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Original Articles

The Historical Development of Academic Journals in Occupational Medicine, 1901–2009

Derek R. Smith PhD, DrMedSc, MPH School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Health, University of Newcastle, Ourimbah, New South Wales, Australia
Pages 8-17 | Published online: 08 Aug 2010

ABSTRACT

Academic journals in a specialist field provide an interesting historical record of its development and progression over time. This article describes the evolution of some major international journals of occupational medicine, including some historical background on their editorial board. As North America, the United Kingdom, and Northern Europe are known to have the highest contribution to scientific production, it was considered appropriate to investigate the main occupational medicine periodicals in these regions. Given the remarkable improvements in Japanese occupational health following the Second World War, it was also considered worthwhile to investigate the two English-language journals of occupational medicine from this country.

It has been suggested that scientific research is the conscious effort of mankind in keeping with the laws of logic to discover new information about the real world.Citation 1 Origins of the modern scientific periodical can be traced back to the 16th and 17th centuries, by which time early scientists had recognized their dependence on private correspondence to keep abreast of new discoveries.Citation 2 The first, modern scientific journals were established in 1665, as the Journal des Scavans in France and the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in Great Britain. Given that they generally recorded the proceedings of a learned society, many early scientific articles were written as accurate accounts of oral presentations during these meetings.Citation 3 Aside from Britain and France, other countries such as Germany, Russia, and Sweden had also begun following suit by the late 1700s.Citation 4 Within a century, some of the famous medical journals of today began appearing, such as the New England Journal of Medicine in 1812 and the Lancet in 1823.Citation 5 New scientific discoveries in physiology and medicine by the late 19th and early 20th centuries had also led to an increasing need for specialist periodicals, such as the American Journal of Obstetrics, which was founded in 1868Citation 5 and the British Journal of Surgery, in 1913.Citation 6

Probably the earliest industrial work undertaken by human beings involved the making of implements for defense and offense, or for obtaining and cooking food.Citation 7 Although manual labor was often performed by slaves, for whom no interest in their welfare was taken, Hippocrates had described breathing difficulties among miners during the 5th century bc.Citation 8 By the Medieval Ages, water power had proliferated and castle construction was involving hundreds of workers in organized labor.Citation 9 Interest in worker's health evidently occurred in the medical profession, with the publication of occupational medicine research appearing to pre-date specialist medical journals by approximately 200 years. Bernardino Ramazzini (1633–1714) is generally recognized as the founding father of occupational medicine,Citation 10 being the first physician to systematically examine the effect of workplace issues on human health.Citation 11 Ramazzini's groundbreaking text the De Morbis Artificum Diatriba (Diseases of Workers) appeared in 2 editions, first published in 1700 in Modena, and later in 1713 in Padua, thereby laying foundations for the scientific study of occupational medicine as a discipline.Citation 12 His advice to physicians of the day was to ask their patients a number of symptom-related questions, followed by his most famous entreaty “what occupation does he follow?”Citation 10 Over 100 years later, in 1831, a pioneering British figure known as Charles Thackrah (1795–1833)Citation 13 published his seminal works calling attention to the plight of factory workers.Citation 14

As we pass through our first decade of the 21st century, interest in occupational medicine continues to grow as the discipline itself rises as a legitimate and independent medical specialty. The body of knowledge in our field has also expanded considerably, given that there were approximately 24,000 articles published in the field of occupational medicine during the 1970s. This figure had risen to 36,000 in the 1980s, and over 53,000 by the 1990s.Citation 15 Academic journals thereby provide a treasure trove of recorded scientific knowledge in the field. Despite this fact, however, no contemporary authors have investigated the historical development of key academic journals in occupational medicine.

The purpose of the current article, therefore, is to provide a historical overview of some core occupational medicine journals, while keeping within the limits of practically available and reliable historical data. Editorial boards are known to exert a major influence on the development of any scientific periodical, and for these reasons, the current article includes significant description on the Editors-in-Chief, their individual careers, and their wider influence on the journals they served. As it has been previously shown that North America, the United Kingdom (UK) and Northern Europe have the highest contribution to scientific production,Citation 16 it was considered appropriate to investigate the main occupational medicine journals published by these 3 key regions: the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Occupational Medicine (Oxford), La Medicina del Lavoro, the International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health, and the Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health. Given that remarkable changes in Japanese occupational medicine occurred during the last centuryCitation 17 , Citation 18 , Citation 19 and considering that there are at least 22 occupationally related journals being regularly published in this country,Citation 20 it was also deemed appropriate to investigate its 2 English-language journals of occupational medicine: the Journal of Occupational Health and Industrial Health ().

Table 1 Region of Origin, Founding Editors, Original Titles, and Journal Publishers in the Field of Occupational Medicine

Table 2 Timeline of Journal Development in Occupational Medicine

JOURNAL OF OCCUPATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL MEDICINE

The early development of US occupational medicine was recorded in various pioneering studies such as McCready's 1837 monograph on workplace diseases in the dusty trades,Citation 8 Brigham's 1875 essay on occupational health for the Michigan State Board of Health,Citation 21 and publication of the country's first industrial hygiene survey by Doehring in 1903.Citation 22 Articles, reports of surveys, and descriptions of disease in the workplace subsequently had began appearing in the American medical literature during the early 20th century, as social protests developed momentum and academic interest gradually turned towards the health of workers. The American Association of Industrial Physicians and Surgeons (AAIPS) was organized in 1915,Citation 23 holding its first meeting in 1916, and later becoming the Industrial Medical Association (IMA).Citation 24 After a long period of steady and solid growth during the first half of the 20th century,Citation 25 the IMA had begun to recognize an increasing need for its own unique voice in occupational health.Citation 26 In 1946 the American Academy of Occupational Medicine (AAOM) was founded.Citation 27 Although it took almost 2 years of work by the editorial committee,Citation 28 the Journal of Occupational Medicine (JOM) was finally launched in 1959 as an official publication of the IMA.29 Adolph Kammer (1903–1962) was appointed founding Editor-in-Chief, having previously served as IMA president between 1951 and 1952, as well as being Head of the Department of Occupational Health at the University of Pittsburgh.Citation 30 A pioneering figure in the training of many company doctors, Robert Kehoe, also celebrated the launch of JOM with high hopes for the newly emerging specialty of “occupational medicine.”Citation 31

By the 1960s, JOM was well-known as a major source of information for the profession,Citation 24 and the IMA had also established its niche in medicine, celebrating a 50-year anniversary in 1966.Citation 32 The academic quality of JOM manuscripts steadily improved throughout this period, with the creation of a “Consulting Editors” board during the mid-1960s being seen as a positive step by many contributors.Citation 24 In 1974 the IMA changed its name to the American Occupational Medical Association (AOMA).Citation 27 Environmental health had also risen in stature alongside occupational medicine, and by the early 1990s there had been increasing calls to recognize the parallels between occupational and environmental medicine as complimentary disciplines.Citation 33 Recognizing this need, the professional societies to which many US industrial physicians belonged, the AOMA and the AAOM, amalgamated in 1988,Citation 27 and later changed their name to the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) in 1992.Citation 34 Interestingly, a JOM editorial from the same year had suggested the discipline consider being renamed Preventive, Occupational, and Environmental Medicine (POEM).Citation 33 Although the POEM moniker was never adopted, the ACOEM did change the name of its official journal (JOM) in 1995, to the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (JOEM), with Paul Brandt-Rauf being appointed as Editor-in-Chief.Citation 35 In recent years the journal continues to publish as a monthly periodical under this name and remains the official journal of the ACOEM.

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE

The American Journal of Industrial Medicine (AJIM) was founded as a quarterly periodical in 1980 by the Alan R. Liss Company of New York. Similar to the other major American journal of occupational medicine previously described, much of its early influences reflect developmental milestones of US occupational medicine throughout the 20th century. As social movements and academic interest began turning towards worker's health in the early part of the century, educational needs for physicians also emerged, with Harvard University offering the first academic degree in industrial hygiene during 1918.Citation 32 In 1946–1947, the Universities of Cincinnati and Pittsburgh simultaneously introduced formal programs of study in a new postgraduate field then known as “Industrial Medicine.” Subsequently, a new generation of formally trained clinicians began exerting their influence in the field of industrial hygiene and occupational medicine. In 1970, the US Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA 1970) provided the first federal standard for occupational health,Citation 36 a move that helped further develop community interest in workplace issues from a legal and social standpoint. A crucial part of OSHA 1970, particularly in relation to asbestos legislation, reflected pioneering research undertaken by Irving J. Selikoff (1915–1992),Citation 37 an American researcher who became foundation Editor-in-Chief of the AJIM in 1980. At the time Selikoff was head of Environmental Sciences at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, and had earlier founded another journal, Environmental Research, in 1967.Citation 38 He would eventually go on to edit or co-edit 11 volumes of the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.Citation 39

After medical training in Scotland and Australia during the 1940s,Citation 40 Selikoff had earlier studied chest diseases and opened a lung clinic in Paterson, New Jersey. A series of unusual illnesses among workers from an asbestos plant led to a lifelong interest in asbestos-related disease.Citation 41 In 1966 Selikoff had been appointed founding director of the first US hospital division dedicated solely to environmental and occupational medicine, and would eventually stay at Mount Sinai for much of his career spanning over 50 years. During this time, his asbestos research would be instrumental in revising workplace exposure limits to be approximately 100 times lower than in earlier years.Citation 37 Selikoff would later be known as America's foremost medical expert on asbestos-related diseases between the 1960s and the early 1990s.Citation 42 He served as Editor-in-Chief at the AJIM between 1980 and 1982, during which time it evidently prospered, expanding from a quarterly to bimonthly periodical in 1983, when Philip Landrigan took over as Editor-in-Chief. In 1984 the AJIM expanded further into a monthly publication, publishing 2 volumes of 6 issues each year. Landrigan remained Editor-in-Chief until 2006 when the journal reverted to publishing a single volume per year, consisting of 12 monthly issues. As of 2009, the AJIM can lay claim to being one of the few occupational medicine periodicals that has never changed its name ().

OCCUPATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL MEDICINE

Origins of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (OEM) can be traced back to the Association of Industrial Medical Officers (AIMO) in the UK who had urged senior members of the British Medical Association (BMA) to create a specialist journal of occupational medicine during the 1940s.Citation 43 As a result, the British Journal of Industrial Medicine (BJIM) was founded by the BMA in 1944, with Donald Hunter (1898–1978) as founding Editor-in-Chief, assisted by Donald Norris and Donald Stewart.Citation 44 Hunter was already a key figure in the rapid development of British occupational medicine, having been appointed Director to the Medical Research Council's (MRC) newly formed Department of Research in Industrial Medicine during 1943.Citation 45 The difficulties of launching a new journal in the middle of a World War were not lost on the editorial board,Citation 46 although according to a Foreword by Lord Moran, no country could compare with England in its organization of methods to prevent industrial disease.Citation 47 Things did not always run smoothly in the journal's early years, however, with demand sometimes outstripping supplyCitation 48 and 1 issue being only 29 pages long.Citation 43 By the early 1950s, members of the AIMO were beginning to feel that research and academic interests of the newly formed BJIM were not adequately reflecting their interests, which led to the journal splitting into 2 separate, though complementary, entities in 1951: the BJIM and the Transactions of the Association of Industrial Medical Officers (TAIMO).Citation 49

Although this left certain gaps in the BJIM, much was filled by the increasing output of original scientific papers from Hunter's department at the MRC.Citation 43 Although ill-health forced Hunter to hand over editorial duties of the BJIM to Richard Schilling in 1951, he was still involved with the journal and also published the first edition of his famous text, the Diseases of Occupations, in 1955.Citation 48 Around this time, the BJIM reached a critical stage in its development, as the editorial board began enforcing higher academic standards for submitted manuscripts and was also becoming increasingly successful in attracting a greater numbers of articles from overseas contributors. By the 1990s, the BJIM had become a leading journal in the field, and for its 51st year in 1994 changed names to Occupational and Environmental Medicine, with a new Editor-in-Chief (Anne Cockcroft), journal cover, and physical size.Citation 50 Part of the name change also included the new journal being distributed to all Fellows, Members, and Associates of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine in London.Citation 51 By 2003, the journal was receiving almost 500 submissions per year.Citation 52 By 2007, OEM's impact factor had risen to one of the highest among the international periodicals of occupational medicine,Citation 53 a trend which continues today.Citation 54

OCCUPATIONAL MEDICINE (OXFORD)

Similar to OEM, historical development of Occupational Medicine (Oxford) (OM) can be traced back to the foundation of AIMO in 1935Citation 55 and the British Journal of Industrial Medicine in 1944. In 1948, a Quarterly Bulletin of the Association of Industrial Medical Officers commenced publication and one which initially comprised news items and commentary, but later included a record of association meetings as well as other papers on the practice of occupational medicine.Citation 49 By 1951, the aforementioned BJIM had split into separate entities as previously described, the BJIM itself, and TAIMO.Citation 56 A founding member of the Thackrah Club, Hubert Wyers (1900–1956), was appointed foundation Editor-in-Chief, having worked as Chairman of the London branch of AIMO between 1953 and 1955Citation 57 and having been awarded an MD degree for his 1947 thesis on asbestosis.Citation 58 The first Hubert Wyers’ Memorial Lecture was delivered in 1957 by Andrew Meiklejohn,Citation 59 who had succeeded Wyers as Editor-in-Chief after his untimely death 1 year earlier, in 1956.Citation 60 . The journal continued to publish as TAIMO until 1966.

In 1967, TAIMO changed its name to the Transactions of the Society of Occupational Medicine (TSOM) and would remain as such until the end of 1972. Between 1973 and 1991, the journal was known as the Journal of the Society of Occupational Medicine (JSOM),Citation 49 and continued to serve the needs of practicing occupational physicians.Citation 61 Although it remained the official journal of the UK Society of Occupational Medicine, in 1992, JSOM changed its name to Occupational Medicine (Oxford) under the guidance of then Editor-in-Chief, Dennis D’Auria.Citation 62 These numerous changes in the official title had been deemed necessary to not only reflect the journal's purpose, but also to help distinguish it from other international periodicals serving practitioners in the field of occupational medicine.Citation 63 Although both OM and OEM share a common history, OM was able to successfully carve out is niche as being more “practice-orientated.”Citation 56 It was noted that although most of the early contributions had come from the UK, by the year 2000 an increasing proportion of articles were being submitted by authors outside the UK.Citation 64 OM celebrated its 50th anniversary in that year with a special issue containing the results of a readership surveyCitation 65 and general historical overview.Citation 49 In 2009 OM continues to publish under the same name.

LA MEDICINA DEL LAVORO

Bernardino Ramazzini is often referred to as the father of modern occupational medicine,66 and Italy is known to have a strong tradition of scientific and professional associations.Citation 67 It can also lay claim to having founded what is probably the oldest regular periodical of occupational medicine. The journal, La Medicina del Lavoro (Italian Journal of Occupational Health and Industrial Hygiene), was originally issued in December 1901 as IL Lavoro—Rivista di Fisiologia, Clinica ed Igiene del Lavoro (IL Lavoro—Journal of Physiology, Clinics and Hygiene of Work).Citation 68 Much of the credit for its formation can be given to Luigi Devoto (1864–1936), a Professor at the Medical School of Pavia who was the first to offer a university course on occupational diseases.Citation 69 Devoto had previously graduated in medicine at Genoa University during 1888 and had published several important papers in the field of occupational health, as well as other branches of medicine that he considered were indirectly work-related.Citation 70 In 1902, Devoto had successfully founded an institute, the Clinica del Lavoro in Milan, to scientifically study the causes of occupational illness. Being medically orientated from its early days, one of the clinic's objectives has always been to further the postgraduate training of physicians.Citation 71 A Permanent International Commission on Occupational Health (PICOH) was subsequently organized by Devoto in Milan during 1906,Citation 72 and by 1910, the Clinica del Lavoro had been officially inaugurated in the same city.Citation 73

Although the journal's headquarters were originally located in Pavia, they moved to Milan during 1911. IL experienced difficulties in its early years, with volume 1 being published over a 2-year period (1901–1902) and only 3 volumes appearing between 1901 and 1910.Citation 68 No volumes were published in 1916, 1918, and 1919, due to interruptions caused by the First World War, with only 180 pages being issued during 1917.Citation 68 By Volume 11 in 1920–1921, however, IL had become a regular periodical, and from Volume 16 in 1925 the journal became La Medicina del Lavoro (ML), a name still used today.Citation 73 ML became an official organ of the Italian Society of Occupational Health following its formation in 1929.Citation 72 Devoto would eventually serve as Editor-in-Chief from IL Lavoro's foundation in 1901 until his death in 1936.Citation 74

A new director of the Clinica del Lavoro between 1935 and 1941, Luigi Preti (1881–1941),Citation 75 succeeded Devoto as Editor-in-Chief between 1936 and 1941.Citation 76 Preti had previously served as Devoto's assistant at the Clinica between 1922 and 1926.Citation 77 In 1942, Enrico Vigliani (1907–1992) took over as director of the Clinica del Lavoro and would hold this position for 35 years until 1977,Citation 78 although he remained Editor-in-Chief of ML until 1992.Citation 73 The revival of ML as a respected academic journal during the immediate postwar years has often been attributed to the professional dedication of Vigliani.Citation 79 In 1992, Vito Foà succeeded Vigliani and remains chief editor to this day. The journal celebrated its 100th year in 2001Citation 80 and its 100th volume in 2009.Citation 73

INTERNATIONAL ARCHIVES OF OCCUPATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH

The International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health (IAOH) was originally established in 1930 as the Archiv für Gewerbepathologie und Gewerbehygiene (AGG), with Heinrich Zangger (1874–1957) as founding Editor. Zangger had long been a friend of Albert Einstein in Zurich, occasionally serving as a substitute father for Einstein's 2 sons while he was living apart from them.Citation 81 Zangger was an early pioneer of occupational and environmental medicine, being one of the first to recognize mine dust as a cause of silicosis, as well as identifying the dangers of lead in white house paint.Citation 82 The AGG was co-edited by another Viennese physician who had been seminal in the development of European occupational medicine, Ludwig Teleky (1872–1957),Citation 83 having been Director of the Postgraduate Academy of Public Health and Industrial Medicine in Dusseldorf and a founding member of the Permanent International Commission on Industrial Medicine in 1906.Citation 84 Issue 1 of the AGG included many international editorial board members who were already, or would later become, famous names in occupational health, such as Cecil K. Drinker, Alice Hamilton, Emery Hayhurst, and Charles-Edward Winslow from the US, Thomas Oliver from the UK, and Charles Badham from Australia. After the First World War, an intensive phase of industrial hygiene research began in Germany, which was heavily influenced by international discussion and cooperation involving the AGG.Citation 85 Between 1962 and 1969, the AGG was known as the Internationales Archiv für Gewerbepathologie und Gewerbehygiene (IAGG), and continued to publish exclusively in German until 1969, as had been the case since its inception in 1930. In 1970, the IAGG changed its name to the dual title, Internationales Archiv für Arbeitsmedizin (IAA) / International Archives of Occupational Health (IAOH), and began publishing manuscripts in English, French, and German.

By the 1970s, the journal had widened its scope to include more focus on environmental medicine, thereby paving the way for another name change in 1976 to the dual title: the International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health (IAOEH) (in English) and the Internationales Archiv für Arbeits und Umweltmedizin (in German). Increasing internationalization led to the German component of the title being dropped in 1980, although manuscripts continued to be published in German and English until 1983.Citation 86 In 1994 the journal began publishing occasional articles that described the national status and medical qualification systems for occupational physicians,87 although it still continued to emphasize clinical research and epidemiology.Citation 86 By 2003, when Gerhard Lehnert handed over the IAOEH reins to Hans Drexler, he had been one of the longest serving Editors-in-Chief in the history of occupational medicine journals, occupying this position from 1970 to 2003. In 2009, IAOEH remains the official journal of the German Society for Hygiene and Environmental Medicine, as well as the International Society of Environmental Medicine.Citation 88

SCANDINAVIAN JOURNAL OF WORK, ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH

The Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health (SJWEH) can trace origins to its direct predecessors, Nordisk Hygienisk Tidskrift, which was published in Sweden between 1920 and 1974, and the journal Work, Environment, Health, which was published in Finland between 1962 and 1974.Citation 89 Both were amalgamated in 1975 to form a quarterly periodical, the SJWEH, published jointly by the National Board of Occupational Safety and Health (NBOSH) Sweden, Occupational Health Foundation (OHF) Finland, Swedish Medical Society, Section for Environmental Health (SMS-SEH) Sweden, Work Research Institutes (WRI) Norway, and the Workers’ Protection Fund (WPF) of Denmark. Between 1975 and 1980, the newly formed SJWEH received economic support from the Nordic Council of Ministers, after which time it became self-supporting. Sven Hernberg (born 1934) was appointed foundation Editor-in-Chief, being somewhat of a pioneer in Nordic occupational health by entering the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (FIOH) at 26 years of age and publishing 9 original research reports even before qualifying as an occupational physician.Citation 90 Throughout his career, Hernberg's main focus of research was lead and solvents, as well as cancer epidemiology, interests that no doubt influenced the SJWEH's content and direction to some extent. Aside from editing the journal, Hernberg served as Scientific Director of FIOH (1974–1994) while continuing to work as Director of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics,Citation 90 and also held various positions with the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH), including President and Immediate Past President.Citation 91

High standards were enforced and the SJWEH matured, partly due to Hernberg's early assertion that only important results be reported, combined with his refusal to publish material simply for the sake of publishing.Citation 90 By 1983, the journal had expanded into a bimonthly periodical, and in 1995, introduced a range of new article categories such as Opinions, News, and Congress Reports.Citation 92 Its content and focus also changed over time. By 1999, for example, epidemiologically orientated articles were becoming more common, whereas clinical studies on occupational disease had been steadily decreasing in number. The quality of submissions had also increased, leading the editorial board to be more selective and allowing the luxury of only publishing the best contributions.Citation 93 Throughout this period, Hernberg himself contributed numerous editorials to the SJWEH. In 1999, for example, a millennium editorial was published with a particularly insightful comment that “without clear thinking, there cannot be good research.”Citation 93 Other editorials were related to inconclusive cancer epidemiology,Citation 94 ethics in research,Citation 95 and the misuse of statistics in occupational epidemiology.Citation 96 Hernberg would remain Editor-in-Chief at the SJWEH for one of the longest time periods in occupational medicine (after the aforementioned Gerhard Lehnert), until he handed over the reins to Mikko Härmä in 1999.Citation 93

JOURNAL OF OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH

Although great improvements were made in Japanese workers' health following the Second World War, there had been a certain interest in occupational health prior to this time, with establishment of the Kurashiki Institute for Science of Labor in 1921,Citation 97 and formation of the Japan Association of Industrial Health (JAIH) in 1929.Citation 98 The Journal of Occupational Health (JOH) was officially launched by the JAIH in 1959 as Sangyō Igaku (the Japanese Journal of Industrial Health).Citation 99 A hygiene professor from Nippon University, Bogo Koinuma (1891–1980), was appointed as foundation Editor-in-Chief, and would later serve as JAIH president for 11 years.Citation 100 The immediate postwar period was seminal in the development of modern occupational health in Japan,Citation 101 and between 1959 and 1994, Sangyō Igaku published a variety of manuscripts documenting these events, predominantly in Japanese. By the 1990s, an increasingly international perspective had developed within the JAIH, leading the editorial board to consider an English-language format for their official journal. The JSIH had also changed its name to the Japan Society for Occupational Health (JSOH) during this period. Under the guidance of then Editor-in-Chief Akio Sato, a new direction for the journal was officially announced in 1994, and one which would encourage the publication of English-language manuscripts.Citation 102 In 1995, the journal's official title changed to a dual-language format, Sangyō Eiseigaku Zasshi: Journal of Occupational Health, with both Japanese and English manuscripts being accepted during this period.

The change was evidently successful in attracting new English-language manuscripts from abroad, with the Editor-in-Chief reporting an increase in submissions from one original article of this type in 1993, to 9 articles in 1995.Citation 103 Although the new English format was clearly a success, the journal remained an official publication of the JSOH and still needed to serve the needs of its fee-paying Japanese membership. For these reasons, it was officially split into 2 separate publications from 1996 onwards, the English-language Journal of Occupational Health (JOH) and its Japanese-language counterpart, the Sangyō Eiseigaku Zasshi (SEZ). A preliminary web site was also established in the same year.Citation 104 By 2000, demand was such that the JOH had become a bimonthly periodical, whereas the SEZ continued as a quarterly publication. In 2009, the JOH remains an English-language periodical and the SEZ a Japanese journal, both of which are official publications of the Japan Society for Occupational Health (JSOH).

INDUSTRIAL HEALTH

Industrial Health has its origins in 1958, when the National Institute of Industrial Health (NIIH) in Japan began publishing a Bulletin of the National Institute of Industrial Health (BNIIH), to help disseminate the research findings of NIIH staff.Citation 105 By 1963, an increasing need to involve outside researchers had led the BNIIH to be renamed Industrial Health (IH), with the then Director-General of the NIIH, Masayoshi Yamaguchi (1906–1997), being appointed foundation Editor-in-Chief, a position he would hold until 1976.Citation 106 After graduating from medical school in the 1930s, Yamaguchi had studied industrial health at Yale University in the United States and would later be instrumental in setting up the Factory Physician System in Japan. Upon retiring in 1977, Yamaguchi handed over IH to Hiroyuki Sakabe,Citation 107 a researcher who had already published a classic paper on lung cancer during 1973.108 Sakabe would later be recognized as an influential worldwide figure in occupational cancers, with his photo appearing on the cover of Cancer Research during 1990.Citation 109 Throughout this period, IH continued to be published by the NIIH, with each new director of the institute also taking on the role of Editor-in-Chief.

IH experienced a declining rate of submissions during the early 1990s, with some issues having to be combined and the journal even losing its impact factor between 1995 and 1997.Citation 110 Composition and direction evolved as the editorial board expanded into a more multidisciplinary group and an increasingly international focus was sought. In the 1980s and early 1990s, for example, a large proportion of Letters-to-the-Editor and Short Communications were being published. By the late 1990s, however, the main category of articles had changed to Original Articles and Literature Reviews.Citation 111 Special Issues focusing on various topics began to appear in 1997 and have since become regular features.Citation 112 IH had earlier changed cover art in 1982 and increased its physical size in 1997, thereby allowing more articles to be included in each issue.Citation 105 Shunichi Araki was appointed Editor-in-Chief in the year 2000. The Japan National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (JNIOSH) was formed in 2006 via amalgamation of the former NIIH with the National Institute of Industrial Safety (NIIS), thereby taking over as publisher during the same year.Citation 113 By 2007, the number of submissions received were sufficient to allow expansion of IH into a bimonthly publication, which it remains to this day.Citation 114

DISCUSSION

As this review has shown, academic journals in occupational medicine have undergone considerable change over time. Periodicals tend to follow the discipline they represent, and thereby offer an interesting chronological record of its development over time. Much of the driving force behind any journal, particularly a new title, is its Editor-in-Chief. For these reasons, a brief synopsis of their careers is invaluable for helping understand the progression of a periodical, and as this article has shown, also provides an interesting look at important figures who helped shape modern occupational medicine. Nevertheless, it is fair to acknowledge that any historical review will suffer limitations based on the availability of historical data, and the fact that equivalent material is not always available for each individual journal. Compiling a detailed historical record for each periodical proved difficult in the current study due to inconsistencies in source material. For these reasons, some sections focused mainly on careers of their Editors-in-Chief, whereas others elaborated more on historical events relevant to the periodical in question. Nevertheless, the current article does provide one of the first complete accounts of historical development among nine core journals in the field of occupational medicine.

Although a historical examination of academic journals certainly provides an interesting look at the development of a medical specialty, it also highlights many of the unique challenges that still lie ahead as we pass through the 21st century. An increasing proportion of these issues are now being debated in our field. Firstly, there is the issue of academic standardization, given that all 9 periodicals described have still not adopted a consistent referencing system and approach to peer review.Citation 115 Secondly, there remains an ongoing debate in the occupational medicine literature regarding the usefulness of bibliometric indicators (such as impact factors),116–118 their validity and general relevance to occupational medicine journals.Citation 53 The time period covered by this review would also witness the rise of citation analysis, for better of for worse, as an increasingly important method for judging the relative scientific merits of an academic periodical.Citation 119 Thirdly, education and its role in the profession continues to be a key topic for debate in the occupational medicine literature.Citation 120 As late as the 1960s, for example, KehoeCitation 121 had noted that there was still a widespread belief that a “few weeks of indoctrination” would be sufficient to “convert any physician into a reasonably capable practitioner of occupational medicine” (p. 645). It is the discussion, debate, and ultimate resolution of these issues that will hopefully be recorded by the next generation of academic periodicals in occupational medicine.

Acknowledgments

The author is grateful to Professor Sven Hernberg for his historical insight regarding the early days of the Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health.

Derek R. Smith is Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health, and Director of the WorkCover NSW Research Centre of Excellence, University of Newcastle, Ourimbah, New South Wales, Australia.

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