During the final conference block at the 2008 British Columbia Library Association conference in Richmond, a session packed with many intriguing workshops, I had the privilege of convening a talk by Anita Palepu and Dean Giustini, titled Open Medicine: The first year of independent, open-access publishing. The session was cosponsored by the BCLA Intellectual Freedom Committee, BCLA Information Policy Committee, and the Health Library Association of BC.

Many librarians in BC and beyond will be familiar with Giustini’s work, ranging from his Google Scholar Blog to BMJ articles to his teaching activities at Langara and UBC . Dean is also an Associate Editor of Open Medicine, and writes the Open Medicine Blog.

Anita Palepu is one of the editors who left CMAJ over issues of editorial independence, to found Open Medicine. Dr. Palepu is an assistant professor of medicine at UBC and research scientist at CHEOS, focusing her research on urban health.

The presentation touched on the issues of editorial independence in medical journals that led up to the creation of Open Medicine as an editorially independent, “gold” open access, general medical journal, built and published with open source software. Palepu and Giustini tag-teamed their way through a brief history of open access in Canada as well as the steps in establishing an OA journal. A unique feature of the presentation was a highlight on the value a librarian can add to an editorial board, enhancing the journal’s impact.

Looking back on the first year of Open Medicine, the editors certainly have the right be to patting themselves on the back! With a respectable acceptance rate of 20% and reviewing turnaround of about 30 days, the journal published 42 articles (including non-peer review features) in the first year, and has 2893 registered website users. All of this success requires a significant commitment of both time and energy from the all-volunteer editorial board — not only for typical editing and management duties, but also for fundraising to support the journal.

Slides from the session are available on Slideshare.

CIHR Café Scientifique and UBC Centre for Health Services and Policy Research present…

As Seen on TV!

Risks and benefits of direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs

Monday, March 3, 2008 – 7:15 – 8:45 p.m.

Junior Ballroom, Sheraton Wall Centre

1088 Burrard St. Vancouver

Should prescription drugs be advertised like breakfast cereal?

Three quarters of adults will fill a prescription this year, at a cost of nearly $25 billion. The use and cost of medicines may increase significantly if manufacturers are allowed to advertise prescription drugs directly to consumers as they do in the United States.

CanWest MediaWorks is challenging laws that prohibit direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) in Canada. Come discuss important questions with leading experts.

What is known about the effects of DTCA: What justifies the ban on advertising? What can we learn from other industries? How would DTCA affect the doctor-patient relationship?

Admission free; RSVP required by Friday, Feb. 29

rsvp@chspr.ubc.ca or 604-827-4472

Arrive early! Discussion starts

at 7:15 p.m. sharp. Refreshments served

Please circulate widely to friends and contacts, especially general public/community members who might wish to take part

Panelists:

Dr. Barbara Mintzes

Assistant Professor

UBC Therapeutics Initiative

Dr. Rick Pollay

Professor Emeritus (Marketing)

Sauder School of Business UBC

Dr. Andrew Wilkenson Q.C.

Partner, McCarthy Tétrault, Vancouver

Former Deputy Minister

British Columbia Ministry of Economic Development

Dr. Alan Katz MB CHB, MSC, CCFP, FCFP

Family Physician

Associate Professor

Departments of Family Medicine and

Community Health Sciences

University of Manitoba

Moderator:

Dr. Colleen M. Flood

Scientific Director,

CIHR’s Institute of Health Services and Policy Research

Canada Research Chair in Comparative Health Law and Policy,

University of Toronto