New open‑access journal on digital medicine

Digital medicine now has another dedicated publishing venue: ACS Publications and Southeast University launched the open-access journal *Digital Medical Engineering* in April 2026. (cen.acs.org) The journal is peer-reviewed and will publish research that combines digital technologies, engineering and healthcare, according to ACS Publications’ April 8 announcement. ACS said Gaolin Liang, a chair professor in Southeast University’s School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, is the inaugural editor-in-chief. (axial.acs.org) In plain terms, this field covers software and connected tools used in care: mobile health apps, artificial intelligence systems, remote monitoring, virtual care platforms and other technologies that collect data or help doctors make decisions. Nature’s *npj Digital Medicine*, another open-access journal in the area, describes its scope as digital and mobile technologies, virtual healthcare, artificial intelligence and informatics. (nature.com) Open access means readers do not need a subscription to read the papers online. ACS says its open-science program includes fully open-access journals and institutional agreements with more than 2,000 institutions, representing over 30% of its academic journal subscribers. (acsopenscience.org, acsopenscience.org) The launch adds a formal outlet for researchers working between lab engineering and clinical medicine, a space that often spans several disciplines at once. ACS said the new journal is meant to convene researchers at the intersection of digital technologies, engineering and medicine. (axial.acs.org) That matters for a field that has grown faster than its publishing labels. PubMed now contains more than 40 million citations across biomedical literature, and established titles such as *npj Digital Medicine* already serve a broad digital-health audience. (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, nature.com) ACS is best known as a chemistry publisher, but it has been expanding its open-access portfolio across adjacent fields. Its open-science site lists a growing set of fully open-access journals, including multidisciplinary titles and subject journals that reach into biology, medicine, materials and engineering. (acsopenscience.org) Southeast University’s role also signals where ACS sees demand. The partner university houses a State Key Laboratory of Digital Medical Engineering, and ACS said the collaboration is intended to support research communities spanning academia, clinics and industry. (axial.acs.org) For researchers building sensors, algorithms or software for healthcare, the practical change is simple: there is now a new journal explicitly set up to take that work. ACS and Southeast University have opened submissions under a title built around digital medicine rather than folding the field into older, broader categories. (cen.acs.org, axial.acs.org)