[Gnumed-devel] Open Medicine: A New, Independent Canadian Open- Access (OA) Medical Journal

[James Busser]

People outside of Canada may or may not be aware we had some controversy over 
whether or not we had adequate editorial independence in our main medical 
journal. That episode was important to the formation of this new journal. 
Appended is an announcement of the launch that was circulated among our local 
research group. I hope it is successful and that it furthers the importance of 
other open and independent projects :-)
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Open Medicine: A New, Independent Canadian Open- Access (OA) Medical Journal
 
Open Medicine is a new scientific medical journal that was launched 
internationally on April 17, 2007. The founding editors of Open Medicine have 
created a journal that they hope will represent a new way forward in scientific 
publishing, one that places the integrity of scientific discourse ahead of 
commercial interests.
 
In 2006, the Canadian Medical Association fired two distinguished editors of 
the 
Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ), John Hoey and Anne Marie Todkill, 
following a controversy that erupted at that journal over editorial 
independence. Shortly thereafter, the majority of CMAJ's remaining scientific 
editors and its editorial board resigned in protest.
 
Those individuals who were affiliated with CMAJ, in addition to many other 
renowned scientists worldwide, have now founded Open Medicine. This new 
Canadian 
medical journal is a not-for-profit corporation and is unique in that it is 
independent of any medical body or association, commercial publishing interests 
and pharmaceutical advertising. This independence speaks to the most basic 
principles of academic freedom. They are committed to providing open access to 
the entire content of Open Medicine in order to ensure that the work it 
publishes is publicly and globally available.
 
While they believe that such independence is crucial to upholding the integrity 
of scientific discourse, it also poses significant financial challenges. The 
editors of Open Medicine are working with the Public Knowledge Project at UBC 
and the SFU Library to take advantage of Open Journal Systems (OJS), as this 
open source software can reduce the costs of operating an online peer-reviewed 
journal. The SFU Library has also agreed to host Open Medicine on one of its 
servers.
 
The journal may be freely accessed at http://www.openmedicine.ca.