Journal of Experimental Medicine - History

History

The journal was established in 1896 at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine by William H. Welch, the school's founder and also the first president of the Board of Scientific Directors of the Rockefeller Institute (since renamed Rockefeller University). From its inception, Welch edited the journal by himself—even editing manuscripts while attending baseball games. By March 1902, the editorial burden became too great for Welch, who stopped publishing papers and began stockpiling manuscripts and unanswered correspondence in his office, explaining the conspicuous absence of published papers from 1902 to 1904.

In October 1902, Welch appealed to the board of the Rockefeller Institute to take over the journal. The transfer of ownership and publication responsibilities required the physical transfer of manuscripts from Welch's office, which fell to the director of the Rockefeller Institute, Simon Flexner, who carried the abandoned manuscripts from Baltimore to New York in a suitcase.

The first issue published by the Rockefeller Institute appeared in February 1905, with Flexner serving as editor, and the journal has been published regularly since then. Although the journal was adopted by the Rockefeller Institute as a venue for publication of the Institute's own research, it also accepted submissions from outside. Even in the early years, more than half of the papers published in the journal came from external labs.