• Reflection

The year 2016 has seen some major events and unexpected results on the international stage, such as the ‘Yes’ vote for Brexit in the UK, the Syrian refugee crisis in Europe and the US Presidential election. It is not yet clear what impact these results could have on worker health, but anticipated changes to international trade and immigration could impact on the health and well-being of workers, especially those in unskilled and semiskilled, lower paid and more precarious jobs.

The past year has also seen some important changes at Occupational and Environmental Medicine (OEM). In June, we were pleased to discover that the impact factor for OEM had increased from 3.215 to 3.745, its highest value ever. While the impact factor for OEM has been consistently above three over the past 6 years, over the past couple of years there have been stepwise increases to its current level. While we acknowledge the limitations of the impact factor as a measure of the true importance of a scientific journal,1 it is the measure which is most recognised internationally and is an important consideration when authors are deciding where they will send their articles.

During 2016, we …