The start

Fifty years ago, in 1969, the Scandinavian Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine was started by the first Editor-in-Chief, Professor Olle Höök. He served as Chief Editor for 30 years and was succeeded by Professor Gunnar Grimby in 1999. The journal changed name to Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine (JRM) in 2001. In 2012, Professor Bengt Sjölund was appointed Editor-in-Chief and was succeeded in 2016 by the current two Chief Editors, Professors Kristian Borg and Henk Stam. The Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine – Clinical Communications (JRM-CC) was started in 2018, with a focus on short communications, clinical cases, commentaries, letters, PhD thesis summaries and special reports.

Important steps

JRM has been the official journal of, or has been published in association with, several international PRM bodies, including the International Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (ISPRM), UEMS Board and Section of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine and the European Academy of Rehabilitation Medicine (EARM). JRM which is owned by the Foundation for Rehabilitation Information, has been published by this foundation since 2007, assuring that it is a non-profit journal and totally independent.

However, the most important step for JRM was taken on 1 January 2017, when the journal introduced immediate and total open access. Subscriptions were replaced by publication fees and JRM entered the modern era of scientific publication in which the researcher or other lay persons retrieve scientific articles directly from the Internet. As a consequence, from 2018 the printed paper version was ended. In order to accommodate new readers, a lay abstract was introduced, together with other modernizations, including a new layout of the web page and articles.

Fiftieth anniversary

To celebrate the 50^th anniversary of JRM we have invited senior colleagues representing different areas of Rehabilitation Medicine to provide their views on the content of the first four issues of JRM (1969–1972) and to comment on the impact these articles have had on the development of research and clinical areas. The first article in reference to the anniversary, by Professor Gunnar Grimby, appears in this issue.

Future steps

From January 2020 JRM will no longer be published in “issues”; instead articles will be published immediately they have been accepted for publication and finally approved by the authors.

A monthly Newsletter will announce the articles published each month. You can sign up on the website to receive the Newsletter (www.medicaljournals.se/jrm).