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Publicly Available Published by De Gruyter January 23, 2023

Editorial to celebrate the 60th anniversary of CCLM

  • Tomris Ozben EMAIL logo

It has been an immense privilege and honour for me to serve as member of the Editorial Board of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM) and observe how CCLM is growing into a strong and powerful global journal. Now, we are celebrating the 60th anniversary of its founding. On this occasion, CCLM presents top papers from leading authors published in the field of Laboratory Medicine over the past decade.

To shape the future and move forward, it is necessary to look back and review the past.

The 60-year history of CCLM reflects and coincides with the advancement and evolution of clinical chemistry and laboratory medicine. CCLM is an educational, innovative journal, with high quality content, that is easy to access online and focused on the readers. CCLM publishes articles on novel teaching and training methods in laboratory medicine. It is focused on basic and applied research and cutting-edge emerging diagnostic technologies in clinical laboratory medicine. Throughout its history, CCLM has become relevant not only to the field of clinical chemistry field, but also to other clinical laboratory disciplines such as haematology, genomics, immunology, microbiology, and toxicology. The Journal routinely publishes articles in clinical areas such as oncology, cardiology, neurology, immunology, infectious diseases, endocrinology, gastroenterology, genetics, nutrition, paediatrics, etc. Over the past decades, CCLM has provided a forum for exchanging and discussing new knowledge, disseminating and promoting standards and guidelines, and for publishing Original Articles as well as Reviews, Opinion Papers, Letters to the Editor, Commentaries, Congress Abstracts and Proceedings of important scientific and medical meetings. In this way, CCLM has served laboratory professionals around the world, creating collaborations among individuals.

Internet and other social media technologies have dramatically changed the way to access information. The Journal has taken full advantage of digital publishing, and the social and multi-media developments that have occurred over the past decade. The printed version of the Journal remains popular with some people, while others prefer to read it on their devices.

CCLM has been selected as the official journal of the European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFLM) and is affiliated with the National Societies that are members of the EFLM Academy. It regularly publishes EFLM recommendations, key EFLM documents and articles dealing with important areas of laboratory medicine giving the journal a reference position in the international literature.

The growth of the journal over the past 60 years can be easily seen from an increase in the submission of manuscripts and the increase in the impact factor. The quality of the scientific content of CCLM is reflected by the number of citations and its impact factor. The scientific impact, popularity and success of CCLM have impressively increased since the name change in 1998 from the European Journal of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (Eur J Clin Chem Lab Med) to Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (here referred to as CCLM or the Journal). CCLM is one of the leading journals in the field, with an impact factor of 8.49 in 2022, a value exactly four times higher than the impact factor of 2.15 in 2012 when the Journal celebrated its 50th anniversary. The significant increase in the impact factor shows how much the prestige, popularity and value of the Journal have increased over the past decade.

Stepping onto a global stage requires the support of a good team led by a multi-institutional Editorial Board. Past and present Editors-in-Chief and Editorial Board members have built the structure of CCLM, established internal rules and procedures, achieved recognition of CCLM as the official journal of EFLM and its national societies and members as well as other international associations, ensured financial sustainability, and built efficient bridges to readers in the field of laboratory medicine. They deserve our utmost admiration for their voluntary work, knowledge, enthusiasm, and good spirit, which act as precious building blocks for the growing journal that serves its readers as a leading journal and holds a strong position in the science and practice of clinical laboratory medicine.

CCLM should adapt to a changing environment and maintain its mission to provide reliable information and updates to its readers. Despite the positive progress in improving the quality of the published articles, a “New Perspectives” section should be introduced to increase the success and popularity of the Journal and to make it more attractive through more (increasing) expert reviewer input, and other methods of evaluating submitted papers (articles). The Journal should also engage scientists from different countries to write editorials commenting on the published papers and give the Journal an international flavour. This approach could support the process of actively seeking reviewers from all over the world rather than waiting for them to volunteer.

The establishment of a ‘family’ of specialist journals under the main journal could be adopted in the near future. The benefits of a ‘large family’ are that manuscripts that are not suitable for the main Journal could find a place in one of the specialist journals. This could be a good strategy to celebrate future anniversaries.

Many successful years to CCLM!


Corresponding author: Prof. Dr. Tomris Ozben, EuSpLM, PhD, D.Sci., Specialist in Medical Biochemistry; EFLM-President; IFCC-President-Elect; Medical Faculty, Department of Medical Biochemistry, Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey; and Medical Faculty, Clinical and Experimental Medicine, PhD Program, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy, E-mail:

Published Online: 2023-01-23
Published in Print: 2023-04-25

© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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