Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T08:32:29.215Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

From the shelf to the monitor: opportunities and difficulties for psychiatric journals switching from paper to on-line

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2011

Danilo Di Diodoro*
Affiliation:
Responsabile Comunicazione e Informazione Scientifica Multimediale, Azienda Usl di Bologna, Bologna
*
Address for correspondence: Dr. Danilo di Diodoro, Azienda Usl di Bologna, Via Castiglione 29, 40124 Bologna Fax: +39-051-658.4822 E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

Summary

The author examines the changes brought about by Internet in the complex field of international medical and scientific journals (and psychiatric journals in particular), since online versions of the printed publications have been made available on the Internet. Attention is focused on the surfeit of these scientific journals and on the economic implications of the transformation. The article underlines how the international scientific community has become conscious of its importance in the production of scientific journals and a description of the very innovative Public Library of Science (PLoS) initiative is also given. The author illustrates the possible future functioning of scientific journals, the so-called “Author pays” model, which is still controversial and closes with comments on the increasingly important role played by direct communication between scientific community and citizens, including the use of specific journals and websites.

Declaration of Interest

the Author is the Multimedial Scientific Information Manager of the Bologna Local Health Unit and as such, he may tend to stress the importance of giving National Health Service employees and health workers in general high quality scientific information that is free from conflicts of interest. He receives a salary from from the National Health Service that would not be altered by changes to the international publishing system.

Type
Invited Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAFIA

Delamothe, T. & Smith, R. (1999). Moving beyond journals: the future arrives with a crash. British Medical Journal 318,16371639.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Delamothe, T. & Smith, R. (2003). Paying for BMJ.com. British Medical Journal 327, 241242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Di Diodoro, D. (2003). From paper to on-line medical journal; what it's going to change in the near future. Monaldi Archives for Chest Disease 60, 141146.Google Scholar
Kavanagh, K. (2003). Distribution of medical research articles on the World Wide Web. Journal of Health & Social Policy 3, 15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lawrence, P. (2003). The politics of publication. Nature 422, 259261.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ray, J., Berkwits, M. & Davidoff, F. (2001). The fate of manuscripts rejected by a general medical journal. American Journal of Medicine 109, 131135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tansella, M. (2003). Ma la peer-review serve davvero? Gli Ospedali della Vita(Odv) 2, 19.Google Scholar
Weiss, R. (2003). A Fight for Free Access To Medical Research. Washington Post, August 5.Google Scholar