''Virology Journal'' is an
open-access
Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre op ...
peer-reviewed
Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...
medical journal
A medical journal is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that communicates medical information to physicians, other health professionals. Journals that cover many medical specialties are sometimes called general medical journals.
History
The first ...
published by
BioMed Central
BioMed Central (BMC) is a United Kingdom-based, for-profit scientific open access publisher that produces over 250 scientific journals. All its journals are published online only. BioMed Central describes itself as the first and largest open a ...
. It publishes research related to
virus
A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea.
Since Dmitri Ivanovsky's 1 ...
es and the prevention of
viral infection
A viral disease (or viral infection) occurs when an organism's body is invaded by pathogenic viruses, and infectious virus particles (virions) attach to and enter susceptible cells.
Structural Characteristics
Basic structural characteristics, s ...
(including
vaccination
Vaccination is the administration of a vaccine to help the immune system develop immunity from a disease. Vaccines contain a microorganism or virus in a weakened, live or killed state, or proteins or toxins from the organism. In stimulating ...
, the use of
antiviral agents, and
gene therapy
Gene therapy is a medical field which focuses on the genetic modification of cells to produce a therapeutic effect or the treatment of disease by repairing or reconstructing defective genetic material. The first attempt at modifying human DN ...
). The journal was established in 2004 with Robert Garry (
Tulane University
Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private university, private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into ...
) as founding
editor-in-chief
An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies.
The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...
and has been edited by
Linfa Wang since 2012. It aims to cover rapid communications amongst virologists.
Controversy
On 21 July 2010, ''Virology Journal'' published an article entitled "Influenza or not influenza: Analysis of a case of high fever that happened 2000 years ago in Biblical time". According to and , the mother-in-law of
Simon Peter
) (Simeon, Simon)
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Bethsaida, Gaulanitis, Syria, Roman Empire
, death_date = Between AD 64–68
, death_place = probably Vatican Hill, Rome, Italia, Roman Empire
, parents = John (or Jonah; Jona)
, occupatio ...
"lay sick" with a febrile illness.
Jesus
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
then took her by the hand and the fever immediately left. This is also described in . The authors rule out that the woman was possessed by demons, and conclude that she was struck with
influenza
Influenza, commonly known as "the flu", is an infectious disease caused by influenza viruses. Symptoms range from mild to severe and often include fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue. These symptoms ...
as "the fever retreated instantaneously. This implies that the disease was probably not a severe acute bacterial infection (such as
sepsis
Sepsis, formerly known as septicemia (septicaemia in British English) or blood poisoning, is a life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs. This initial stage is follo ...
) or
subacute endocarditis that would not resolved instantaneously" .
This article created controversy amongst scientists, who decried the article from anywhere from "truly bizarre"
[
] to "garbage",
[
] as well as expressing puzzlement over how the article got published in the first place.
[ The editor-in-chief of ''Virology Journal'' originally commented that the submission underwent standard peer review, and was recommended for acceptance after modification by both reviewers, but later apologized for the publication of the article and announced that it would be retracted.][
] The article was retracted on 13 August 2010.
Ellis Hon, the paper's lead author, told RetractionWatch
Retraction Watch is a blog that reports on retractions of scientific papers and on related topics. The blog was launched in August 2010 and is produced by science writers Ivan Oransky (Former Vice President, Editorial ''Medscape'') and Adam Marc ...
that he agreed to the retraction after the amount of negative publicity generated by the paper.[
]
Abstracting and indexing
''Virology Journal'' is abstracted and indexed in
References
Further reading
*
External links
* {{Official website, http://www.virologyj.com/
BioMed Central academic journals
Open access journals
Publications established in 2004
English-language journals
Virology
Creative Commons Attribution-licensed journals
Virology journals