Fatigue: Biomedicine, Health & Behavior has published its inaugural issue. Its founding editor is Fred Friedberg, PhD, Research Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at Stony Brook University and President of the International Association for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (IACFS/ME). The subscription-based, peer-reviewed journal is published by the Taylor and Francis Group, a major academic publishing house, under its Routledge imprint. This is the first biomedical and behavioral journal focused on fatigue.
The journal’s editorial board is broadly international with representatives from Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand as well as the United States. The journal’s stated purpose is to advance interdisciplinary research on causation, pathophysiology, assessment and treatment of fatigue in medical illnesses, behavioral disorders and specific environmental conditions.
In the lead article, Dr. Friedberg and colleagues assess the scientific status of fatigue research by comparing it to pain research over a recent 10 year period (2002 -2011). They found that the number of peer-reviewed journal articles related to fatigue increased by about 90% over the decade, yet pain-related articles outnumbered fatigue papers by a proportion of almost 6 to 1. Using the model of science described by Thomas Kuhn in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, the authors reviewed the literature for markers of scientific status — dedicated academic programs, accreditation, journals, conferences, unified theory, etc. — and concluded that, despite its growing significance, the science of fatigue is in an early pre-paradigmatic stage, a situation they hope to ameliorate through the publication of their new journal.
Fatigue: Biomedicine, Health & Behavior will be published in print and on-line 4 times a year. Access to the on-line edition is free to members of the IACFS/ME. Information for authors, subscription information, as well as free access to the inaugural edition are available at the journal’s website.