“Exposome” – a new field, a new journal

The exposome is now recognised as a critical driver of human health and disease. The journal “Exposome”, published by Oxford Academic and officially launched in March 2021, seeks to publish cutting edge research that contributes and extends our understanding of the human exposome, which can be defined as all the exposures of an individual in a lifetime, their biological manifestations, and how the exposures and effects relate to health.

On the decision to launch the journal, the Editor in Chief, Gary Millar, writes, “It was clear that the exposome needed an academic home. In 2020, the European Commission committed over 100 000 000 euros to the European Human Exposome Network, and a wide variety of exposome programs, centres, and research projects have been launched on every continent. These efforts will be yielding a massive amount of data and ultimately scientific stories in the form of manuscripts. When one fuses multiple approaches together the result often does not neatly fit into an exposure science journal, an epidemiology journal, a toxicology journal, or a bioinformatics journal.

Part of the goal of “Exposome” is to show the scientific community that the exposome can be defined, that it can be measured, and that it can be quantified. We want to demonstrate that the exposome can be integrated into a multiomic framework that exists in biomedical research community. We want to demonstrate that it can be integrated into models that capture satellite-based remote sensing, monitoring stations in our cities, and personal sensors to capture the complex exposures we are facing.