International Research Community on Multimorbidity

By Martin Fortin

Medical Subject Headings (MeSH®) is the National Library of Medicine (NLM)’s controlled vocabulary thesaurus. It consists of sets of terms naming descriptors in a hierarchical structure that permits searching at various levels of specificity.

The MeSH thesaurus is used by NLM for indexing articles from the world’s leading biomedical journals for the MEDLINE®/PubMED® database.

Until the end of 2017, the term multimorbidity was not a MeSH. The term was a subheading under the term comorbidity. As a consequence, a search for the term multimorbidity in PubMED yielded thousands of publications that included those using the term multimorbidity and/or comorbidity.

Starting in January 2018, multimorbidity is now a MeSH heading:

This will facilitate the indexing and search of articles on this subject.

We believe that the ever increasing number of publications on multimorbidity, which includes articles from those participating in this community, has led to the recognition of the importance of the term, and deserves a congratulation to all those who have contributed to making the term achieve this important recognition.

By Martin Fortin

Our search for papers on multimorbidity that were published during the period January – April 2017 has been completed. As in previous searches, we have prepared a PDF file that can be accessed following this link.

Probably, there are some publications that were not detected by our search strategy using the terms “multimorbidity”, “multi-morbidity” and the expression “multiple chronic diseases” in PubMed (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed), but we are sure that most publications on the subject are included in the list.

All references are also included in our library. Feel free to share with anyone interested in multimorbidity.

By Martin Fortin

Our search for papers on multimorbidity that were published during the period July – September 2016 has been completed. As in previous searches, we found many new papers and the list is too long for this venue. Therefore, we have prepared a PDF file that can be accessed following this link.

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Probably, there are some publications that were not detected by our search strategy using the terms “multimorbidity”, “multi-morbidity” and the expression “multiple chronic diseases”, but we are sure that most publications on the subject are included in the list.

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All references are also included in our library. Feel free to share with anyone interested in multimorbidity.

By Martin Fortin, Jane Gunn, Stewart W. Mercer, Susan Smith, Marjan van den Akker

At the Journal of Comorbidity, we recognize the importance of publishing high-quality work in a timely manner, and publishing work that can be discovered by the wider community in bibliographic databases. One of the premier databases that many authors and readers turn to is MEDLINE®, the National Library of Medicine’s (NLM) database containing over 20 million citations of biomedical literature. Indexing in MEDLINE is therefore key to helping any journal seeking the widest dissemination of their published content.

Although the Journal of Comorbidity is indexed in many databases, it currently does not meet the minimum requirements for MEDLINE indexing. The journal is therefore increasing its efforts to achieve this as soon as possible – but first, we need your help.

In order to be considered for MEDLINE indexing, we have to meet a set of minimum requirements, particularly with regard to the quantity of published articles. And this is where we ask for your help. We are inviting all researchers, clinicians and other healthcare professionals with an interest in comorbidity/multimorbidity to submit their work to the Journal of Comorbidity. (refer to the online author guidelines for preparing your article: http://www.jcomorbidity.com/index.php/test/about/submissions#authorGuidelines). We are currently seeking publications – original research papers, but also critical reviews and study protocols – to meet our target. We believe that indexing in MEDLINE will help to increase our visibility, increase access to our content, and will encourage more authors at all levels of experience and expertise to publish their work in the journal.

With your help, we can make the Journal of Comorbidity grow, and enhance its impact in this niche field and beyond.

We would like to thank all members of our editorial board, reviewers, readers, and our contributors, who together have shaped the journal into its current form and who have provided articles of great interest.

We look forward to a continued collaboration in further developing this journal into an authoritative resource on comorbidity/multimorbidity.

The Journal of Comorbidity is an international, open-access, peer-reviewed journal with a focus on comorbidity and multimorbidity – the only journal of its kind. Established in Switzerland in 2011, the journal has attracted important and well-cited research worldwide. The Journal of Comorbidity is overseen by five co-Editors-in-Chief and by over 40 editors from across the globe. The journal publishes original clinical and experimental research articles, guidelines, policies, editorials, commentaries, protocols, and critical review papers. The journal provides a forum for scientists, researchers and healthcare professionals to share their research, experience and insight into diverse aspects of medicine in order to optimize the management of patients with comorbidity/multimorbidity.

Further information can be found online: www.jcomorbidity.com, or contact one of our editors today: editorial@jcomorbidity.com