Importance of “Acta Informatica Medica” Journal in Spreading of Biomedical Informatics Knowledge and Experiences in Scientific and Academic Community

Acta Informatica Medica (www.actainformmed.org) is a peer-reviewed, open access journal which publish original articles, professional articles, reviews, viewpoints, and case studies, covering issues in Biomedical and Medical/Health informatics, published by the Academy of Medical Sciences of Bosnia and Herzegovina (www.amn.ba) (1). Acta Informatica Medica journal (Acta Inform Med) has founded in the year 1993 by Izet Masic and Zoran Ridjanovic, as official journal of Bosnian-Herzegovinan Society of Medical Informatics (BHSMI). This year Acta Informatica Medica has accepted as official journal of the European Federation for Medical Informatics (www.efmi.org), besides 3 other journals: International Journal of Medical Informatics, Methods of Information in Medicine and European Journal of Biomedical Informatics. Journal Acta Informatica Medica is abstracted and indexed in 25 on-line data bases, including Pubmed, Pubmed Central, Scopus, Embase, Hinari, etc. Also, we sent application for including Acta as official journal of International Medical Informatics Association (www.imia.org) and to Web of Science groups (exactly to The Emerging Sources Citation Index) and waiting result of the reviewing process.

During the year 2018 in Acta Informatica Medica was published 58 papers (from total amount published papers, 76.9% was original papers), where it was more published original papers in the journal than in the year 2017 (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Distribution of articles according to type in the year 2018.

The journal began with the practice to publish the articles of PhD students free of charge, and in that manner opened to this population, and began with the practice of populating biomedical information technology, both in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the region. The journal opened to PhD students, and they embrace it through the official letter to the Editor, presenting their goals and problems. The purpose of the journal is availability in the future period, to those authors who are not able to pay a publishing fee (because the subscription fee should be secondary and the quality of the work at the first place) to publish their papers free of charge. The tendency for the future is to preserve the Open Access model, while enabling funding through the subscription and purchase of printed publications. The purpose of the journal is to continue the publishing of both - its online and print edition, four times a year (ISSN: 0353-8109 (Print), ISSN: 1986-5988 (On-line)).

The website of the journal is refreshed in 2018, revised by Editorial Board (new members were included) and regularly updated. The authors of the published articles in 2018 issues are from 11 countries and four continents. Acceptance rate in 2018 was 32.7% (Table 1). Scimagojr.com Index H (for 2017) for Acta Informatica Medica is 12, while scimagojr.com index (SJR) is 0.275 (2). On the aforementioned page, the total number of citations from the journal Acta Informatica Medica was 187 (it should be noted that the number is only from the journals that are covered by Scopus). Self-citation (the number of citations from a journal citing article to articles published by the same journal) was 7. For the period 2013-2017, the Google Scholar h5 index was 17 and the h5 median was the 28. The journal in its function and everyday work is following the recommendations and practices of ICJME, COPE, EASE, WAME, etc. as well as the recommendations of “Sarajevo Declaration on integrity and visibility of scholarly journals” (3). The journal supports, and had its presentations at conferences held in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We tend to promote a journal at EFMI meetings in 2019 as well. The abstract papers presented at “The Second Mediterranean Seminar on Science Writing, Editing and Publishing (SWEP 2018)”, also found its place in the journal, by which we met our goal of promoting science and scientific publication at the area of Bosnia and Herzegovina and other countries in the region and in the Mediterranean countries. The long-term goal of the journal is to be part of Web of Science group, what is also imperative and moral obligation of all members of the Editorial Board. Acta Informatica Medica is one of the six biomedical journals from Bosnia and Herzegovina deposited in databases Pubmed (in addition to the Bosnian Journal of Basic Medical Sciences, Medical Archives, Materia Socio-Medica, Medicinski Glasnik (Zenica), Acta Medica Academica), and Scopus (besides the Bosnian Journal of Basic Medical Sciences, Medical Archives and Folia Medica) (Table 2) (4).

Table 1. Acceptance rate of Acta Informatica Medica in the period 2012-2018.

Year	Rate (%)
2012	43.0
2013	47.0
2014	39.0
2015	37.0
2016	37.3
2017	28.7
2018	32.7

Table 2. Indexed scientific journals in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Journal	Editor	Web site
Bosnian Journal of Basic Medical Sciences	Prof. Muzafer Mujic	www.bjbms.org/ojs/index.php/bjbms
Medical Archives	Prof. Izet Hozo	www.medarch.org
Materia Socio-Medica	Prof. Doncho Donev	www.matersociomed.org
Acta Informatica Medica	Prof. Lejla Zunic	www.actainformmed.org
Acta Medica Academica	Prof. Husref Tahirovic	www.ama.ba
Medicinski Glasnik	Prof. Selma Uzunovic	www.ljkzedo.ba/medicinski-glasnik
Folia Medica	Prof. Samra Cavaljuga	www.foliamedica.mf.unsa.ba/index.php/FM
Acta Medica Saliniana	Prof. Osman Sinanovic	www.saliniana.com.ba

Only the Bosnian Journal of Basic Medical Sciences is a member of the Web of Science. Acta Informatica Medica, as the official journal of EFMI, has its scope solely on the subject of Biomedical Informatics, and is the only journal in this field. The long-term goal of the journal is to be incorporated into the Web of Science group, as an imperative and moral obligation of all members of the Editorial Board. The imperative of the Acta Informatica Medica journal and its Editor’s Board members, featuring very well-known experts from Medical Informatics from Europe and the World, is to try to maintain and improve the academic rating of the academic community in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2019 as well as to promote the sciences of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the European and international level. Engaging domestic and foreign experts in this field, as members of the Board and on reviewing the applications for their potential publication in Acta Informatica Medica, aims at popularizing journal as well as continuing to work on the principles of scientific excellence.

Conflict of interest:

There are no conflicts of interest.

Financial support and sponsorship:

None.

Author’s Contribution:

L.Z. and I.M. gave substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work and in the acquisition, analysis and interpretation of data for the work, had role in drafting the work and revising it critically for important intellectual content. Each author gave final approval of the version to be published and they are agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.