BMJ  2006;333:319 (12 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.333.7563.319

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Canadian medical journal faces threat from new online rival

Quebec

The journal of the Canadian Medical Association, CMAJ, whose editor and deputy editor were dismissed in February in a fight over editorial independence (BMJ 2006;332: 503[Free Full Text]), may have to compete with a new open access journal. It is being created by former CMAJ editors, including the deputy editor, Anne-Marie Todkill, and editorial board members.

The new journal, Open Medicine, is a "Canadian health and clinical medicine journal dedicated to furthering integrity, independence, and open access in scholarly publishing," says its website, www.openmedicine.ca. The site is currently under development, although the journal is accepting and reviewing manuscripts.

The website says that Open Medicine will help international researchers, policy makers, practitioners, and the public understand health and health care, improve clinical practice, and encourage open discussion and dialogue on all health related issues.

On 3 August CMAJ published an online editorial outlining its new governance plan, which, the editorial says, has resulted in a "renewed atmosphere of trust, integrity and good faith that will allow CMAJ to press forward at good speed."

However, an opinion article in the New England Journal of Medicine by Robert Steinbrook (2006;355: 547[Free Full Text]), a national correspondent for the New England journal, notes that the recent report conducted by the CMAJ's governance review panel is silent on the underlying reasons for the sacking of its editor in chief, John Hoey, and his deputy editor, Ms Todkill. Dr Steinbrook adds that "it remains to be seen how [CMAJ] will fare in the months and years ahead."

The sacking of the editors led to the resignation of most of the journal's editorial board, as well as drawing widespread international criticism and calls for CMAJ to be replaced.

Ms Todkill said that the panel's report will be very helpful for any editor who has a problem maintaining editorial independence, but "the fact still is that the CMAJ is very closely associated with the association."

She said, "They [the association] have their own political and strategic interests... Much depends on the individual players and on the new editor and the relationship the editor has with the association."

She and seven others (mostly former editors of CMAJ) plan to launch Open Medicine this autumn. The open access journal will be published online only, without a printed version. She said the journal will have an international emphasis, something that was "somewhat tough going at CMAJ, because it has Canadian physicians primarily in mind."

The journal will be free of institutional and commercial ties, she said. Initially the journal will be funded through voluntary contributions from authors and readers. It will carry advertisements, though not those of drug companies.

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