On May 14, 2025, at the International Conference on Integrated Care (ICIC25) in Lisbon, Portugal, we celebrated the 25th anniversary of the International Journal of Integrated Care (IJIC) [1]. This was an opportunity to reflect on the Journal’s history and growth, the contribution that it has made to our understanding of integrated care, and to examine future issues and challenges.
The debate re-iterated the importance of integrated care to the advancement of global public health, especially for populations to which current care systems do a major disservice, but it also re-enforced the need for a scientific periodical to provide the underpinning to the integrated care movement. Yet, we acknowledged that fundamental gaps exist in our knowledge, not least and crucially, in our ability to measure and understand the impact of integrated care and how best to implement it [2].
Beginnings
The International Journal of Integrated Care (IJIC) has Dutch origins. It came about in the late 1990s from the coming together of two innovations. First, the University Library Utrecht – under the leadership of Bas Savanije – was an early adopter of digital publishing through its Igitur service. In looking for a ‘pilot’ journal to test out its e-publishing platform, integrated care as the subject was driven by the pioneering work of Prof Guus Schrijvers from the University Medical Centre in Utrecht.
In 2000, an international gathering of experts in integrated care was convened to help establish the Journal. This was held in Almere, Netherlands, where an integrated primary and social care system was being socially engineered to support the ‘new towns’ of the planned municipality. Hosted by the CEO of Care Group Almere, Hans van Oosterbos, the delegates enjoyed learning first-hand about the integrated care system, one of the first to advocate for community health services embedded in local neighbourhoods [3].
My own part in the story begins here. An invitation to the gathering had been sent to Professor Sir Chris Ham, then Director of the Health Services Management Centre at the University of Birmingham, UK and the leading international scholar on integrated care at the time. As a mid-career researcher doing some early work on the implementation of integrated care programs [4] the opportunity was offered for me to attend _ a career defining moment if ever there was one.
At this first meeting (retrospectively ICIC1) the ambition to create a digital only, open-access, peer-reviewed journal was established. It would seek to publish original articles from across the world to document the trends, developments and latest findings from research, policy and practice and so to make integrated care more ‘evidence-based’.
In the early years, the Journal focused on bringing together its small but emerging network of academics into regular meetings to develop and discuss ‘full papers’ for publication. I vividly recall such meetings in Maastricht (2001) and Strasbourg (2002) _ the detailed presentation and debate had such a different pace and style to today’s PowerPoint era! But they had impact. For example, the long debate with Prof Dennis Kodner and Prof Cor Spreeuwenberg on the meaning and logic of integrated care resulted in a paper with a now well-cited definition, and the article is still worth the read [5].
We were all asked to contribute one paper in these early days, and my own effort reviewed the impact of successive experiments in the development of primary care organisations in England [6]. It concluded that these had not advanced integrated care, but that there was a clear policy progression towards functionally integrating primary and community health care with social services. This is a journey that England is still making (and remaking) with the current emphasis on the curation of place-based partnerships within its Integrated Care Systems [7].
The Journal has now been around long enough to detect the cyclical nature of integrated care policy. The ‘Wheel of Time’, in which integrated care comes in and out of favour like the tide, reflects the difficulty of developing and sustaining such solutions. Past lessons become forgotten, corporate memory lost, and so previous implementation errors are prone to play on repeat. In the beginning, our Journal was created with the express purpose of developing the ’evidence-base’ to address this, so its mission is as relevant today as it was then.
A Foundation in the Making
In stark contrast to today where the Journal regularly receives over 300 submissions annually, it struggled in its early years to generate papers. To address this, the idea to grow a scientific network of scholars was created that led to the International Network of Integrated Care (INIC). INIC was officially launched at ICIC4 at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens and included the wider intent to build knowledge networks, educational programs and research partnerships that could lead to more ‘science’ (and hence more articles!). The Journal’s story, therefore, from this point also becomes that of the Foundation.
At the first meeting of the INIC group in Birmingham we discussed as much about the principles and ambitions of what we were setting out to do as how we were going to do it. As the purpose to bring people together to advance integrated care in policy and practice internationally was created, it was Esko Hanninen _ then Director of the National R&D Centre for Welfare and Health (STAKES) in Finland _ who said ‘so what you are really talking about is creating a movement for change’ so coining IFIC’s tagline!
I also clearly recall Ingvar Karlberg, Professor of Health Services at the Nordic School of Health, being clear that we must be objective _ so brave enough to continually question our own beliefs and ensure that the science is respected. The meeting provided the emerging blueprint for what a Foundation might look like and what it should stand for, and a spark in my own head on how this could be created, managed and led.
From around 2005-2009 the three Dutch Universities of Utrecht, Maastricht and Groningen established the first Foundation. Whilst the University Library was still generously subsidising operations, the ambition to become self-financing over time was created. Business then fell into a working pattern in which INIC coordinated the annual conferences and events in partnership with its members and advocates, a process that supported the awareness and growth of the Journal.
Transitions and transformations
By 2009, the University Library announced the need to transition from generous benefactor to service provider. This meant the first Foundation needed to dissolve and so leadership fell to Prof. Schrijvers’ team at the Julius Centre, UMC Utrecht. In 2011, with Guus retiring from his position as Chair of Public Health and with no further institutional backing available, it became ‘touch and go’ as to whether the Journal and Network would survive.
Memory of the discussions and decisions that followed are hazy. Certainly, doubts were expressed on whether integrated care was too niche a topic on which to continue. Yet, it became clear that none of us wanted to see things end, leading to the fateful decision to take matters into our own hands and so quickly establish the International Foundation for Integrated Care as an independent Dutch Stichting under which the Journal would be formally supported. No formal business plan, no seed funding, rudimentary governance, offices located in the back bedroom _ but bags full of intent, a clear set of values and principles, a sprinkling of entrepreneurial spirit, and a very large measure of support from key people within IFIC’s network who helped make things happen.
A core task for the newly minted Foundation was to develop a business model to support the Journal. Author fees for open-access publishing, now largely accepted across the academic community, had already been discussed and established at IJIC. To justify this, the Library had worked tirelessly to revise its on-line product so that the Journal could be accepted into the major citation indexes. The process significantly improved the quality and presentation of its papers, the peer review process, its governance, and enable it to gain an impacting rating.
As the work of the Foundation took off, so did the popularity of the Journal. Indeed, the growing volume of submissions led to a growth in the number of editors and associate editors invited to support it. Success, however, came with a price as the Library felt it was no longer capable of supporting the Journal due to its rapid growth and administrative demands. A professional open access publisher was required _ so leading to another transition year as the Journal progressed to its current home with Ubiquity Press.
Growth and sustainability
For the past decade the Journal has continued to grow in its reach and impact and has become the self-sustaining entity that both contributes to, and benefits by, its embedded relationship with the Foundation. A part of this growth has enabled more attention to be placed on effective policies for inclusion and diversity, most recently through the engagement of editors with lived experience.
It has also enabled a democratisation process in how the Journal operates, so taking it a step closer to the beneficiaries that it serves. One part of this was the creation of co-Editors in Chief to provide more distributed leadership, energy and innovation in how the Journal operates. Today, the Journal thrives under such a format led by the quartet of A/Prof Viktoria Stein, Prof Robin Miller, Dr Edelweiss Aldasoro and Dr Michelle Nelson. The ability to mirror in our own practices the approaches that we would advocate in the advancement of integrated care represents a culture of deep integrity to our theme and mission.
At the time of writing, IJIC continues to reach new heights on its journey. In 2024 it achieved: 635,207 full text reviews and downloads from PubMed Central; 242,000 unique visitors to our IJIC website; a competitive Impact Rating of 2.6; and ranking as a Category 1 journal in the fields of Health Policy and Health (Social Science).
On Whose Shoulders we Stand
The progress of our Journal over these past 25 years has been built upon the work and achievements of so many people. It is an impossible task to name all of those who have contributed to our journey. By singling out some of the contributions in this blog it is naturally at the expense of others just as deserving. Nor can adequate expression be made to the level of gratitude and recognition necessary to celebrate all those who paved the way for the Journal, and the Foundation, to succeed.
Yet, it is important to recognise the contributions of those who provided their professional lives to the Journal’s endeavours. Since the Journal could not operate without its Managing Editors, we celebrate here the work of Stephanie Helfferich (2000-2003), Erika Manten (2003-2010), Dr Lourdes Ferrer (2010-12) and Susan Royer (2012-present) including a special thank you to Dr Saskia Franken for overseeing our project at the University Library Utrecht for over a decade.
We also thank those who took on the responsibility to build the Journal’s academic and professional networks, especially the co-ordinators of the International Network of Integrated Care in Jennifer Smith (2004-2008) and Clarine Sies (2008-2012). For the past decade, Fiona Lyne (2013-present) and her communication team at IFIC have continued to support and promote the Journal even as the breadth and depth of the Foundation’s global reach has grown exponentially.
Finally, thanks must go to the incredible work of the many individuals who served on the Editorial Board of the Journal who gave their time both freely and generously. To the many associate editors and reviewers for keeping the wheels of the peer review process going, and of course to the authors for choosing IJIC as an outlet for their work and the readers for tuning in.
It was great to celebrate the Journal’s achievements on its 25th anniversary in Lisbon, and to have the honour of a special recognition award for my part in that journey as I step down from the Editor in Chief role. New chapters of the Journal will be written, and I look forward to continuing to be a part of them.
Professor Nicholas Goodwin
Centre for Research in Health System Performance (CRiHSP)
National University of Singapore
Conjoint Professor, College of Health Medicine & Wellbeing, University of Newcastle, Australia
Conjoint Scholar, Central Coast Local Health District, NSW, Australia
Research Affiliate, Leeder Centre, University of Sydney
Biographical Note
Prof Nick Goodwin was co-Founder and first CEO of IFIC from 2011-2019. At IJIC he has acted as Associate Editor (2000-2002), Editor (2002-2011) and Editor in Chief (2011-2025) and was Chair of the International Network of Integrated Care from 2004-2011. Nick is currently an IFIC Senior Associate, Chair of IFIC Australia and remains an Editor at IJIC.
After 6 years as Inaugural Director of the Central Coast Research Institute for Integrated Care (2019-25) in Australia, Nick is taking on a position as Visiting Professor at the Centre for Research into Health System Performance (CRiHSP), Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore. Nick holds positions as Conjoint Professor at the University of Newcastle and Honorary Conjoint Scholar at Central Coast Local Health District, Australia.
References
[1] ICIC 25 Sub-Plenary Session, Celebrating 25 Years of the International Journal of Integrated Care, Lisbon, Portugal. Available to view at https://integratedcarefoundation.org/sig_groups/community-enabled-integrated-care-sig
[2] Goodwin N. How to Implement: The Need to Address a Fundamental Weakness in the Science of Integrated Care. International Journal of Integrated Care, 2025; 25(2): 21, 1–4. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/ijic.9852
[3] van Oosterbos, H. (2006) The future of integrated primary care: community health centres at the heart of the neighbourhood, International Journal of Integrated Care, 6(2), p. null. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/ijic.151
[4] Goodwin N, Shapiro J (2001) The road to integrated care working. Health Services Management Centre, University of Birmingham
[5] Kodner DL, Spreeuwenberg C (2002) Integrated care: meaning, logic, applications, and implications – a discussion paper’, International Journal of Integrated Care, 2(4), p. null. Available at: https://doi.org/10.5334/ijic.67
[6] Goodwin, N. (2001) The long-term importance of English primary care groups for integration in primary health care and deinstitutionalisation of hospital care, International Journal of Integrated Care, 1(1), p. null. Available at: https://doi.org/10.5334/ijic.20
[7] Ross S, Blythe N, Jabbal J, Nwasike C (2025) Place based partnerships. Challenges and opportunities, The King’s Fund, London. Available at: https://assets.kingsfund.org.uk/f/256914/x/41a2e8484a/place_based_partnerships_report.pdf
Prof Aine Carroll (IFIC Chair) and A/Prof Viktoria Stein (co Editor in Chief, IJIC) presenting a special recognition award at the ICIC25 conference dinner to Prof Nick Goodwin for his 25-year contribution to the International Journal of Integrated Care.