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VOLUME 50: THE UHM JOURNAL CELEBRATES A MILESTONE WITH THE PUBLICATION OF THIS ISSUE


Enrico M. Camporesi, M.D.1; Richard E. Moon, M.D.2
1Editor Emeritus; Anesthesia Research Director; TEAMHealth Anesthesia, TGH; Emeritus Professor of Surgery, USF, Tampa, Florida US
2Associate Editor; Departments of Anesthesiology and Medicine, Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Environmental Physiology, Duke University, North Carolina US

EMAILS: – ecampore@usf.edurichard.moon@duke.edu

As the UHMS observes the distinguished anniversary
of the publication of 50 volumes 
of the Undersea and
Hyperbaric Medicine Journal, 
two of our past editors
take a look at the 
evolution of our flagship publications.
~ Editors
 

     The present Journal opens volume 50 of our Society’s journal. We believe this milestone deserves a few comments.

     The origins of the Journal have roots in the foundation of our Society. On April 20, 1966, at the 37th annual meeting of the Aerospace Medical Association, our founding father, C.J. Lambertsen, and five other devotees requested the creation of a new Section, to be named Undersea Medical Society.

     Written support was solicited from 158 selected scientists, who became Charter Members and approved the creation of a separate society, formed a year later on April 10, 1967. Until then, the only publications dedicated to diving were the Underwater Physiology Symposia, held from time to time and published under the National Academy of Sciences and the Office of Naval Research. For many months the Society grew in membership, and in 1973 the first workshop proceedings were

published by Duke University, entitled “Labyrinth dysfunction during diving.” Finally, in March 1974, the new journal publication started under the name Undersea Biomedical Research.

     This was a quarterly journal with a specific interest, which progressively grew and eventually published six issues per year, recently returned to  four. Over the years, the Society appointed an Executive Secretary, Chuck Shilling, then Executive Directors. The EDs included Lee Greenbaum, who moved the Society office from The Federation of American Societies of Experimental Biology (FASEB) to its own building in Bethesda. He was followed by Don Chandler, who produced a useful, though embryonal, historical sketch of the Society[1], and then Peter Bennett, who was followed by our current Executive Director, John Peters.

     In 1986 with Mark Bradley as President, the Society’s name was changed to the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society. Then in 1996 the name of the Journal was changed to the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine under the presidency of one of us (RM), while Tom Neuman was Editor.

     Since the Journal’s inception, close to 2,300 peerreviewed articles have been published and are available to all members. Some articles were cited 150-180 times, of which the most highly cited was published in 1980 by Paul Weathersby and Lou Homer, entitled “Solubility of inert gases in biological fluids and tissues: a review.”

     The Journal remains a major reporter of scientific work in the specialized fields of diving physiology and medicine and hyperbaric medicine. With Editor-in-Chief David Hostler currently at the helm, we look forward to another 50 years of high-quality publication.

Reference
1. Don Chandler: https://www.uhms.org/images/40th_Anniversary_Booklet.pdf


IMPORTANT CHANGES IN JOURNAL ACCESS 

OPEN-ACCESS UHMJ - REDUX: A reminder: The new year ushered in a new era for the UHM Journal.  We have updated author guides and made text changes for the website to agree with this new editorial policy. Briefly:

  • Changes to UHM became effective 1 October 2022, affecting 2023 and onward submissions.
  • Author instructions were revised effective October 1. (To avoid delays in processing, please check the current instructions before submission.)
    • Single-blind reviews are here. FYI, the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine Journal has changed from a double-blind to single-blind review as of 1 October 2022. That is, the reviewers will be able to see the authors and their affiliations but remain anonymous to the author(s).
    • All accepted uncorrected papers are published online. We are posting uncorrected proofs with DOIs to the UHMS website in the ‘Ahead-of-print members only’ section when they are accepted.
    • All Journal content will become open-access after a year. All finalized/published articles will become open-access after a year.