BMC Geriatrics Opens Search for New Editorial Board Members Amid Rising Submissions

BMC Geriatrics, the open access journal covering all aspects of the health and healthcare of older people, has announced that it is recruiting new Editorial Board Members. The call comes as the journal reports sustained growth in submissions, a trend that has prompted its publisher, part of the BMC series published by Springer Nature, to expand the team responsible for safeguarding the journal’s editorial standards while keeping review times manageable.

The journal’s announcement is straightforward in its rationale. As submission volumes rise, the editors argue that the only way to maintain high editorial standards is to grow the pool of academics who handle manuscripts. Editorial Board Members sit at the operational heart of the peer review system: they assess whether submissions fall within the journal’s scope, select qualified external reviewers, weigh the resulting reports, and make or recommend decisions on whether a paper should proceed to revision, rejection, or acceptance. Expanding that layer of the editorial pipeline is a common strategy among open access journals whose submission numbers scale faster than their in-house editorial staffing.

The recruitment call is aimed at researchers across six disciplinary clusters that together map the journal’s coverage of aging and older people’s health. These are biology and technology; health services research; neurology, stroke and cognition; physical functioning, physical health and activity; psychology, psychiatry and quality of life; and public health, nutrition and epidemiology. The breadth of these fields reflects the journal’s interdisciplinary remit, which spans everything from the cellular and genetic mechanisms of aging to the organization and policy context of healthcare systems serving older populations.

The journal’s stated scope is notably wide. BMC Geriatrics considers articles on all aspects of the health and healthcare of older people, including the effects of healthcare systems and policies. It also welcomes research focused on the aging process itself, encompassing cellular, genetic and physiological processes as well as cognitive modifications. In practice, this means the journal publishes laboratory work on the biology of senescence alongside clinical trials, epidemiological cohorts, qualitative studies of care provision, and health services evaluations.

A distinctive element of the announcement is the journal’s reiteration of its editorial philosophy. BMC Geriatrics states that it does not make editorial decisions on the basis of a study’s perceived interest or its likely impact. Instead, studies must be scientifically valid. For research articles, validity includes a scientifically sound research question, the use of suitable methods and analysis, and adherence to community-agreed standards relevant to the research field. This position aligns with the broader ethos of the BMC series, which describes itself as open, inclusive and trusted, and which has long championed the publication of technically sound research regardless of novelty or expected citation performance.

The criteria for prospective board members are specific. Applicants should be committed to open access, data sharing, and innovation in scientific publishing, positioning the journal’s editorial values not merely as a publishing model but as a set of research practices that extend to how data are made available and how findings are disseminated. The minimum quantitative threshold is fifteen research papers published in reputable, English-language, peer-reviewed journals. In addition, candidates should have been frequently listed as a corresponding author, or as first or last author, during the last five years, a signal of active, leading involvement in research rather than a lengthy but passive publication record.

The role itself carries a defined workload. The journal expects Editorial Board Members to handle approximately two manuscripts per month within their field of expertise. At that rate, a single board member oversees on the order of two dozen papers a year, and an expanded board of several dozen members collectively manages the thousands of submissions that a large open access geriatrics journal receives annually. The journal states that new members will receive training and that the in-house editorial team will provide administrative support, which separates the scientific decision-making role from the logistical work of chasing reviewers and checking compliance with reporting standards.

The primary responsibility of board members, according to the announcement, is to manage the peer review process and to remain accountable for the scientific quality of the manuscripts they handle. They are expected to adhere to the journal’s ethos, editorial standards, policies and scope, and to ensure that manuscripts are handled efficiently and appropriately. The announcement also emphasizes the service dimension of the role: board members should provide a professional and supportive service to authors, ensuring that the manuscripts for which they are responsible fulfill the journal’s requirements and move through peer review without unnecessary delay. Beyond the journal itself, suitable members are described as committed advocates who will represent BMC Geriatrics within the scientific community.

For researchers in gerontology, geriatrics and adjacent fields, a board appointment of this kind is a recognized form of professional service. It offers early or mid-career academics a structured window into editorial decision-making, exposure to a wide cross-section of work in their discipline before publication, and a formal role in upholding standards of rigor in a field whose importance grows with demographic change. Populations across high-income and many middle-income countries are aging rapidly, and with that shift comes increased demand for evidence on healthy aging, multimorbidity, cognitive decline, physical function, and the design of health systems that can meet the needs of older patients. Journals such as BMC Geriatrics occupy a central position in that evidence ecosystem, and the people who manage their peer review effectively shape what that evidence base looks like.

Researchers who meet the stated criteria and wish to apply are directed to an online application form provided by the journal. The announcement closes with the journal’s expression of interest in hearing from prospective candidates. Applications are encouraged specifically from researchers whose backgrounds match the six listed disciplines, and the journal frames the expansion as a direct response to growth: more submissions, more scope to cover, and a continuing commitment to the open, inclusive and trusted standards that define the BMC series.

Subject of Research: Editorial board recruitment and peer review operations at the open access journal BMC Geriatrics

Article Title: Join the Editorial Board

Article References: Join the Editorial Board. (n.d.). Original publication

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: Not provided

Keywords: BMC Geriatrics, editorial board, peer review, open access, geriatrics, aging research, scientific publishing, Springer Nature, older people health, manuscript handling, Join, Editorial