Current, Future, & Past Issues

How We Plan Topics

Viruses and Autoimmunity – December 2024

Stylized journal cover art featuring a human bust with exaggerated halftone dots, resembling an electron micrograph. A stream of antibodies winds through clusters of yellow-orange viruses, with the changing color reflecting the viruses’ influence. As the antibodies reach the human bust, they become red, which symbolizes the chaotic and dangerous autoimmune response. Original cover design by Peter Harris. Caption by Peter Harris, RuthMabel Boytz, and Evan Navori.

Our focus on special topics for each issue attracts high quality reviews and research articles and provides a broader readership than smaller specialty journals. Since implementing this format in 2015, our readership, impact and quality have increased substantially and continue to grow. In particular, each focus topic is suggested by and voted upon by the YJBM Editorial Board. As such, the topics chosen are those that we, as graduate, medical, and professional students, find to be the most exciting and impactful.

We decide on focus topics thirteen months before the publication of the issue and accept manuscripts on the focus topic up to three months before the publication of the issue (depending on the type of submission).

Upcoming focus topics:

March 2025: Kinase Signaling (submission deadline: September 1st, 2024)
June 2025: Epigenetics (submission deadline: March 3rd, 2025)
September 2025: History of Medicine (submission deadline: April 1st, 2025)
December 2025: Neglected Tropical Diseases and Parasites (submission deadline: June 1st, 2025)

To find out more information as to how to submit a manuscript to the YJBM, please visit the Types of Articles Published and Manuscript Submission Guidelines pages.

Deputy Editors

RuthMabel Boytz and Evan Navori

Editors picks for the current issue:

Tocilizumab for Cystoid Macular Edema Secondary to Immune Recovery Uveitis in a Patient with Contraindications to Long-Term Systemic Corticosteroid
Ba Trung Nguyen, Jia-Horung Hung, Zheng Xian Thng, Dalia El Feky, Azadeh Mobasserian, Aim-On Saengsirinavin, Xiaoyan Zhang, Frances Andrea Anover, S. Saeed Mohammadi, Ngoc Tuong Trong Than, Anadi Khatri, Negin Yavari, Battuya Ganbold, Cigdem Yasar, Osama Elaraby, Amir Akhavanrezayat, Woong-Sun Yoo, Ankur Sudhir Gupta, and Quan Dong Nguyen
The Intestine in Acute and Long COVID: Pathophysiological Insights and Key Lessons
Andreas Zollner, Moritz Meyer, Almina Jukic, Timon Adolph, and Herbert Tilg
Acute Immunological Profile and Prognostic Biomarkers of Persistent Joint Pain in Chikungunya Fever: A Systematic Review
Anyela Lozano-Parra, Víctor Herrera, Silvio Urcuqui-Inchima, Rosa Margarita Gélvez Ramírez, and Luis Ángel Villar
Human Endogenous Retroviruses Expression in Autoimmunity
Christophe Viret and Margaret S. Bynoe

2024 Issues

Viruses and Autoimmunity – December 2024

Integrative Medicine – September 2024

Just like a spectrum of light can be combined into white light, integrative medicine draws from a variety of traditions and practices to tackle mental and physical wellbeing in a way that addresses patients' needs from diagnosis through recovery. Depicted in this cover are just some of these practices; therapy and group support, herbal supplements, cellular biology research, Chinese medicinal traditions, genetic scenery, and wellness & mindfulness practices. Caption and original cover design by Peter Harris.

Integrative Medicine – September 2024

Individuals with a chronic disease face a challenging landscape on their journey to meet with healthcare providers and often face under-acknowledged internal and external obstacles on the route to seeking help. While these experiences may be clear to individual patients, the shared commonalities across different chronic diseases are less connected in the literature as the very nature of what constitutes a chronic disease continues to be debated. This issue features discussions and research findings relevant across the umbrella of chronic disease, uniting topics from patient perspectives to emerging therapeutics. Caption by Noah Yann Lee and Bassel Shanab. Original cover design by Peter Harris.

Chronic Disease – June 2024

Pregnancy is a time of radical and rapid change with acute implications for the health of expecting parents and child, from conception well into the postpartum period. The physiological changes brought about by pregnancy, education about healthcare options, and social support both before and after birth are just some of the factors that can have a drastic impact on the success of a pregnancy and the child's development. This issue explores how we can better understand pregnancy's impact on emotional and physical wellbeing, and how outcomes might be improved for the experience that began all our lives. Caption by Peter Harris. Original cover design by Peter Harris.

Pregnancy and Child Development - March 2024

2023 Issues

This cover depicts four outcomes of cellular decision-making—proliferation, differentiation, quiescence, and death—in a mandala-like pattern that suggests the complexity of interactions and outcomes that lead to a given cell fate. The mandala itself incorporates visuals that represent elements of the extracellular matrix; a key component of cellular decision-making and fate. These interactions and outcomes are hugely intricate, but understanding them paves the way for novel therapies and treatments for a variety of maladies, from paralysis to cancer. Caption by Peter Harris. Original cover design by Peter Harris.

Cell Fate – December 2023

From the ATCG sequences of our genetic code to the detailed chronicles of our healthcare encounters, the pulse of life is ever being captured in "Big Data." In this realm of boundless 1s and 0s, the world of medicine finds itself at the heart of the data revolution. We invite you into this issue as we explore the ever-evolving techniques researchers are deploying to grapple with big data and discern critical patterns that have the potential to revolutionize clinical decision-making and patient care. Caption by Conrad Safranek. Original cover design by Peter Harris.

Big Data – September 2023

Our world is evolving drastically from the effects of man-made climate change. As our environment changes, we continue to face new healthcare challenges; from physical ailments, to mental health issues, to climate and medical justice obligations. This cover draws inspiration from the extraordinary images that recently came out of the East coast of the United States, as wildfires in Canada brought an unprecedented level of atmospheric pollution to major population centers. Events like these serve as a stark reminder that our planet is changing, and that we must urgently work to address both the causes of climate change and the health issues arising from it. Caption by Peter Harris. Original cover design by Peter Harris.

Climate Change and Environmental Health – June 2023

From the water we drink to the blood in our veins, our lives depend on a complex and dynamic interplay of fluidic interactions. Understanding the ways in which our bodies create and employ these fluids is vitally important, so that we can better diagnose and treat the health issues that stem from them. Caption by Peter Harris. Original cover design by Peter Harris.

Fluids - March 2023

2022 Issues

The prevention and treatment of infection by bacteria, parasites, fungi, and viruses is one of modern medicine's greatest accomplishments. However, these microbes undergo constant evolution, and increasingly show signs of developed resistances that can overwhelm traditional medication. Understanding these adaptations and discovering new antimicrobial drugs is essential to stave off this threat to global health and development.

Antimicrobial Resistance - December 2022

The field of Bioethics rests on four pillars: patient autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and social justice. In this cover, a figure wielding a staff resembling the rod of Asclepius stands at a compass, which points towards architecture representing these four values. Caption and original cover design by Peter Harris.

Bioethics - September 2022

Various methods of inoculation, variolation, and immunization have been used for hundreds of years as a proven prevention of serious illness. Today, vaccination is one of our best tools in the suppression and eradication of many diseases; most notably and recently, illness caused by the COVID-19 virus. Caption and original cover design by Peter Harris.

Vaccines – June 2022

The Science of Stress - March 2022