The Journal and the Bulletin

Extract

Every member of the College is entitled to these two monthlies, which go all over the world, since about a quarter of the membership is overseas. While the Bulletin is predominantly about College work and membership activities, and goes only to the membership, the Journal is an international medical-scientific journal with a circulation also among non-member subscribers worldwide, particularly among university libraries, medical schools and governmental health agencies. Because of this extensive sale, and because the Journal is published by the College instead of by a commercial publisher such as Blackwell or Macmillan (as are many journals), the money coming in is enough to finance the whole publishing operation. This is particularly so since the editors and assessors give their time and expertise entirely without fees, in some cases amounting to many hours a week of honorary labour, although all the editors (for instance) are also in clinical practice. The financial effect is that not one penny of a member's subscription goes to the production and mailing of these two journals to members, indeed, some of the Journal's ‘profit’ can be applied to reducing the cost of other College publications, which are often sold at a loss.