Scientific and medical publisher The BMJ Group, UK, has announced that it will publish additional themed editions of the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM), supported by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The BMJ Group co-owns British Journal of Sports Medicine with the British Association of Sport and Exercise Medicine (BASEM), which first published the journal in 1964.
The themed editions, which focus on injury prevention and health protection, will be launched in September 2009, with the first issue dedicated to sudden cardiac death in athletes. Subsequent editions will appear quarterly in print and online. As well as being distributed to all BJSM subscribers, the Injury Prevention and Health Protection editions will be sent to all 205 National Olympic Committees as well as more than 35 major sports federations.
The themed editions stem from the IOC's concern for athlete's health and injury prevention, and the development of sports as an important means of improving health, based on solid research evidence. The new editions signal the continuing expansion of sports and exercise medicine as a specialty, and the increasing international focus on prevention in recent years. Lars Engebretsen, professor of orthopaedics at the University of Oslo's Medical School in Norway, and head of scientific activities at the IOC, will take the editorial lead on these special editions. He will be supported by IOC Medical Commission members, including its chairman Professor Arne Ljungqvist.
