Medical Journal of Australia
The Medical Journal of Australia is a peer-reviewed medical journal published 22 times a year. It is the official journal of the Australian Medical Association, published by Wiley on behalf of the Australasian Medical Publishing Company.
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Discipline | Medicine |
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Language | English |
Edited by | Nicholas Talley |
Publication details | |
Former name(s) | Australian Medical Journal, Intercolonial Quarterly Journal of Medicine and Surgery, Intercolonial Medical Journal of Australasia |
History | 1856-present |
Publisher | Wiley on behalf of the Australasian Medical Publishing Company (Australia) |
Frequency | 22/year |
Hybrid | |
6.112 (2020) | |
Standard abbreviations | |
ISO 4 | Med. J. Aust. |
Indexing | |
CODEN | MJAUAJ |
ISSN | 0025-729X (print) 1326-5377 (web) |
OCLC no. | 925316442 |
Links | |
The journal publishes editorials, original research, guideline summaries, narrative reviews, perspectives, medical education, reflections, and letters.[1] The full text of every issue since January 2002 is available online.[2]
History
Early origins
The journal was established in 1856, when communication between Australian states and other English-speaking nations entailed long delays.[3] The journal was both a platform for Australian medical research, as well as educational reviews summarising research done overseas. It has since been renamed several times:[3][4]
- Australian Medical Journal (1856–1895)
- Intercolonial Quarterly Journal of Medicine and Surgery (1895–1896)
- Intercolonial Medical Journal of Australasia (1896–1909)
- Australian Medical Journal (1910–1914)
- Medical Journal of Australia (1914–present, with volume numbering re-starting at 1)[5]
Elsevier
In 2015, then editor-in-chief Stephen Leeder was suddenly removed after criticising the decision to outsource production of the journal to the global publishing giant Elsevier.[6] Leerder's concerns revolved around an incident in 2009 when Elsevier accepted payments from pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. to publish journals such as the Australasian Journal of Bone & Joint Medicine, which had the appearance of peer-reviewed academic works but were in fact promoting Merck.[7][8][9][10] Following the decision to sack Leeder, all but one of the journal's editorial advisory committee resigned and wrote to Australian Medical Association president Brian Owler asking him to review the decision.[11][12]
Nicholas Talley succeeded Stephen Leeder as editor-in-chief in September 2015[13] and the editorial advisory group was subsequently reconstituted.[14]
Wiley
From January 2019, the journal is published by Wiley.[15] Print distribution remains with the Australasian Medical Publishing Company and editorial direction and decisions remain with the journal.[15]
Publishing and access
Having previously published under a subscription model, the journal changed in January 2012 to make all of its research articles free to read online.[16] The journal converted to a hybrid model in January 2019: Authors can either pay an article processing fee to publish fully open access (gold open access) or archive the submitted version of their article in online repositories (green open access).[16] In order to demonstrate commitment to Australian Indigenous health and health awareness, the journal makes all Indigenous health articles free to access without charging authors.[16]
Abstracting and indexing
The journal is abstracted and indexed in:
- CAB Abstracts[17]
- CINAHL[18]
- Current Contents/Clinical Medicine[19]
- Current Contents/Life Sciences[19]
- Embase[20]
- Index Medicus/MEDLINE/PubMed[21]
- Science Citation Index[19]
- Scopus[22]
According to the Clarivate’s Journal Citation Reports, the journal had a 2020 impact factor of 6.112, ranked 16th of 160 in the world in General and Internal Medicine category.[23]
See also
References
- "MJA instructions for authors - types of articles published by the MJA". Medical Journal of Australia. Australasian Medical Publishing Company. Retrieved 2019-01-29.
- "Information about the Medical Journal of Australia". Medical Journal of Australia. Australasian Medical Publishing Company. Retrieved 2008-01-08.
- Eadie, Mervyn J. (2000). The flowering of a waratah: the history of Australian neurology and of the Australian Association of Neurologists. Sidney, NSW: Libbey. ISBN 9780861966066. OCLC 47137082.
- "Australian Medical Journal 1869". University Library. University of Melbourne. Retrieved 2019-06-12.
- Leeder, Stephen (2014-07-07). "The Medical Journal of Australia after 100 years". Medical Journal of Australia. 201 (1): 7. doi:10.5694/mja14.c0707. PMID 24999870.
- "Backlash over decision by Australia's top medical journal to outsource to company with history of 'unethical' behaviour". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 2015-05-01.
- Rout, Milanda (2009-04-09). "Doctors signed Merck's Vioxx studies". The Australian. Archived from the original on 2009-05-06. Retrieved 2009-05-04.
- Grant, Bob (2009-04-30). "Merck published fake journal". The Scientist. Retrieved 2009-05-04.
- Mcinerney, Marie (2015). "Medical Journal of Australia editor sacked over opposition to Elsevier outsourcing". BMJ. British Medical Journal. 350: h2392. doi:10.1136/bmj.h2392. PMID 25943111. Retrieved 29 January 2019.
- Davey, Melissa. "Backlash over Stephen Leeder sacking puts Medical Journal of Australia in peril". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 January 2019.
- "Medical journal editor sacked and editorial committee resigns". Sydney Morning Herald. 2015-05-04.
- "Medical Journal of Australia will be shunned by researchers after editor sacked, academic says". The Guardian. 2015-05-04.
- Wilcken, Hugo (2017-12-15). "MJA Editor-In-Chief is Australia's most cited academic". Medical Journal of Australia. 208 (208): 1.
- "Med journal's 'integrity secure'". The Australian. Archived from the original on 2019-01-29. Retrieved 2019-01-29.
- "John Wiley & Sons to publish Medical Journal of Australia under new partnership" (Press release). Mumbrella. 2018-04-30.
- "About". Medical Journal of Australia. Australasian Medical Publishing Company. Retrieved 2019-06-12.
- "Serials cited". CAB Abstracts. CABI. Retrieved 2019-06-12.
- "CINAHL Complete Database Coverage List". CINAHL. EBSCO Information Services. Retrieved 2019-06-12.
- "Master Journal List". Intellectual Property & Science. Clarivate Analytics. Retrieved 2019-06-12.
- "Embase Coverage". Embase. Elsevier. Retrieved 2019-06-12.
- "Medical Journal of Australia". NLM Catalog. National Center for Biotechnology Information. Retrieved 2019-06-12.
- "Source details: Medical Journal of Australia". Scopus preview. Elsevier. Retrieved 2019-06-12.
- "MJA impact factor tops 6 for first time: 16th in world". Retrieved 2020-07-01.