Launching the Georgian Medical Journal: Transparency, Editorial Standards, and the Foundations of a New Open-Access Platform

Abstract

ABSTRACT

This editorial documents the development and launch of the Georgian Medical Journal (GMJ), a new open-access, peer-reviewed medical journal established in 2025. It reports the journal’s initial performance across Volume 1, Issue 1, including submission volume, acceptance and rejection rates, authorship diversity, and content scope. The editorial describes the implementation of international editorial standards, including adherence to CONSORT, STROBE, PRISMA, CARE, and SQUIRE guidelines, in alignment with COPE and ICMJE recommendations. It further describes GMJ’s integrated knowledge translation strategy, including 100% podcast coverage of all published articles across seven global platforms. Current limitations—including the absence of indexing in major databases and the use of interim DOI assignment via Zenodo—are explicitly acknowledged, alongside a defined roadmap for indexing and editorial expansion. GMJ is established as a transparent, regionally anchored, and internationally oriented platform, complementary to existing Georgian medical publications, and committed to contributing to equitable global scientific publishing.

Keywords: medical publishing; open access; peer review; editorial transparency; scholarly communication; indexing strategy; knowledge translation; Georgia; scientific publishing; DOAJ; Crossref; scholarly journal development