Frontiers of Medicine

Frontiers of Medicine, renamed MedScience in January 2026 and known in Chinese as 医学科学（英文）, with the common abbreviation Front. Med., is an English-language general medical journal supervised by the Ministry of Education of China, published by the Higher Education Press and distributed overseas by Springer. Founded in 2007, it is an academic journal of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, with a 2025 impact factor of 3.5.Frontiers of Medicine（2026 年 1 月起更名为 MedScience，中文刊名《医学科学（英文）》，常用缩写 Front. Med.）是一份由中国教育部主管、高等教育出版社出版、Springer 负责海外发行的英文综合性医学期刊，2007 年创刊，是中国工程院院刊，2025 年影响因子为 3.5。^[1]

Scope

• Scope: the journal publishes original research across the medical disciplines, spanning clinical medicine, basic medicine, translational medicine, epidemiology and public health, traditional Chinese medicine, and emerging fields such as medical artificial intelligence.学科定位： 刊载医学各学科的原创研究，范围横跨临床医学、基础医学、转化医学、流行病学与公共卫生、中医药学，以及医学人工智能等新兴方向。
• Change of title: the journal was renamed from Frontiers of Medicine to MedScience with effect from January 2026. The new title drops the word Frontiers, which had invited confusion with the open access publisher of the same name, while the journal's purpose and its supervisory and sponsoring arrangements are unchanged.刊名与定位的变更： 期刊自 2026 年 1 月起由 Frontiers of Medicine 更名为 MedScience，新刊名去掉了易与同名开放获取出版体系混淆的 Frontiers 字样，但办刊宗旨与主管主办关系未变。
• Supervision and sponsorship: the journal is supervised by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China and is jointly sponsored by the Higher Education Press, the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Ruijin Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine. Copyright is held by the Higher Education Press.主管与主办： 期刊由中华人民共和国教育部主管，由高等教育出版社、中国工程院与上海交通大学医学院附属瑞金医院共同主办，版权归高等教育出版社所有。
• Orientation towards international communication: the journal exists to promote global communication among medical professionals on health and health care, to accelerate medical development by sharing progress and experience in disease control and treatment, and to encourage exchange of views on health policy, medical services and health care reform.国际传播的定位： 期刊的定位是在医学专业工作者之间推动全球性的健康与医疗交流，通过传播疾病防控与治疗的进展与经验来加速医学发展，并鼓励就卫生政策、医疗服务与医疗改革交换意见。
• Article types, indexing and metrics: the journal carries research articles, reviews, perspectives, editorials, case reports, comments and letters, with research articles forming the bulk of what it publishes. It is indexed in the Science Citation Index Expanded, PubMed/MEDLINE and Scopus, and is also covered by the Chinese Science Citation Database and the Chemical Abstracts Service, with a 2025 impact factor of 3.5.载文类型与收录： 刊载研究论文、综述、观点文、社论、病例报告、评论与通信等类型，其中研究论文为主体；期刊收录于科学引文索引扩展版、PubMed/MEDLINE 与 Scopus，并被中国科学引文数据库、化学文摘数据库等收录，2025 年影响因子为 3.5。^[2]

History

• 2007: the journal was founded as Frontiers of Medicine in China. It was supervised by the Ministry of Education, published by the Higher Education Press and distributed overseas by Springer in Germany, appearing in both an online and a print edition. Its position from the outset was a window onto Chinese medical research for an international readership.2007年： 期刊以 Frontiers of Medicine in China 之名创刊，由教育部主管、高等教育出版社出版，德国 Springer 公司负责海外发行，以网络版与印刷版两种形式出版，创刊时的定位即为面向国际读者的中国医学研究窗口。
• 2011: the title was shortened from Frontiers of Medicine in China to Frontiers of Medicine, dropping the word China that had confined it geographically. The change marked a shift towards a global rather than an English-speaking audience.2011年： 刊名由 Frontiers of Medicine in China 简化为 Frontiers of Medicine，去掉了表明地域限定的 China 一词，标志着其面向全球而非仅面向英语世界的定位转变。
• The 2010s: the journal's standing rose steadily. Its editors-in-chief have been academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and the origin of its submissions gradually widened from Chinese authors to contributors worldwide. Within the Academy's journal portfolio it became the position in the medical field.2010年代： 期刊影响力稳步上升，主编团队以中国工程院院士为主，稿件来源逐步由中国学者扩展到全球各地，期刊在中国工程院院刊体系中成为医药领域的位置。
• January 2026: the journal was formally renamed MedScience. Web of Science records the change, mapping the former title Frontiers of Medicine to the new title MedScience, and indexing continues.2026年1月： 期刊正式更名为 MedScience。Web of Science 亦记录了这次刊名变更，旧刊名 Frontiers of Medicine 对应新刊名 MedScience，索引延续。
• Institutional moves after the change: following the renaming, the Chinese Academy of Engineering's Engineering journal group advanced a programme of system upgrading known as 1+19, in which the medical title Frontiers of Medicine became MedScience. In February 2026 the first meeting of the new MedScience editorial board and young editorial board was held in Beijing, marking the start of a new phase in the journal's development.更名后的机构动作： 更名后中国工程院工程期刊群推进了名为「1+19」的体系升级，医药领域分刊由 Frontiers of Medicine 更名为 MedScience；2026 年 2 月，新的 MedScience 编委会暨青年编委会第一次会议在北京召开，标志期刊建设进入新阶段。
• Change of identification numbers: the renaming came with new international standard serial numbers, 3091-4981 for the electronic edition and 3091-4973 for the print edition.刊号变更： 更名伴随新的国际标准连续出版物号，电子版为 3091-4981，印刷版为 3091-4973。
• A point of confusion: this journal has no connection to the identically titled series published by Frontiers Media, despite the literal overlap in the former title. Judgement should rest on the identification numbers, the supervisory body and the publisher.易混淆之处： 本刊与 Frontiers Media 出版的同名系列期刊没有关系，虽然旧刊名与之字面相同；判断时应以刊号、主管单位与出版方为准。^[3]

Editors

• Editors-in-chief: the journal has three editors-in-chief, all academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering: Saijuan Chen, Boli Zhang and Xiaofan Wang. Together they form the journal's highest editorial authority, while an executive associate editor drives the day-to-day editorial work.现任主编： 期刊设三位主编，均为中国工程院院士，分别为陈赛娟、张伯礼与王小凡，三位共同构成刊物的最高决策层，另有执行副主编负责日常编辑事务的推进。
• Editorial practice of an Academy journal: the journal also provides for honorary and distinguished editors-in-chief, held by academicians of the Academy, reflecting the Academy-journal convention of separating an academic leadership tier from the working editorial tier. The editorial office itself is carried by the Higher Education Press, which is responsible for solicitation, editing and distribution.院刊的编辑惯例： 期刊另设名誉主编与荣誉主编之职，由中国工程院院士担任，体现院刊体系中学术引领层与日常编辑层分设的惯例；编辑部则由高等教育出版社承担，负责组稿、编辑加工与发行事宜。
• Editorial and young editorial boards: the journal maintains an editorial board and a young editorial board. The former is composed of academicians of the two Academies together with experts from China and abroad, while the latter exists to cultivate a successor generation. Both were tasked with their work at the first meeting held in 2026.编委会与青年编委会： 期刊设编委会与青年编委会两套班子，编委由两院院士与海内外专家组成，青年编委则用于为期刊培养后备力量；两者在 2026 年首次会议上共同部署工作。
• Weight of the academician composition: the editorial tier of an Academy journal is composed principally of academicians. This places the journal's judgement of subject matter and its quality control in the hands of the Academy's senior scholars, and at the same time determines the journal's sensitivity to major medical research questions in China.院士构成的权重： 院刊的编辑层以院士为主体，这一构成使期刊在选题判断与质量把关上倚重工程院院士的学术判断力，同时也决定了期刊对中国重大医学研究议题的敏感度。
• Submission and review: manuscripts are lodged through the publisher's online submission system. With an international orientation towards exchange in the medical community, the journal treats submissions from Chinese and overseas authors alike, and peer-review comments aim at the advancement of scholarship.投稿与评审： 稿件通过出版方的在线投稿系统递交，期刊以促进医学界国际交流为宗旨，对中国与海外作者的稿件一视同仁，评审意见以促进学术进步为目标。^[4]