Inaugural Editorial

It is my great pleasure and distinct honor to be named Editor-in-Chief of Frigid Zone Medicine, a high-quality, open access, medical journal in the English language, sponsored by the Heilongjiang Health Commission under the supervision of the Heilongjiang Health Development Research Center.

As a once somewhat inadequately valued research field, cold-region illness and other diseases or syndromes caused by cold stress of any kinds have been increasingly aware by the scientific community globally. Cold-temperature related diseases are especially manifested by cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, respiratory, and virus-transmitted diseases (such as COVID-19), particularly in regions relatively unaccustomed to winter weather, which constitutes a threat to global public health. Clinicians and researchers around the world have also perceived a need to bring together the growing body of fundamental and translational researches exploring in breadth and depth the cold weather-related health issues with clinical applications. This trend is reflected by a steady increase in scientific publications on the subject.

The increasing need for addressing cold-region illness and medicine makes the periodical Frigid Zone Medicine come into being to fill the gaps of the field. Frigid zone is defined as the regions with an average temperature below 0℃ in the winter. Accordingly, Frigid-zone Medicine refers to the medical research and practice on the cold weather-related health problems. Prior to its official lunch, the journal has been brought into the “High-Starting-Point New Journal” project of the “Excellence Action Plan of Chinese Science and Technology Journals” supported by the China Association for Science and Technology.

Frigid Zone Medicine aims to build a high-end international medical science platform for medical and healthcare professionals and basic researchers all over the world for disseminating their innovative scientific thoughts, cutting-edge research technologies, state-of the art technologies, and most updated scientific information from fundamental, preventive, clinical and translational researches, so as to fosters the worldwide interest in multi-disciplined research in and clinical applications of knowledge and technologies to cold-region diseases.

Turning to journal content, today’s research in the medical sciences is more methodologically complex, mechanistically in-depth, and interdisciplinary than ever. The scope of Frigid Zone Medicine encompasses all of the subspecialties pertinent to cold-region illnesses and related topics including but not limited to non-communicable diseases, internal medicine, basic medical science, mental disease, cardiology, rheumatology, pneumology, angiology, altitude stress, frostbite, aging health, and health policy. It welcomes submissions of manuscripts in the forms of original research articles, clinical reports, case study reports, clinical commentaries, reporting and conduct guidelines, study protocols, methods papers, review articles, short communications, correspondence and technical progress, and position papers. 

Frigid Zone Medicine is committed to provide fair, fast, and expert peer-review to authors and to make the content freely available to readers. The editorial board members are selected from an international pool of researchers and clinicians with high levels of professional achievement and recognition in their fields and stellar reputations in their disciplines, as well as sound experience in publishing services and management. As scientists, we value veracity above all other virtues. It is the view of our editorial team that, now more than ever, science needs reliable mechanisms for assessing quality and trueness with a highest-standard and rigorous peer-review process. I and my editorial team, as well as all other editorial personnel will strive with enthusiasm to achieve the aims of the journal as a world-class forum for cold-region medical sciences with the highest scientific standard.

Frigid Zone Medicine is scheduled to launch its first issue in May, 2021. Based in China, this journal is fully open to scientific community from all over the world. Peers and fellows are all welcome to join us as editorial board members, reviewers, or contributors to the journal. 

《寒地医学（英文）》创刊词（简译）

能够担任《寒地医学（英文）》的主编，我感到十分荣幸。《寒地医学（英文）》是一本由黑龙江省卫生健康委员会主管，黑龙江省卫生发展研究中心主办的高质量、开放获取的英文医学期刊。相较从前，寒冷地区的疾病和其他因寒冷刺激引起的疾病或综合征的研究领域已经越来越被全球科学界所关注和重视。与寒冷相关的疾病，尤其是心血管、脑血管、呼吸系统和病毒（如COVID-19）等，特别是在寒冷的地区，对全球公共健康构成了威胁。世界各地的临床医生和研究人员也意识到，有必要将基础研究和临床研究结合起来，从广度和深度上探索与寒地相关的临床应用。因此，关于这一主题的科学出版物数量逐年增多。

为应对逐渐增长的关于寒地疾病和医学问题的需求，《寒地医学（英文）》应运而生，填补了该领域的空白。“寒地”是指冬季平均气温低于0℃的地区。因此，寒地医学指的是与寒冷天气有关的健康问题的医学研究和实践。本刊已被纳入中国科协支持的 "中国科技期刊卓越行动计划 "中的 "高起点新期刊 "项目。

《寒地医学（英文）》旨在为世界各地的医护人员和基础研究人员搭建高端的国际医学科学平台，传播基础、预防、临床和转化研究方面的前沿科学思想、高端研究技术、和最新的科学信息，从而吸引全世界对寒区疾病的多学科研究和临床应用的关注。

《寒地医学（英文）》的报道范围包括所有与寒区疾病和相关主题有关的亚专业，包括但不限于基础研究、非传染性疾病、内科学疾病、精神疾病、心脏疾病、风湿病、呼吸疾病、血管疾病、高原病、冻伤、老年健康和卫生政策等方面。期刊欢迎研究类文章、论著、综述、指南与共识、病例报告、社论、评论、研究方案和读者来信等形式的稿件。

《寒地医学（英文）》致力于为作者提供公平、快速、专业的同行评审，并将内容免费提供给读者。

编委会成员由国际研究人员和临床医生组成，在各自的领域有很高的专业成就、认可度和良好的声誉，并在出版服务和管理方面经验丰富。作为科学家，我们认为真实性高于一切。我们的编辑团队认为，现在科学比以往任何时候都需要可靠的机制，以最高标准和严格的同行评审程序来评估质量和真实性。我和我的编辑团队以及所有其他工作人员将满怀热情地努力实现本刊的目标，使之成为具有最高科学标准的世界级寒地医学期刊。

《寒地医学（英文）》已于2021年9月创刊。期刊立足于中国，面向世界各地的科学家。世界各地的科学家、同行和研究员们都可以欢迎加入我们，成为编委、审稿人或撰稿人。

欢迎大家浏览和支持《寒地医学（英文）》！