Free Access Articles
Surging ahead
2017 was a very successful year for RBMOnline, most notably with the announcement of an Impact Factor of 3.249, the highest yet achieved by the journal since its inclusion in the ranking nearly 10 years ago, and matched by improvements in other ranking metrics such as CiteScore, Article Influence and SNIP. This outcome reflects the increased quality of the papers published in the journal and places it in sixth position in the ranking of reproductive biology titles. As part of the continuing development of the journal, we welcomed Richard Anderson to the team of editors (Anderson, 2017), joining Mina Alikani, Juan Garcia Velasco and Martin Johnson, and allowing the Chief Editor more time to focus on strategic considerations.Human-animal chimeras: circumventing rather than discussing ethical concerns comes at a price
This issue of RBMOnline features a highly interesting paper on chimeras intended for human gamete production by philosopher César Palacios-González (2017). The paper breaks new ground by linking two ethically charged scientific developments. Whilst several groups are aiming to create stem cell-derived gametes through tissue culture in the laboratory (Hendriks et al., 2015), others are working on interspecies chimeras as a possible future route to obtaining human stem cell-derived organs from animals, both for research and for transplantation purposes.First birth following spindle transfer for mitochondrial replacement therapy: hope and trepidation
In this issue, Zhang et al. (2017) report the birth of a healthy boy after mitochondrial replacement therapy (MRT) by spindle transfer to prevent transmission of mitochondrial disease from mother to child. The case was first publicized in the lay press (Hamzelou, 2016; see also editorial by Johnson, 2016) and then presented during the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Society for Assisted Reproduction (ASRM) in October 2016 (Zhang et al., 2016a). It followed an earlier report of an unsuccessful attempt at MRT by pronuclear transfer by the same group (Zhang et al., 2016b).Therapy for mitochondrial genetic disease: are we at the thin end of the wedge?
This issue contains a commentary by Tetsuya Ishii (Ishii, 2014) which raises a number of important ethical issues, some of which were also raised last year by Francoise Baylis in Reproductive Biomedicine Online (Baylis, 2013), and to which we responded then with a critical editorial (Johnson, 2013). Three letters, also in this issue, are likewise critical of Ishii's stand (Flinter, 2014; Norcross, 2014; Pennings, 2014). However, whilst we agree with all of the points made in these letters, on two of the issues raised by Ishii we do share some concerns that are not addressed in the letters.A patient perspective
Amongst the mass of official published data on assisted reproduction treatment (ART) outcomes, there is one noticeable omission: the cumulative pregnancy/birth rate (often inappropriately called ‘success rate’) of women undergoing serial IVF/ICSI treatments. Thus, no recent publications from the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA, 2012), National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE, 2013) or the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2012) provide such data for IVF (although data for donor insemination are presented; NICE, 2013, pp.Possible conflicts of interest in medical publishing
The issues raised by Norbert Gleicher in his provocative commentary on possible conflicts of interest in medical publishing (Gleicher, 2013) can stir deep-seated emotions. One must give serious attention to his comments, not least because the writer was himself an editor-in-chief for many years of the first specialized IVF journal, published in 1983 (Journal of In Vitro Fertilization and Embryo Transfer, renamed Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics in 1992). Indeed the issues raised are ones with which we and our publishers are regularly in debate.HFEA reprieved – For the moment!
In this issue, we publish three commentaries (English, 2013; Franklin, 2013; Murdoch, 2013) on the value and future of the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). The HFEA was established by the 1990 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act. It is “the UK’s independent regulator overseeing the use of gametes and embryos in fertility treatment and research. The HFEA licenses fertility clinics and centres carrying out in vitro fertilisation (IVF), other assisted conception procedures and human embryo research” (HFEA, 2013).Tri-parenthood – a simply misleading term or an ethically misguided approach?
Mitochondria replacement therapy, in which some or most of the environmentally aged or pathologically damaged mitochondria of an egg have either been refreshed (by ooplasm injection) or might be replaced (by pronuclear transplantation) with those from younger or undamaged ooplasm, is often described as giving rise to a tri-parentally derived child. Such therapies do not lack critics! Notwithstanding, on March 20th this year, the UK’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA; Johnson, 2013) reported its advice to the UK Government on mitochondrial replacement therapy (HFEA, 2013).Embryonic DNA sampling without biopsy: the beginnings of non-invasive PGD?
The clinical usefulness of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) and screening (PGS) may be imperative, but it is not without its shortcomings. A number of arguments, some reasoned and others not, have been put forth against these technologies. To avoid transmission of genetic disease, patients and their doctors who may consider assisted reproduction, often choose post-conception testing with the option of termination of an affected pregnancy rather than commit to PGD. Moreover, while PGS may offer a method of selection for chromosomally normal embryos, alternative embryo selection modalities are usually favored over this technique.Futures in reproduction
This editorial is written two days after the end of the Futures in Reproduction meeting, which commemorated the presentation of Bob Edwards’ Nobel prize exactly two years previously. The celebrations commenced on the morning of Friday 14 December 2012 at the University of Cambridge Physiological Laboratory, where members of the Department gathered with Bob’s family and former students for the unveiling of a commemorative plaque (pictured above) by Jenny Joy (Bob’s daughter) and Sophie Meakin (Bob’s grand daughter).Exciting futures
Welcome to a new year! As we write we are anticipating ending 2012 on the high of our Futures in Reproduction conference, held to celebrate the second anniversary of the award of the Nobel Prize to our founding emeritus editor, Bob Edwards. The meeting will take place at Churchill College, Cambridge in mid-December co-sponsored by RBM Online and the University of Cambridge. Speakers were asked to capture something of the radical, far-sighted, wide-ranging and challenging spirit of enquiry that characterizes Bob Edwards’ career: a strong focus on the exciting and unconventional being the highest tribute that we could pay to this remarkable man.The early history of evidence-based reproductive medicine
The origins of evidence-based medicine as understood today are traceable to 1972 and the publication of Archie Cochrane’s book Effectiveness and Efficiency: Random Reflections on Health Services. This book attempted to bridge the divide between scientific medicine and clinical judgment that had developed since the mid-19th century. Its genesis was stimulated by Cochrane’s experiences as a prisoner-of-war medical officer and of the demands placed after the 1939–1945 war on the UK National Health Service.Editors’ response: The uses and abuses of bibliometrics
The suggestion that this journal should provide information to readers on the geographical distribution of its published papers is under discussion with our publisher. The distribution by continent of papers published in Reproductive Biomedicine Online in 2011 is shown in Figure 1 below.Personhood: to be or when to be – is that the question?
The dictionary definition of personhood reads: ‘the quality or condition of being an individual person’, which does not advance our understanding of this term! Indeed, the concept of personhood has exercised philosophers for centuries, the state being variously, and disputedly, accorded the attributes of life, individuality, consciousness, agency, self-awareness, empathy, and/or the capacities to anticipate, remember, plan and choose – the capacity to exercise free will. How personhood is understood is of great significance, as, when conferred socio-legally on an individual, it carries with it privileges, protection and rights, together with responsibilities and liabilities – sometimes incorporated into the political and legal concept of citizenship.The uses and abuses of bibliometrics
Bibliographic databases provide us with easy access to many more journals than was possible when each of us editors started in science. We well remember the treks around libraries, the frustration of the missing volumes and the broken photocopier, the ‘reprint request’ post cards sent and received, and the bundling up of hard copy papers for posting to our colleagues. Now, at the press of a button, papers can be located, paid for (unless freely accessible), down loaded, filed – and sometimes even read! However, with this easy access to databases and papers come problems: notably the increased risk of deliberate or accidental plagiarism (Cohen et al., 2012) and the fact of information overload.Trophoblast tales
The placenta has to be the most complex organ in the body – genetically, functionally and structurally. It is uniquely complex genetically, comprising tissues of both maternal and fetal genotype in close apposition, as well as having a complex gene expression profile according to the parental epigenetic imprint inherited on selected genes. It is complex functionally in its sheer range of hormonal products, combining roles assigned to many or most other endocrine glands, and also in its transport systems, its physical anchoring role, and in its immunological properties.Bob Edwards and the first decade of Reproductive BioMedicine Online
This review celebrates the achievements of Bob Edwards – Founder of this journal, Editor Emeritus, and 2010 Nobel laureate for Physiology or Medicine. A glance through his life-time’s publications from 1954 to 2008 (Appendix, p. 112) reveals the extraordinary range of Bob’s intellectual curiosity and knowledge, and his at times almost mischievous determination to challenge conventional wisdom. We have selected 14 of his papers from the first decade of Reproductive BioMedicine Online to review here by way of illustration.The politics of human embryo research and the motivation to achieve PGD
This article reports a historical study of factors influencing the achievement of clinical preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) in 1990, 22 years after its first demonstration in animals. During the 1970s, research on PGD continued in large farm animals, but serious interest in human PGD was not evident until 1986. First, interest in PGD during the 1970s waned with the advent of prenatal testing, which for gynaecologists was clinically more familiar, technically simpler and ethically less challenging than IVF.
