Journal of Bone and Mineral Research (JBMR) 40th anniversary celebration: the beginning and first decade

“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” (5 February 1675) Sir Isaac Newton, FRS (1643-1727) Publication of the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research (JBMR) was launched 40 yr ago in February 1986 as a result of the determined and courageous efforts of leaders of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR). These leaders (Figure 1), who were giants in our field, had the vision and foresight to establish a society-led journal that would capture the rapid acceleration in research on bone biology and skeletal disease that had begun in the late 1970s. The ensuing 4 decades saw major developments in molecular biology, genetics, genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, structural biology, drug design, experimental medicine, statistical methodology, and clinical trials, and we, as researchers and investigators in these disciplines, have been able to stand on the shoulders of our ASBMR giants and publish high quality papers in JBMR, and establish JBMR as the leading journal in musculoskeletal biology and medicine. To celebrate this momentous 40th year of JBMR and the outstanding scientific, translational and clinical advances in musculoskeletal system and mineral metabolism that have been published in JBMR, we (editors-in-chief [EiCs]) and first chair of the publications committee (Figure 2) have selected over 40 seminal JBMR articles and provided commentaries that encapsulate the excitement and importance of the reported discoveries. These commentaries and reflections will be published as a series of 7 articles between January and July 2026.