Portland’s Maine Medical Center has published the inaugural issue of a biannual journal that it says is the state’s first and only peer-reviewed medical journal dedicated to original research in the health sciences.

The Journal of Maine Medical Center’s first issue contains 14 articles in the areas of research, patient safety and quality improvement, innovation highlights and case reports, as well as five supplements pulled from research posters developed by clinicians and students, the hospital said in a news release.

“The breadth and quality of the research detailed in the (journal) speaks to the importance of Maine Medical Center’s academic mission, and to the innovative thinking that our colleagues are doing here in Maine and beyond,” said Dr. Robert Bing-You, vice president of medical education at Maine Med and editor-in-chief of the journal. “One of our main goals in this undertaking was to help develop early-career health care colleagues as published researchers.”

The journal is free and can be accessed online at mmc.org/jmmc. Maine Med said it is currently accepting submissions for the journal’s second edition.