Molecular Therapy (American Society of Gene Therapy)

Edited by:
  • Inder E. Verma
Academic. 12/yr. $245 (US, Canada), $305 (elsewhere), $150 (ASGT member), $50 (ASGT associate member)

The Journal of Gene Medicine (European Society of Gene Therapy)

Edited by:
  • Olivier Danos,
  • Kay Davies,
  • Pierre Lehn &
  • Richard Mulligan
Wiley. 6/yr. $380 (institutional), $265 (individual), $165 (ESGT member)

Genetics in Medicine

Edited by:
  • Richard A. King
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. 6/yr. Institutional: $439 (US), $474 (elsewhere); individual: $219 (US), $254 (elsewhere); in-training: $89 (US), $124 (elsewhere)

Gene therapy became a buzzword of genomics in the 1990s, and is still a hot and sometimes controversial topic in medicine and the popular press. In spite of few clinical successes to date, and some widely reported dramatic failures, gene therapy seems to be as topical as ever in the new millennium. The emergence of two new journals in gene therapy, The Journal of Gene Medicine and Molecular Therapy, demonstrate that although the two established journals in the field, Human Gene Therapy and Gene Therapy, attract specialist manuscripts of high quality, there is room for competition in the field.

The new journals have been sponsored by gene-therapy societies (respectively in Europe and the United States) to communicate information faster and in a way claimed to be lacking in the existing journals. These similar publications contain many articles that have no more direct relevance to gene therapy than has any study of viral infection or gene expression. This reflects the stage of the field, where any research on experimental exogenous gene expression, or viral transduction, can be ‘defined’ as gene therapy. The editors and publishers clearly hope the field will take off but don't quite know how or when.

The Journal of Gene Medicine claims to be cross-disciplinary, and includes interesting interviews with prominent scientists in the field, industry updates covering news from gene-therapy companies, and lists of relevant patents. Additional information is available from the associated Internet resources, which include an online database of worldwide clinical trials in progress and free preprint access to all articles that have been accepted and are in press.

The new American counterpart, Molecular Therapy, is similar but strong on methods, which it publishes as separate articles. It also includes up-to-date news and commentaries, with less emphasis on regulatory issues than Human Gene Therapy. The research articles are mostly on viral gene therapy with clinical applications, largely from American laboratories. For Molecular Therapy to prosper in the long term it may consider broadening its scope and including special features, something The Journal of Gene Medicine has accomplished with its Internet resources and journal format.

Clearly, the two established journals cannot rely on age and reputation alone. And the new journals will have the loyalty of their society members, who also provide a ready-made subscription list that will attract advertisers. The Journal of Gene Medicine is attractive because its speed of publication is around two to three weeks from acceptance — as against three months for Human Gene Therapy and Molecular Therapy, and five months for Gene Therapy.

All four journals have good review articles, which are the most interesting pieces in many issues, as the significant or ‘breakthrough’ papers are published in high impact-factor journals such as Cell, Nature Genetics, Science or Nature Medicine.

Will there be enough research in gene therapy to justify the existence of four journals rather than two? The high degree of biotech interest in the field should sustain a lot of hope (and growth) during the coming decade. Let us hope it is justified by clinical usefulness some day.

Genetics in Medicine, a new clinical genetics journal sponsored by the American College of Medical Genetics, is in a different category, as each issue contains only a few articles, which are highly specialized and many quite long. The journal has not yet found its direction. The editors have not matched the crispness of the Journal of Medical Genetics, one of its two main existing rivals, or the scientific depth of the more clinical articles in The American Journal of Human Genetics. The interesting commentaries on ethics and communication are not even featured on the cover! There may well be a need for another medical genetics journal, but the editors should define its role. One less attractive feature of the journal is its unusual $30 per page cost to authors.

http://www.apnet.com/moltherapy

http://www.wiley.co.uk/genmed

http://lww.com/GIM