Open Medicine is indexed in PubMed

The authors are on the editorial team of Open Medicine. Editors' note: This editorial replaces the version published on 5 January 2010, which stated that Open Medicine is indexed in MEDLINE, when in fact it is indexed in PubMed (of which MEDLINE is a subset). Open Medicine currently has an application under review for indexing in MEDLINE. T he Open Medicine teaM is pleased tO announce our recent acceptance for indexing in PubMed—an official stamp of approval from the US National Library of Medicine (NLM) for the scientific and technical quality of articles published in our journal. Why is this development such an important milestone? PubMed indexing ensures that new and previously published articles in Open Medicine are searchable online and are ar-chived on PubMed Central, the NLM's comprehensive online archive of nearly 2 million full-text articles. The ability to find Open Medicine's articles through PubMed literature searches will make it easier for both researchers and readers to find, assess and download them. 1 Indexing by the NLM and accessibility through PubMed Central ensures, in addition to enhanced visibility, the permanence of our publishing record for years to come. As a result of PubMed indexing, we anticipate an increase in article submissions. To date, we have managed the journal with mostly volunteer input—despite some logistical challenges in doing so. We remain committed to maintaining a medical journal based on editorial independence , open-source publishing and open access. 2,3 To sustain this while managing the expected increase in workflow, we are introducing a publication charge for articles accepted by Open Medicine. This fee will be C$1200 for research and review articles and C$300 for commentary and analysis pieces that meet our author guidelines in format and word count. The fee will allow us to continue publishing articles 3 to 4 months after acceptance and eventually to improve turnaround times. We will implement the publication charge for all articles submitted on or after 1 March 2010 that we subsequently accept. Maintaining high standards and making improvements to a high-quality medical journal takes expertise and considerable resources. These new fees represent a small proportion of the funds required to produce the journal; Table 1 shows some of our major operating costs. Considerable value is added during the editorial process, which makes articles more readable and absolutely clear in purpose. 4 The modest fee covers most of the copyediting costs as well as the …