(Toronto, September 18, 2025) JMIR Publications, the leading open-access digital health research publisher, and ZB Med, Germany’s national infrastructure and research hub for data and information in the life sciences, are pleased to announce that Witten/Herdecke University joined their Flat-Fee Unlimited Open Access Publishing Agreement. The addition of Witten/Herdecke to the consortia agreement was facilitated by Ulrike Weichern of KGL Accucoms.

Peer review is the bedrock of scientific publishing. It’s the essential process that ensures research is rigorous, ethical, and trustworthy before it reaches the wider world. While this process is often unseen, it’s driven by the dedication and hard work of thousands of volunteers.

During Peer Review Week 2025, we’re taking a moment to celebrate our incredible, real life, JMIR peer reviewers. They are at the heart of our mission to advance digital health research. We asked them to share their experiences and insights, and their reflections offer a powerful look into why they choose to give their time and expertise.

This Peer Review Week, we're doing something a little different. As the global theme, “Rethinking Peer Review in the AI Era,” takes center stage, we’ve decided to bring back a piece of content that is more relevant now than ever.

Last year, we published an insightful guide on the ethical integration of AI into the peer review process. This guide was born from the recognition that AI was not a future possibility, but a present reality. Today, as the conversation has shifted from "if" to "how" AI should be used, our guidance remains a crucial resource.

Below is our 2024 blog post, "Navigating the Intersection of AI and Peer Review: A Guide for Ethical Integration," reproduced in full. We invite you to read it again—or for the first time—and join us in the ongoing dialogue about how to harness the power of AI while upholding the integrity and human spirit of scholarly evaluation.

Technology is an increasingly critical part of mental health care - but does it  empower or exclude older adults? This is a growing concern, as this population often faces unique physical and psychosocial challenges, as well as barriersin accessing advanced technology.

For many patients, getting a prescription for a new medication often involves an extra step for their doctor: prior authorization (PA). This process, required by insurance companies, is intended to ensure safety and quality control. However, it can also create significant delays, contributing to provider frustration and, in some cases, negatively impacting patient care.

We are excited to introduce Mike Byer, our new Institutional Partnerships Lead dedicated to supporting university librarians. To help you get to know them better, we've prepared a Q&A session covering their background, goals, and how they plan to collaborate with the community.

Digital technology has become a lifeline for mental health support, offering accessible and affordable solutions for people who might otherwise have no access to care. However, simply creating a great digital platform isn't enough - you need people to use and engage with it. Without high adherence, even the most effective tool can't help those who need it most. This is particularly true for vulnerable and underserved populations, such as the millions of Ukrainian refugees displaced in the ongoing humanitarian crisis.

Promoting the mental well-being of young people is a top priority for municipalities in Sweden and around the world. It’s seen as one of the most effective ways to ensure a high quality of life for future generations and manage healthcare costs. However, mental well-being is influenced by a complex web of factors, and different municipal departments often collect different kinds of data, making it difficult to get a complete picture.

eHealth holds a great deal of promise, offering solutions from virtual reality for pain management to wearable devices for continuous health monitoring. But turning these innovations into reality is far from simple. It requires a delicate and often complex mix of collaboration between different organizations, from tech companies and academic institutions to hospitals and government bodies.

Digital technologies have transformed the way we access information and services. In the world of parenting, they offer a powerful way to provide support to families, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). However, developing a program that works for diverse cultures and contexts is a complex challenge.