About the Journal

Trends and Reviews in Medicine and Biomedical Engineering (TRMBE) is a peer-reviewed review journal. It publishes review articles only. The journal does not publish original research articles, case reports, or short communications reporting new experimental data. Every article in TRMBE is a synthesis, appraisal, or critical assessment of existing evidence at the intersection of clinical medicine, the life sciences, and engineering.

Why a Journal of Reviews

TRMBE was founded on a simple observation. Biomedical knowledge is now produced faster than any researcher, clinician, or engineer can absorb it. Primary studies accumulate across imaging, biomaterials, medical devices, computational medicine, and clinical therapeutics, scattered across literatures with their own vocabularies, methods, and standards of evidence. Under these conditions the critical review is not a secondary genre. It is one of the main ways a field comes to understand what it knows, what remains uncertain, and where it should go next.

Most journals treat reviews as an occasional supplement to original research. TRMBE reverses that order. By devoting itself entirely to review scholarship, the journal can hold every submission to the standards that reviews deserve: rigorous literature identification, transparent appraisal, and a synthesis that advances understanding rather than restating it. The journal's editors and reviewers are selected for their expertise in evidence synthesis as well as in their subject areas.

We treat a review not as a catalogue of earlier studies but as a scholarly argument. A good review is built on careful selection and critical appraisal of evidence. It is honest about the limits of that evidence, and it gives readers a clearer view of the field than they had before.

Editorial Philosophy

Four principles guide the journal's editorial judgment.

Synthesis, not summary. Listing what has been published is not enough. We look for reviews that set findings against one another and explain why results diverge. The strongest reviews propose conceptual frameworks that bring order to fragmented bodies of work.

Methodological transparency. A review's conclusions are only as credible as the process that produced them. Authors should explain how the literature was identified, selected, and evaluated, so that readers can judge how complete and how biased the synthesis may be.

Translational perspective. Medicine and biomedical engineering meet where discovery becomes practice. We value reviews that follow ideas along the full path from mechanism to prototype, from prototype to clinical validation, and from validation to adoption. We particularly welcome attention to the regulatory, economic, and ethical conditions that decide whether an innovation actually reaches patients.

Forward orientation. The word Trends in the journal's title is a commitment. We encourage authors to go beyond describing the current state of a field. A review should identify turning points, unresolved controversies, and methodological blind spots, and it should set out a reasoned agenda for future research.

Article Types

TRMBE accepts review-based scholarship only. Original research articles, case reports, and data-reporting communications are returned without review.

Accepted formats are:

  • Comprehensive critical reviews — in-depth, argument-driven assessments of a field or major question;
  • Systematic reviews, with or without meta-analysis;
  • Scoping reviews — mapping the extent and nature of evidence in an emerging area;
  • Umbrella reviews — overviews of existing systematic reviews;
  • Mini-reviews — focused syntheses on a narrowly defined question;
  • Trends articles — concise, forward-looking syntheses of fast-moving areas, written for readers who need to understand where a field is heading.

Authors uncertain whether a manuscript fits the journal's remit are welcome to submit a presubmission inquiry to the editorial office.

Scope

Within its review-only remit, TRMBE welcomes work across the full range of medicine and biomedical engineering, especially where the two meet. Areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Biomaterials and regeneration: biomaterials, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine, including biofabrication and cell–material interactions.
  • Imaging and diagnostics: medical imaging, image analysis, and computational diagnostics across modalities and clinical specialties.
  • Devices and sensing: medical devices, implants, and biosensors, including wearable, implantable, and point-of-care technologies.
  • Biomechanics and rehabilitation: biomechanics, rehabilitation engineering, prosthetics, and assistive technologies.
  • Neural engineering: neurotechnology, neuromodulation, and brain–computer interfaces.
  • Drug delivery and nanomedicine: drug delivery systems, nanomedicine, and engineered therapeutics.
  • Data-driven medicine: artificial intelligence, machine learning, and digital health in clinical research and care, including critical assessments of validation, generalizability, and bias.
  • Clinical medicine: evidence syntheses across medical specialties, particularly where new technologies are changing diagnosis, treatment, or how care is delivered.
  • Translational and regulatory science: health technology assessment, implementation science, and the ethics of biomedical innovation.

Standards of Evidence and Reporting

Because reviews are the journal's sole output, TRMBE expects every manuscript to meet the reporting and methodological standards appropriate to its design:

  • Systematic reviews and meta-analyses should follow the PRISMA 2020 statement. Prospective registration of the protocol (for example, in PROSPERO) is strongly encouraged.
  • Scoping reviews should follow PRISMA-ScR.
  • Where appropriate, authors should assess risk of bias and certainty of evidence using established tools such as GRADE.
  • Narrative and critical reviews should also describe their approach to identifying and selecting the literature, so that readers can see the scope and limits of the synthesis.

All manuscripts undergo [double-blind] peer review by independent experts. Reviewers assess not only accuracy and completeness but also the originality of the synthesis and its value to the field.

Readership

TRMBE is written for researchers, clinicians, engineers, and graduate students who need a reliable and critical account of fields beyond their immediate specialty. It also serves research leaders, funders, and policymakers who depend on well-reasoned syntheses to set priorities. By publishing reviews that are rigorous in method and clear in argument, the journal aims to shorten the distance between the growth of knowledge and its understanding, and between engineering innovation and clinical benefit.

Journal Information

  • Online ISSN: 3068-1863
  • Publisher: INATGI
  • Article types: Review articles only
  • Publication frequency: Quarterly
  • Access model: Open access under CC BY 4.0
  • Peer review: Single-blind
  • Article processing charge: $500
  • Language: English