Dawn of a New Era

The Journal of Fertility, Science and Research, the official publication of the Indian Fertility Society, has been at the forefront of publishing emerging clinical information in the field of fertility services and reproductive healthcare since its inception back in 2014. Since then the journal has published some high-quality clinical information over the years in the form of original investigations, reviews, case reports, case series, short communications, letters, etc. The journal started as a bi-annual journal and continued till 2022. Due to its growing popularity and increasing submissions, the journal became a quarterly publication in 2023. We feel proud to announce that starting in 2024, the journal is becoming a continuous publication. From 2024, any article, which successfully surpasses our rigorous double-blinded peer review process, will get published online with DOI. In an era where major bibliographic, prestigious portalssuch as SCOPUS, EMBASE and Clarivate’s ESCI and SCIe, value the online first publication date for calculation of citation metrics, shifting to a continuous mode of publication was the ideal decision for the journal, to maximise visibility of the published content that will immensely benefit the concerned author(s). However, the journal will continue to bring out special issues, and in 2024, we plan to do the same on “genetics and andrology”. Young researchers are invited to submit their original research articles and review articles on these subjects.

In our new endeavour to bring the journal with a new face, we have partnered with Scientific Scholar as the new publisher of our journal starting 2024 onwards. Our new submission portal will be https://editorialassist.com/#/login/FSR.

The successful path so far would not have been possible without the immense efforts of our society members, journal editors and reviewers who have been voluntarily serving the journal over the past several years. However, above all, we are immensely thankful to our authors, who have enriched the journal with high-quality and engaging clinical content in the past. In 2023, our authors published excellent, engaging content under diverse topics. Some of the review articles on key topics which were published and liked by our readers such as ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome–associated challenges in fertility treatment whenever ovarian stimulation is used to increase the number of eggs,^[1] correlation of genotoxicity with infertility and cancer development,^[2] the role of genetics, environmental, and lifestyle factors responsible for infertility,^[3] etc., and a fantastic mini-review discussing the practice of chromosomal screening for preimplantation genetic testing which greatly improves clinical pregnancy outcomes preventing carriers of genetic abnormalities through the selection of embryos that are free from any genetic mutation/chromosomal anomalies.^[4]

Apart from the reviews, the journal published some top-notch clinical investigations focusing on various molecular investigations touching different phenomena associated with in vitro fertilisation. Some notable mentions are articles that discussed the significance of DNA-methyltransferases and histone deacetylases m-RNA expression in relation to accessing IVF outcome,^[5] utilisation of whole-genome single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based chromosome microarray as a diagnostic tool for recurrent pregnancy loss in modern India which has shown tremendous potential in understanding the aetiology of foetal loss and helps in evaluating the recurrence risk for chromosome aneuploidy,^[6] the comparison of intracytoplasmic morphologically selected sperm injection (IMSI) with intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), which concluded that IMSI had a higher likelihood of resulting in pregnancy in couples with male factor infertility,^[7] etc. The journal published some complex but well-presented studies, such as the treatment of refractory thin endometrium with autologous blood cell derivative (ABCD-Endosera)^[8] and an investigation which presented the identification of hypo-responders and customisation of controlled ovarian stimulation protocols based on genomic analysis combined with clinical parameters that led to a reduction in the number of cycles and eventually improving outcome or reproductive success.^[9] Lastly, we also published in vivo studies such as an investigation showing downregulation of homeobox gene A10 (HOXA10) is a transcription factor that plays a key role in maintaining endometrial homeostasis, is a consequence of endometriosis and may contribute towards its pathogenesis.^[10]

As a society, we are proud of our journal and the level of clinical content that we have been publishing over the years and we aim to continue doing the same in the future. We would encourage our authors to continue participating and enriching the journal with such engaging clinical research content. We are looking forward to the new journey ahead.

Dr. Kuldeep Jain

Editor-in-Chief

Fertility, Science and Research