BMJ: Open to New Technology

The British Medical Journal is one of Treadwell's most heavily used electronic resources, and is making moves to be even more accessible to its readers.

BMJ Open, the BMJ Group's new open access, online-only medical journal "dedicated to publishing medical research from all disciplines and therapeutic areas" is an example of just such a move. Like many of the journals the BMJ Group publishes - Rheumatic Diseases, Archives of Disease in Childhood, BMJ itself - the articles published in BMJ Open will be subjected to BMJ's open peer review process, in which the identity of the reviewer is public in an effort to maintain high standards of accountability and transparency. Also like many of BMJ's other electronic resources, BMJ Open will follow a continuous publishing model, which means that articles are available online as soon as BMJ decides to publish them rather than at regular issue intervals. But mostly what "open" means in this case is both open to the public - free, no subscription required - and, in a more abstract sense, open-minded in terms of the disciplines it covers. The journal is currently accepting submissions and all articles will be available on PubMed Central.

In addition to this step in the direction of fluid information sharing, BMJ has announced its own iPad app, in which readers will be able to purchase single issues or a subscription. As we have tweeted about before, many medical publications are starting to offer more interactive and multimedia content, but BMJ is the first journal to offer its own app! Check out BMJ's journals on our newly searchable ejournals page or keep up with BMJ and BMJ Open on twitter, @bmj_latest and @BMJ_Open.