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Title: The Trouble With Medical Journals
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Manufacturer: Royal Society of Medicine Press
List Price: $39.95
Our Price: $35.96
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| Customer Reviews: |
| The Trouble With Medical Journals by Royal Society of Medicine Press Engaging and Thoughtful | This is well written, engaging, and thoughtful book about the role of biomedical journals. The author was for many years the editor of the widely read British Medical Journal (BMJ) and head of the publishing group that puts out the BMJ and a number other journals. Smith presents a thorough discussion of major issues facing biomedical journals. This book has a personal flavor because Smith draws on his extensive personal experience as an editor and because he was personally involved a number of controversies related to biomedical journals. Smith's experience, however, is a bit atypical in 2 ways. As a general journal, the BMJ is somewhat different and more journalistically oriented than the majority of biomedical journals. The BMJ, unlike the great majority of journals, has full time professional editors where most journals are essentially run by volunteer academics.
Smith has a thoughtful discussions of a broad range of important topics such as the need to balance the demands of public interest with scientific issues defined narrowly, the variety of ethical problems facing journals, the tangled relationships between editors and publishers, and between industry and journals, and the changing nature of biomedical publishing.
I found the section on the economics of biomedical publishing to be the most interesting. Smith cites some remarkable data. The dominant biomedical publisher, Reed Elsevier, had profits of approximately 2 billion dollars with an impressively high margin. The largest fraction of these profits come from biomedical publishing. Smith points out the actually stunningly obvious reasons for these remarkable figures. The raw material of journals is submitted manuscripts for which journals have to pay nothing. Most journals are run by volunteer editors and editorial boards. From a publisher's point of view, this is a remarkably low over head business model. Smith points also to an almost complete lack of comptetion, a really impressive example of market failure. Smith has a thoughtful discussion of alternatives, which may come to fruition with some of the ongoing open publishing initiatives. | | The Trouble With Medical Journals by Royal Society of Medicine Press A new classic | | This book is a must read for anyone who practices medicine or conducts, peer reviews or publishes research. While the subject matter is extremely serious, with profound and unavoidable lessons for doctors, researchers, editors, reviewers and publishers, it is also highly entertaining thanks to Smith's wry story telling which makes each chapter a joy to read. The book has a broader remit than its title would suggest. It is as much about the state of medical research as it is about publishing. I predict it will become a classic in medicine. Highly recommended. | | The Trouble With Medical Journals by Royal Society of Medicine Press Book Description | | Richard Smith, a previous editor of the British Medical Journal for twenty five years and one of the most influential people within medical journals and medicine depicts a compelling picture of medical publishing. Drawn fromthe author's own extensive and unrivalled experience in medical publishing,Smith provides a refreshingly honest analysis of current and future trends in journal publishing including peer review, ethics in medical publishing, the influence of the pharmaceutical industry as well as that of the mass media, and the risk that money can cloud objectivity in publishing. |
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