Editorial

Glenn Lopate
Department of Neurology, Washington University of St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA

The proposition to start a new journal is always a difficult one. However, the recent trend of open access journals has allowed publishers to expand the number of journals available to all scientists worldwide. The Directory of Open Access Journals¹ lists 522 medical journals and 94 neurological journals, but only one with a focus on neurodegeneration. This new journal, Degenerative Neurological and Neuromuscular Disease, published by Dove Medical Press, will hopefully be able to fill that void. The idea for this journal was inspired by the aging population and the frequent occurrence of neurodegenerative diseases in this large group of patients. According to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs,² in 1950 at the global level, 1 in 12 individuals was at least 60 years old and 1 in 20 was at least 65.  By 2050 those numbers are projected to be 1 in 5 over 60 years old and 1 in 6 over 65. A recent PubMed search supports the idea that neurodegenerative diseases are quite common, with almost 600 articles published in 2010 under the search terms degenerative neurological disease or degenerative neuromuscular disease, a 25% increase from the number published 10 years earlier.