. This work is particularly relevant in the context of increasing global environmental challenges, highlighting the intersection between psychiatry and broader societal issues​.

Dr. Licinio has over 30 years of experience as Editor-in-Chief, having founded and led four journals from inception to full indexing and high impact. In the last seven years, Dr. Licinio has edited and published 44 articles by 9 Nobel Prize laureates, including 19 by the late Nobel laureate Paul Greengard. Dr. Licinio rapidly raised the impact factor and rankings of the first journal he launched, which went from non-existent to number 1 worldwide in 13 years.

Our Editorial Board consists of eminent international experts. Confirmed members of the Editorial Board include:

Schahram Akbarian, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York 10029, USA

Daniel Barbosa, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina 29425, USA

Tatiana Barichello, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas 77054, USA

Stefan R. Bornstein, TUD Dresden University of Technology, 01307 Dresden, Germany

Emiliana Borrelli, University of California, Irvine, California 92697, USA

Paolo Brambilla, Università degli Studi di Milano, 20122 Milan, MI, Italy

Joshua C. Brown, Harvard Medical School and McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts 02478, USA

Annamaria Cattaneo, Università degli Studi di Milano, 20133 Milan, MI, Italy

Udo Dannlowski, University of Münster, D-48149 Münster, Germany

Hamed Ekhtiari, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55454, USA

Massimo Filippi, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, 20132 Milano, MI, Italy

Kostas N. Fountoulakis, School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

Sam Gandy, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York 10029, USA

Ruben Gur, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA

Casey H. Halpern, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA

Alan G. Harris, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, New York 10016, USA

Ian B. Hickie, University of Sydney, Brain and Mind Institute, Camperdown, New South Wales 2050, Australia

Atsushi Kamiya, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21287, USA

Keith M. Kendrick, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China

Ronald C. Kessler, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA

Beny Lafer, Universidade de São Paulo, 05403-903 São Paulo, São Paulo Brazil

Adrienne Carol Lahti, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama 35294, USA

Tatia M. C. Lee, The State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR

John Mantsch, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53226, USA

Euripedes C. Miguel, Universidade de São Paulo, 05403-903 São Paulo, São Paulo Brazil

Valeria Mondelli, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College, London, SE5 9RT, UK

Ruth O’Hara, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA

Anilkumar Pillai, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas 77054, USA

Jelena Radulovic, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York 10461, USA

Gavin Reynolds, Queen’s University Belfast and Sheffield Hallam University, UK

Marisa Roberto, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California 92037, USA

Isabelle M. Rosso, Harvard Medical School and McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts 02478, USA

Jonathan Savitz, Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, Oklahoma 74136, USA

Akira Sawa, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21287, USA

Helen Blair Simpson, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, New York 10032, USA

Nuno Sousa, School of Medicine, University of Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal

Weihong Song, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, 325015, China and University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z3, Canada

Li-Huei Tsai, Picower Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA

Kuei Y. Tseng, University of Illinois Chicago – College of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois 60612, USA

Lucina Uddin, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA

Guido van Wingen, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, 1100DD, The Netherlands

Roger Walz, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina 88040-970, Brazil

Yunlei Yang , Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York 10461, USA

Wei-Dong Yao, State University of New York, Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, New York 13210, USA

Keqiang Ye, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, 518055, Guangdong, China

Allan H. Young, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, SE5 8AF, UK

Tifei Yuan, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Brain Health Institute, 200030 Shanghai, China

Mone Zaidi, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York 10029-5674, USA

Aims

Brain Medicine: From Neurons to Behavior and Better Health (Brain Medicine) aims to advance progress in fundamental neurobiology, translation, clinical medicine, and societal implications relevant to all brain disorders. The concept of “brain medicine” as a distinct entity has been advanced in the USA by Brown JC et al. (2023, PMID: 37021384) [1] and Canada by Levitt S et al. (2023, PMID: 36719701) [2] and Saravi SFB et al. (2023, PMID: 37227080) [3], particularly for complex clinical presentations. Why is this important? Currently, the brain and its disorders are covered by a myriad of separate disciplines that include, among others, neuroscience, neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, neuropathology, neuropsychopharmacology, microbiology, psychoneuroimmunology, psychoneuroendocrinology, psychiatry, neurology, neurosurgery, ophthalmology, otolaryngology, and rehabilitation medicine. We aim to have in one setting the best venue to advance the emerging integrative discipline of brain medicine, breaking down historical, academic, institutional, and administrative barriers and fiefdoms and showcasing the remarkable progress in research focused on the brain and its disorders.

[1] Brown JC, Dainton-Howard H, Woodward J, Palmer C, Karamchandani M, Williams NR, George MS. Time for Brain Medicine. J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2023 Apr 6:appineuropsych21120312. doi: 10.1176/appi.neuropsych.21120312. PMID: 37021384.

[2] Levitt S, Henri-Bhargava A, Hogan DB, Shulman K, Mitchell SB. The Brain Medicine Fellowship: A Competency-Based Training Program to Treat Complex Brain Disorders. Acad Med. 2023 May 1;98(5):590-594. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000005156. Epub 2023 Jan 30. PMID: 36719701.

[3] Saravi SFB, Mitchell SB, Levitt S. The Brain Medicine Clinic: two cases highlighting the advantages of integrative care. BJPsych Open. 2023 May 25;9(3):e92. doi: 10.1192/bjo.2022.631. PMID: 37227080.

Scope

The scope of Brain Medicine, which stands as our hallmark, covers foundational neuroscience, reaches into translational efforts, and encompasses all conditions influenced by the brain. This includes neurological and psychiatric disorders, behavioral alterations as well as other aspects of health and illness that are controlled by the brain, such as obesity and body weight regulation, highlighting the brain’s central role in these areas. Our engagement is deep, spanning from individual disorders to the multifaceted intersections across disciplines, underlining our commitment to understanding and addressing the complex interplay between brain function and health outcomes.

As two examples, we are equally interested in psychosis and AD or depression and Parkinson’s disease (PD), and we are also interested in their interface: psychosis occurring in AD or depression in the context of PD. In this spirit, we are particularly interested in having within our scope areas that are focused on interfaces, such as neuropsychiatry and neuropsychology. We publish work that utilizes a range of approaches, including genetics, cellular and molecular neuroscience, the “-omics,” neuroimaging, neuropsychopharmacology, functional neurosurgery, brain stimulation, microbiology including the microbiome, psychoneuroimmunology, psychoneuroendocrinology, analyses of “big data,” computational approaches including artificial intelligence (AI), environmental contributions, digital health, e-health, all the way to the societal impact of brain disorders, including epidemiology and public health.

Mission

Our mission is to be the primary venue supporting brain medicine’s emergence as a new and cross-disciplinary discipline. Brain Medicine will expand knowledge from brain cells and circuits to brain disorders, covering their impact on society to achieve this mission. We are particularly interested in publishing work that is conceptually novel, or that has the potential for translational impact.

Values

The core values of Brain Medicine include

• Excellence
• Academic integrity and scientific rigor
• Passionate purpose to be instrumental in the emergence of the new discipline of brain medicine
• Relentless innovation leading to translation from bench to bedside, and
• Inclusive and cross-disciplinary team science.

We foster a culture of fairness and respect by assessing the quality of papers regardless of origin. In that regard, we evaluate each manuscript that comes to us solely on its merits and potential contributions to the field, not where the paper comes from.

Indexing

We are already registered with Crossref, providing all our publications with searchable DOI links. Our DOI prefix is 10.61373. Brain Medicine is indexed with the US Library of Congress: our online ISSN is 2997-2639 and our print ISSN is 2997-2647. As a scholarly-driven publication, we intend to assemble a substantial portfolio of various manuscript types, enabling eligibility for additional databases, such as Medline/Pubmed/Index Medicus, Scopus, Embase, Clarivate including Emerging Sources Citation Index, Journal Citation Reports and Web of Science, and others. We are pursuing an indexing strategy that will lead to indexing in highly respected databases, upon satisfying requisite standards, and thereby rendering prior submissions accessible retrospectively through those platforms.

Peer Review

The scaffolding of the scientific evaluation system, peer review, is paramount in assessing research funding (grants) and scholarly outcomes (papers). We enthusiastically uphold the integrity of the editorial process, grounded in unbiased peer review.

The peer review process can be configured in different ways, with the vast majority of journals worldwide adhering to one of three formats: (i) Single-blind peer reviews are anonymous only to the authors. Authors do not know the reviewers’ names or backgrounds, but reviewers know theirs. (ii) Both authors and reviewers in double-blind peer reviews are anonymous; only the editor knows their identities. A truly double-blind peer review process is hard to attain, as a knowledgeable review can infer authorship based on specific methods and areas of research and cited work. (iii) In open peer review the identity of the author and the reviewer is known by all participants, during or after the review process.

At Brain Medicine, the conventional single-blind peer review will be employed because it is the most commonly used globally.

Brain Medicine‘s content will undergo comprehensive peer review, except for informational editorials and interviews, penned or edited as broad commentaries by the Editor-in-Chief, and marked as such.

Every contribution to Brain Medicine, encompassing original research, reviews, letters, and all manuscript variants, will be unreservedly sent to external authorities for single-blind peer review. We are committed to sustaining the international complexion of Brain Medicine from its genesis. Therefore, submissions will be typically routed to eight scholars from different countries, ensuring a global distribution of reviewers. We strive to base editorial judgments on at least three critiques, though two may work.

Publishing your research in Brain Medicine offers the distinctive merits of swift, individualized review, global propagation of your findings, widespread accessibility through press coverage, equitable cost, and an attentive yet expansive concentration on pioneering research in myriad domains, emphasizing advancements across the broad scope of brain medicine.

Amplifying Your Research Impact

In today's digital landscape, scientific communication extends far beyond traditional academic channels. At Brain Medicine, we have developed a proven strategy that has generated over 500 news stories in more than 10 languages within our first two months of publication. Our comprehensive approach ensures your work achieves maximum visibility while maintaining rigorous scientific integrity.

Global Distribution Through EurekAlert!

All newsworthy articles published in Brain Medicine are distributed through EurekAlert!, the world's leading science news service operated by AAAS. EurekAlert! has specific eligibility guidelines that news releases must meet to be accepted and hosted on their platform. Rest assured that Genomic Press will cover all submission fees associated with your press release. However, please note that payment of these fees does not guarantee acceptance by EurekAlert!

Genomic Press’ recent success stories through EurekAlert! demonstrate the power of this approach:

• Multiple Sclerosis Research: 124 media outlets worldwide
• Depression Treatment Analysis: 88 media outlets across 10 languages
• Body Dysmorphic Disorder Study: 80+ global media outlets
• Liver X Receptor Research: Multiple languages including Lithuanian, French, Portuguese

Each newsworthy paper receives coverage through:

• EurekAlert! English language service (12,000+ journalists)
• Multiple language versions (Spanish, French, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic)
• Specialized scientific channels targeting specific research communities

Strategic Digital Dissemination

We leverage various social media platforms strategically:

• LinkedIn: Connect with industry leaders, potential collaborators, and research organizations
• X (formerly Twitter): Engage in real-time with the global scientific community
• Facebook: Reach broader academic audiences through established scientific groups
• Instagram: Transform complex concepts into visually engaging content
• YouTube: Share in-depth interviews and methodology explanations

Comprehensive Press Distribution

Beyond EurekAlert!, our press office maximizes impact through:

• International press release networks
• Specialized science media outlets
• Institutional press offices
• Scientific news services

The success of our approach is evident in the rapid global uptake of research published in Brain Medicine. At Genomic Press, our goal is not simply to publicize your research, but to foster meaningful engagement within both academic circles and the broader scientific community, as demonstrated by our achievement of over 500 media stories across multiple languages in our first two months.