Today marks a new era of open access publishing in eating disorders. Eating disorders affect millions of people of all ages in the world, and are associated with multiple health conditions such as obesity, which is predicted to affect at least 50% of adults by 2050.

Despite the wealth of research and knowledge within the field of eating disorders, many gaps still exist. Further research needs to be undertaken to refine existing treatments to make them more effective, and to develop and adapt existing treatment protocols which may not work for all patients.

Journal of Eating Disorders (JoED), edited by Professors Phillipa Hay and Stephen Touyz, is a new open-access peer-reviewed journal that aims to disseminate research that provides answers to the important issues and key challenges in the field of eating disorders and to facilitate translation of evidence into practice. The journal welcomes research on all aspects of eating disorders and related areas.

Three research articles are published in JoED today. The first one is a large-scale study on the role of perfectionism in body dissatisfaction in adult women by Tracey Wade and Marika Tiggemann. Findings from a study led by Janet Latner and colleagues suggest that internalized weight bias is associated with greater impairment in Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) in treatment-seeking overweight and obese individuals. A systematic study by Nerissa Soh and Garry Walter suggests that there is an urgent need to increase eating disorders research in non-Western cultures.

Ramsay Mental Health has generously sponsored prizes for accepted papers in the inaugural year of the Journal of Eating Disorders. Further details can be found here.

All articles and the launch editorial from the co-Editors-in-Chief are now available online. Visit our website and sign up for article alerts. You can also follow us @JEatDisord.