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Medical Journals
SHANKAR P R
ABSTRACT
The open access initiative has revolutionized the field of publishing. Many
journals are following a system of open peer review where the reviewer and
the author know each other’s identity. Many journals offer personalized work
areas to registered authors. PLoS one has started the system of post-
publication peer review of published articles.
Article proofs and reprints of published articles are usually sent online.
BioMedCentral publishes an article immediately on acceptance. “Online early”
is a system followed by many journals to decrease publication delays. Blogs
allow for informal communication and quicker publication of responses.
Key words: Indexing, Internet, medical journals, open access, open choice
Medical journals have undergone a number of website, and have web presence. A journal
changes over the years. In the recent past, the website is a one-stop shop for information about
pace of these changes has accelerated. The the journal. The subject area of the journal,
internet has revolutionized most aspects of information on the editorial board, instructions
biomedical communication, including for authors and contact details are all available
biomedical journals. on the journal site. Many big publishing houses
like Springer (www.springer.com), Taylor and
Journal Websites Francis (www.tandf.co.uk/journals), and
Most medical journals have an established Elsevier (www.elsevier.com) maintain their own
group websites, which contain links to the
Department of Pharmacology, Manipal College of Medical various journals published by the house. One
Sciences, Pokhara, Nepal can search for journals by name or by subject
Corresponding author: Dr. P. Ravi Shankar. Manipal category. Many sites allow browsing of journal
College of Medical Sciences, P. O. Box 155, Deep Heights, lists alphabetically.
Pokhara, Nepal.
Tel.: 00977-61-440600; e-mail: ravi.dr.shankar@gmail.com Manuscript Submission Process
times, an article has been cited, can also be Certain journals like PLoS and Journal of
determined. Clinical and Diagnostic Research
(www.jcdr.net) send a preliminary version of the
Post-publication Peer Review manuscript with major editions and changes
PLoS One (www.plosone.org), an open access being in the Microsoft word format, before they
journal published by PloS, offers the option of send the final PDF proof for copyediting.
post publication peer review. The reader can
mark and annotate a manuscript, and these Publication after Acceptance
annotations are accessible to, and can be BioMedCentral publishes a manuscript
responded to by the author. The readers can rate immediately on acceptance, and the provisional
various articles and the ratings are publicly PDF file which was generated from your word
accessible. document is placed on the site. PLoS One
usually publishes your manuscript within fifteen
Print on Demand days of acceptance. To offset the long delay
Nearly all journals allow readers to freely print associated with publishing a manuscript after its
the HTML and PDF versions of the articles. acceptance, many journals have a feature called
However, certain journals have a system called ‘Online early’. The manuscript is published
Print on Demand (POD), which allows the online on the site, and is accessible to
author or the reader to order high quality reprints subscribers and readers before it is published
of the manuscript. formally in a particular issue.
They also provide information about the top ten Manuscript Processing Charges
highly accessed articles during a particular time A problem for authors from developing
period, and for the time period since the journal countries is the processing fee that has begun to
was started. A similar service is also offered by be charged by many journals for processing a
JCDR. manuscript. The fee is not returnable if your
manuscript is rejected!
Publication in Different Languages
The Journal of the International Association of Indexing systems
Medical Science Educators Many countries have started their own indexing
(www.iamse.org/jiamse) is brought out in three system for medical journals. Among the most
languages, English, French and Spanish. Certain famous is Pubmed (www.pubmed.com) of the
other journals offer abstracts in various National Library of Medicine of the United
languages. States. Hubmed (www.hubmed.org) offers an
alternative interface to Pubmed. IndMed
Rapid Responses (www.indmed.nic.in) and PakMediNet
Journals like PLoS Medicine (www.pakmedinet.com/) are two of the country
(www.plosmedicine.org) and many others offer specific systems. African Journals Online
readers the option of ‘Rapid Responses’ or ‘e (www.ajol.info/) offers access to many journals
letters’ to a published article. You just have to published from the African Continent. SCIELO
fill in an online form with an enforced word or (www.scielo.org/) offers access to many journals
character limit, and the letters are moderated and published in the Spanish language.
then published on the site within 2 to 3 days.
Many journals offer the facility of delivery of Journal Impact Factors
the Table of Contents of new issues to your mail The Impact factor was devised by Eugene
box. Garfield, the founder of the Institute for
Scientific Information, now part of Thomson, a
Prepublication Sites large worldwide US-based publisher. Impact
Prepublication sites like ClinMed Netprints factors are calculated each year by Thomson
(http://clinmed.netprints.org/), started by the Scientific for those journals which it indexes,
BMJ publishing group, High Wire press, and and the factors and indices are published in
Stanford University, allow researchers to post Journal Citation Reports.
their manuscripts on the site before publication (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_factor).
in a journal. The site is currently not accepting The impact factor for a journal is calculated,
new submissions. Prepublication sites have not based on a three-year period, and can be
become very popular in Medicine, unlike in considered to be the average number of times
other areas of science. Many journals consider published papers are cited, up to two calendar
placing a manuscript on a pre print site as dual years after publication (including the calendar
publication. Many journals offer the option of year in which it was published).
fast tracking for especially important articles.
Free Access to Biomedical Journals
Magazines Services like HINARI (www.who.int/hinari/en),
The manuscript management system allows the Free medical journals
author to track the paper through various stages (www.freemedicaljournals.com) and Directory
of the review process. Journals like the Clinical of Open Access Journals (www.doaj.org/), allow
Teacher (www.theclinicalteacher.com) are researchers in developing countries, access to a
midway between a journal and a magazine, and number of journals. PubMed Central
are especially readable. The publication quality (www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/) offers free full
of the Clinical Teacher is excellent, and the text access to journals, which are archived at the
photographs add to the general interest and site. Google scholar (http://scholar.google.com)
readability. The Meducator lets the searcher know how many times a
(www.meducational.com/journal/), another particular article has been cited by others. It also
magazine type journal in the field of medical allows the reader to access journals whose full
education, is however, no longer published. text is freely available online.