RJLM aims to restore a long-standing tradition of scientific publishing? activity related to legal medicine in Romania, which began in 1884 when Professor Alexandru Sutzu (1837-1919), a prominent psychiatrist and forensic pathologist, founded his short-lived Journal of Psychiatry and Legal Medicine.
In 1890 legal medicine split from psychiatry under the powerful drive of professor Mina Minovici (1858-1933,) known as the father of the institutional legal medicine system in Romania. In 1892 he founded the first Institute of Legal Medicine in our country, a modern and well-known forensic and legal medicine institution in Europe at that time.
However, it was his brother, professor Nicolae Minovici (1868-1941), who set the threshold in publishing and editorial work, as much as in sharing scientific data and building professional bonds; he was a famous forensic pathologist as well, and also Director of the Mina Minovici Institute of Legal Medicine; he founded in 1936 the scientific and professional organization of Legal Medicine Society with its reborn Journal of Legal Medicine as the official Journal of the Scientific Society. The Journal instantly became the platform for legal medicine in Romania. The Journal of Legal medicine edited by Nicolae Minovici covered all legal medicine achievements in Romania until 1940, when it came to an abrupt end due to the imminence of the Second World War.
In 1961-1981 a new publication of legal medicine emerges in Romania to fill the scientific gap and to strive to reunite the professional body and all valid scientific interests, named Documentary Bulletin for Judicial Medicine and Criminalistics, renamed later on Problems of Legal medicine and Criminalistics.
Legal medicine suffered a serious blow in 1985, when the Institute of Legal Medicine founded by professor Mina Minovici was demolished by the political regime of that time, the legal medicine system was scattered among hospitals, and the Scientific Society and all scientific publications were closed.
Nevertheless, in 1993 a promising new era began when the Romanian Society of Legal Medicine reorganized, with the rejuvenated Romanian Journal of Legal Medicine as its official Journal: a rebirth from the ashes of the Journal of Legal Medicine from 1936-1940. Year after year, the scientific standards of the Romanian Journal of Legal Medicine rose under the leadership of professor Dan Dermengiu as its editor.
In 2007 it become indexed in the ISI Thomson Reuters database.
The Journal has been recently reorganized in August 2016. A new editorial board is determined to work hard to keep the Journal on its ascending course, so it can continue to manifest itself prominently in the scientific and publishing world.
It is our intention that the RJLM should reflect all forensic and legal medicine specialties (forensic medicine and pathology, clinical legal medicine, forensic serology and genetics, forensic toxicology, forensic psychiatry, forensic anthropology, identification, mass disasters, etc.), and many other topics such as investigation and causes of death, suicide, death in custody, torture, prejudice evaluation, child abuse and interpersonal violence, domestic violence, casualty, professional decision making, malpractice issues, medical ethics, research ethics, consent, confidentiality, patient-doctor relationship issues, euthanasia, human rights, etc.
Legal medicine has scientific connections with many other medical specialties, such as cardiology, ophthalmology, surgery, pathology, anesthesiology, plastic surgery, etc., either due to the need to determine the cause of death or triggered by professional litigation claims. The peer-reviewed Romanian Journal of Legal Medicine is published quarterly by the Romanian Society of Legal Medicine as its official publication. The editing of RJLM is carried out with the assistance of a Board appointed by the Editor-in-chief. We value and honor our Professors, their experience and their strive to pass on the scientific legacy of this specialty.
The Romanian Journal of Legal Medicine can be looked upon as a scientific symbol of our tradition, hopes and ideals such as justice, scientific truth, the protection of vulnerable persons and human rights.
Editor-in-chief
James Alfred "Alf" Wight, OBE, FRCVS (3 October 1916 – 23 February 1995), known by the pen name James Herriot, was a British veterinary surgeon and writer, who used his many years of experiences as a veterinary surgeon to write a series of books each consisting of stories about animals and their owners.[1] He is best known for these semi-autobiographical works, beginning with All Creatures Great and Small in 1972. The British television series adapted from the books is also titled All Creatures Great and Small. ro
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