Editorial: Hepatitis Monthly, an International Journal in the Field of Hepatology

1. hepatitis monthly, a short history: hepatitis monthly (hm), the thirteen-year-old publication of the baqiyatallah research center for gastroenterology and liver diseases, is a journal in the field of hepatology. the purpose of establishing this journal was to enhance the knowledge of gastroenterologists, hepatologists, internists, and infectious disease specialists regarding liver-related diseases, with a particular focus on hepatitis diseases. initially published four times per year, hm was changed by the editorial board to a monthly publication beginning in 2011, based on the number of manuscripts submitted to the journal. hm was indexed in web of science (wos) and scopus in 2007 and 2008, respectively. in 2009, it was listed in journal citation reports (jcr) and received its first impact factor (if) (0.716). it now ranks first among all iranian medical journals, as well as middle eastern journals, in the category of gastroenterology and hepatology.