Non-profit route suggested for medical journal

An interesting article in the Globe and Mail on Saturday by Paul Webster suggested that there is a movement afoot to get away from having Canada's leading medical journal run by by an association with a vested and, in the case of the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ), a commercial interest.

"The time has come, many researchers say, to rethink how to disseminate Canadian medical research. Support is growing for a fully independent, not-for-profit journal, free from owners with vested interests, and not reliant on advertising income.

"One of the ideas researchers are discussing is modelled on a series of journals published by Public Library of Science (PLoS), a San Francisco-based non-profit publisher launched in 2000 with support from almost 34,000 scientists and start-up financing from private foundations. PloS Biology, the most successful of the six Public Library of Science journals, already boasts having achieved more than twice as much measurable impact among scientists as the CMAJ does."

Read the rest of the article here and read past articles on this blog about the Canadian Medical Association and its journal.