Herald of Medicine is a professional academic journal of medicine, supervised by Hubei Medical Products Administration, and jointly sponsored by Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Chinese Pharmacological Society. It was published on the first day of every month and is approved for public distribution at home and abroad by the Press and Publication Bureau of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee.
Principles of the journal: The journal is guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, adheres to the principle of "let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend", seriously implements the CPC's guidelines, as well as publishing policies and regulations such as the Regulations on the Administration of Publication and the Regulations on the Administration of Periodical Publication. We always put political guidance in the first place, adhere to the correct direction of running journals, and pay close attention to the academic quality of journals. We adhere to the principle of integrating social and economic benefits, put social benefits first, and make the journal play a link and bridge role between medical research, production, operation and application, and fulfil its leading and guiding functions.
Herald of Medicine adheres to the scientific, practical and informative nature of a journal, with the purpose of popularization, application and service, focusing on frontier of medicine, including novel theories, technologies, methods and achievements in medical research, production, management and use at home and abroad. The journal reports the latest medical research results and clinical efficacy of drugs, tracks adverse drug reaction cases at home and abroad, guides clinical rational use of drugs, and publicizes medical policies and regulations. Our goal is to make this journal a popular publication for doctors and pharmacists, and medical scientific research, teaching, supervision and management personnel, as well as science and technology, trading and management personnel in industrial and commercial enterprises. We aim to serve the readers and authors from medical and health institutions, medical colleges, medical research institutes, and pharmaceutical industry and commerce, and to contribute to the construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era.

The editorial board is an expert advisory committee hired by the editorial office of Herald of Medicine according to the needs of the journal and under the guidance of the supervisor and the sponsors. It is composed of domestic and foreign experts in the fields of medicine, pharmacy and management, and they are appointed as advisors, editorial board members, executive editorial board members, and young editorial board members. The editorial board is responsible for reviewing all manuscripts for Herald of Medicine, helping the editorial office to keep an eye on the quality of the journal, and putting forward suggestions on the development of the journal and the work of the editorial office.
1. Composition and responsibility of advisors
Composition: The advisors are 10 to 20 experts invited by the editorial office with significant influence in the fields of medicine and pharmacy.
Responsibility:
(1) Provide general guidance and important assistance to the development of the journal and the editorial office, and generally do not participate in review work.
(2) Pay attention to the work of the editorial board and editorial office, and timely put forward guiding opinions.
(3) Undertake post-publication review work, listen to readers' opinions and requirements on the journal, and put forward opinions and requirements for improving the quality of the journal to the editorial office.
(4) Assist the editorial office in writing, organization and invitation of papers, and publishing, distributing, collecting advertisements, as well as integration development of journal and media, e.g., “Internet+”, “digital transformation”.
2. Composition and responsibility of editorial board members
Composition: Editorial board members are invited by the editorial office entrusted by sponsors and consist of about 250 members. The qualifications of the editorial board members are scholars, experts, enterprises and administrative personnel in the pharmaceutical industry at home and abroad with the title of associate senior or above, good influence in the industry, high academic research level, and enthusiastic about editing and publishing. The appointment period of editorial board members is four years, and whether to renew the appointment depends on the situation. The editorial board generally holds a plenary meeting every four years.
Responsibility:
(1) Research and discuss the journal’s guideline, purpose and annual work plan, and supervise their implementation and progress;
(2) Review the work report of the editorial office and put forward suggestions on their work;
(3) Deliberate and decide on the journal’s major issues and key points of the annual report;
(4) Assist the editorial staff in topic selection, organization and invitation of articles;
(5) Timely complete the review task assigned by the editorial office;
(6) Assist the editorial office to host and undertake various academic exchange activities according to the development trend of the industry;
(7) Assist the editorial office in journal distribution and advertising revenue generation;
(8) Assist the editorial office to maintain the website and WeChat official account, as well as the integration development of journals and media such as "Internet+" and "digital transformation".
3. Composition and responsibility of executive editorial board members
Composition: Executive editorial board is composed of about one third of the editorial board members, and they are invited by the editorial office.
Responsibility:
(1) Besides the work of editorial board members, they should participate in the executive editorial board meetings at least twice a year (the work plan meeting at the beginning of the year and the work summary meeting at the end of the year) to study and discuss the annual editing and publishing plan, topic selection and reporting focus, as well as the major issues encountered in the development of the journal;
(2) Discuss important matters related to this journal, form suggestions, and submit them to the supervisor and sponsor for reference;
(3) Volunteer to serve as the responsible editorial editor of an issue every year, and write, organize, invite and review articles for this issue;
(4) Assist the editorial office in publicity, distribution and advertising business, timely feedback the opinions and requirements of readers and authors, and provide suggestions for topic selection and planning;
(5) Assist the editorial office to host and undertake various academic exchange activities according to the development trend of the industry, and undertake academic lectures assigned by the editorial office;
(6) Provide popular science articles and medical industry information for the journal’s websites and WeChat official account.
4. Composition and responsibility of editor-in-chief and associate editor-in-chief
Composition: Editor-in-chief of Herald of Medicine is held by famous professors or experts in medicine or pharmacy who are invited by the editorial office entrusted by sponsors. At the same time, several associate editors-in-chief are invited, including one executive associate editor-in-chief.
Responsibility:
(1) The editor-in-chief and the executive associate editor-in-chief are responsible for the final review of each issue before publication, and for convening the meeting of editorial and/or executive editorial board;
(2) Preside over the editorial work of the journal, implement the journal’s policy, and control the future direction of the journal;
(3) Lead the work of topic planning, column setting, and manuscript organization and distribution plan.
(4) The executive associate editor-in-chief is responsible for re-reviewing, final reviewing or processing important manuscripts and ensuring the quality of manuscripts;
(5) Systematically collect and study academic developments and editorial information in the disciplines covered by the journal, to put forward proposals or innovative solutions that have guidance value to the editorial work, to continuously improve the quality of the journal, to increase its circulation, and to improve the social and economic benefits of the journal.
(6) The associate editors-in-chief assist the editor-in-chief in the assigned work. Serve as the editor-in-charge for at least one issue each year, do a good job in selecting topics, planning, writing, organizing and inviting manuscripts for featured column, and undertake or co-organize at least one academic conference during the term. Summarize the editorial work experience and report regularly to the supervisor on the editorial and publication work.
(7) Under the guidance of the supervisors and sponsors, improve the ideological and professional ability of editorial staff, strengthen professional ethics education, as well as cultivate editors and guide editorial work;
(8) The executive associate editor-in-chief is responsible for the routine work of the editorial office, in charge of the editing, publishing and distribution work, ensuring the normal operation of the editorial office, arranging for manuscripts to be sent for review, and receiving letters and visits from authors and readers. The executive associate editor-in-chief should assist the editor-in-chief and associate editor-in-chief in the planning of topic selection, annual reporting plan, information collection, organization and planning of academic conferences and management of the journal.
5. Composition and responsibility of young editorial board members
Composition: Young editorial board members are selected and recruited through an open recruitment process. The qualifications of the young editorial board members are scholars work in clinical medicine, pharmacology, or medicine related professions, with doctoral degree, intermediate title or above, and younger than 45 years old.
Responsibility:
(1) Study and discuss the journal’s guidelines and purposes, and the annual work plan;
(2) Review the editorial work report and make suggestions on the work of the editorial office;
(3) Deliberate and decide on the journal’s major issues and key points of the annual report;
(4) Assist the editorial staff in topic selection, organization and invitation of articles;
(5) Timely complete the review task assigned by the editorial office;;
(6) Volunteer to write popular medical science articles and make short videos and submit them to the editorial board for publication on the journal’s website and WeChat public account;
(7) Assist the editorial office in journal distribution and advertising revenue generation;
(8) Assist the editorial office to maintain the website and WeChat official account, as well as the integration development of journals and media such as "Internet+" and "digital transformation".
6. Responsibility of editorial office
The editorial office is a permanent agency of the editorial board, composed of editors and other staffs, to complete the routine work under the charge of executive associate editor-in-chief.
Responsibility:
(1) Conscientiously implement the national publication guidelines and policies, and formulate and implement the annual manuscript organization and reporting plan;
(2) Under the leadership of the supervisor and the sponsors, draw up the editorial and publishing work plan of the journal according to its purpose, policy and readership, and monitor the quality of the journal;
(3) Responsible for the processing of manuscripts, i.e. preliminary review of manuscripts (preliminary review of content, formal review, political review, checking the copy ratio with CNKI and Wanfang Data Academic Misconduct Detection System), sending them for external review, sending them to the editor-in-chief for review, writing suggestions for manuscript revision, finalizing the manuscript, etc..
(4) Extensively collect the opinions of authors, readers, editorial board and reviewers, formulate the topic selection plan, write editorial notes, and do the work of readers' letters and visits;
(5) Responsible for manuscript receiving, organizing, inviting, selecting, reviewing, editing and processing, proofreading, publishing and distributing, organizing advertising business and external liaison;
(6) Collect feedback from readers, authors and advertisers in a timely manner to continuously improve the work and focus on the social benefits of the journal while taking into account the economic benefits;
(7) Understand, grasp and follow up the major research topics related to the journal, organize pharmaceutical academic seminars and editorial board expansion meetings, information conferences, etc.;
(8) Improve the management of the editorial department and equip it with editorial office equipment. Pay manuscript fees, review fees, editing fees, proofreading fees, etc.;
(9) Maintain the website and WeChat official account, as well as the integration development of journals and media such as "Internet+" and "digital transformation".

1. Qualifications of editorial board members
(1) The editorial board members should be experts in medicine, pharmacy or medicinal management, with the title of associate senior or above, who work in Grade IIIA hospital or above, medical colleges and universities, medical research institutes, etc. The experts with the title of associate senior should be younger than 65 years old, and the experts with the title of senior should be younger than 75 years old.
(2) Editorial board members should own reputation in their specialty, being the academic leader or discipline leader in their institution, having relevant scientific research or management experience, undertaking or participating in more than two national natural science funds, having the ability to write and publish papers (more than 10 papers published in core journals) and having strong review ability.
(3) They should be enthusiastic about the editorial and publishing work, willing to contribute to the development of Herald of Medicine, actively participate in the working meetings organized by the editorial department, undertake the task of reviewing manuscripts assigned by the editorial department, and organize authoritative experts in the specialty to write manuscripts for Herald of Medicine.
(4) Actively promote and publicize the journal in their specialty and region, and do a good job in distributing the journal. Actively contact advertising, co-sponsorship, sponsorship and other business for the journal.
(5) If an editorial board member violates national laws and regulations, or is not competent for the work of the editorial board, the editorial office can revoke his/her editorial board membership after being approved by the executive editorial board. Editorial board members who do not have any contact with the editorial office for a long time, do not attend the working meetings organized by the editorial board or editorial office without any reason, cannot complete the tasks assigned by the editorial office for reviewing, inviting, organizing and writing manuscripts, or do not have a high quality of review and a strong sense of responsibility will be automatically voted out when the next editorial board is held.
(6) When a new editorial board is convened, the work of the previous editorial board will be evaluated and at least 1/3 of the editorial board will be updated according to the work.
(7) For the editorial board members who are old (>70 years old) and have withdrawn from the front line of clinical, scientific research and management, but have made important contributions to the development of Herald of Medicine, the editorial office may request the approval of supervisor, sponsors, and executive editorial board to confer the title of honorary editorial board member. Although the names of honorary editorial board members will not be published in the editorial board list of the journal, but they can participate in the editorial board and executive editorial board meetings.
2. Selection process of editorial board members and young editorial board members
(1) Editorial board members: After personal application, recommendation by other editorial board members, or invitation by the editorial office, the appointee submits materials that can prove his/her academic research level and ability to review manuscripts. The editorial office conducts preliminary review and collation of the information, forms the list and profile of the new editorial board members of Herald of Medicine, and then submits it to the executive editorial board for discussion and decision. The results decided by the executive editorial board are submitted to the supervisors and sponsors for approval.
After being appointed as a member of the editorial board, the appointee fills out the editorial board registration form of Herald of Medicine, submits it to the competent department of human resource or scientific research in his/her institution for confirmation. After the form submitting to the editorial office, they will issue an appointment certificate to the editorial board member.
 (2) Young editorial board members: Young editorial board members are selected and recruited through an open recruitment process. The applicant submits relevant supporting documents, fills out the young editorial board member registration form of Herald of Medicine (stamped by human resource department). After preliminary review by editorial office and discussion by executive editorial board, the list of selected persons is formed and submitted to the sponsors for review and approval. The editorial office will issue an appointment certificate to the young editorial board member.
IV. Funds management
The funds for running the journal are raised through journal’s publication, publication fee, advertising business, co-organizers, pharmaceutical industry consulting services and training courses, etc. The funds are incorporated into the account of Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, under the financial supervision of Tongji Hospital. The editorial office of Herald of Medicine