The BMJ's publishing model
Open access
Frequently asked questions

BMJ's publishing model
The BMJ publishes its articles continuously to bmj.com, so each day there is new content. We then select from among published content to make up a weekly print issue. When the print issue appears (every Friday) the PDFs are available on bmj.com together with links to the online articles that are also contained in that week’s print issue. We are thus ensuring a daily flow of topical content, including up to date research, while also providing (in the print issue) a weekly selection for those readers who prefer to have their content neatly packaged.

Each online article has a unique identifier, in place of a page number; this identifier (elocator) should be used when citing any BMJ article. The form of the citation—eg BMJ 2008;337:a134—appears on all articles both online and in print, and it will appear thus in PubMed and other indexes.

Open access
Every research article published in the BMJ is immediately accessible on bmj.com to everyone at no charge.

The full text of all research articles is also sent, without further intervention from the author, to PubMed Central, the National Library of Medicine's full text archive, which makes it fully accessible without delay. This means that the BMJ immediately fulfils the requirements of the US National Institutes of Health, the UK Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, and other funding bodies to make publicly funded research freely available to all.

FAQs

What is continuous publishing?
Publishing all our articles on line as they become ready to publish, without linking them to a specific issue. Some of those articles (initially virtually all of them) will subsequently also appear in a print issue of the BMJ.

Why are we doing it?
Because it provides faster publication for authors and more flexible access for readers.

What does it mean for our readers?
They can go online each day and see what we have published that day. Or they can continue to scan the journal each week, using the online 7 day table of contents. Print readers will continue to receive the print issue.

What does it mean for our authors and their articles?
Faster publication and one, definitive citation. After we have edited your article, we will publish it online before it appears in print.

How does it affect citations?
The citation will be year, volume, elocator (a unique identifier for that article): (BMJ 2008;337:a145)—and this is what will appear in Medline, PubMed, and other bibliographical indexes. We will print this citation on every item we publish, in print and online, and authors will need to use it when they cite BMJ articles.

How do I find articles?
Several ways exist to find articles.

• To browse content, scan the homepage and channel pages – which are updated frequently and feature recently published articles.
• For a more systematic scan of what has been published in the past 7 days – use the Online Table of Contents.
• To search for articles in a specific section, go to the relevant channel page (Research, Education, News, Comment) and use the search box in the second column. Select article type and time period and a list of all articles of that type within the period will be returned. A key word can also be inserted in this search box to narrow the search further
• Use the Advanced search for searching for specific articles or across all article types by author, title word, keyword or by elocator, doi, or (for older references) volume and page number.

How do I find something I read in print?
Use any of the search methods above.
Alternatively, if you know what print issue it appeared in go to the print table of contents for that issue (current issue on column 2 on homepage or the print archive page for past issues) and scan the table of contents.

What’s different to how we did things in the past?
In the past, most content was published in a weekly issue, to coincide with publication of the print issue and with a citation that derived from the print issue (year, volume, page number). A few articles, notably research, were published “ahead of print,” as Online First articles with a temporary online citation. But that model assumed they would be published in a subsequent issue and that the definitive citation would derive from that issue. Continuous publication moves away from issue based publishing.

How will I know what’s new?
We will highlight new content on the homepage of the BMJ, but for a complete list of all new content look at the 7 day table of contents, which will always include articles published in the past 7 days.

What will happen to the weekly table of contents?
For a complete list of all new content look at the 7 day table of contents. For the print issue, PDFs will be posted on to the site, together with a table of contents to the print issue.

(See previous Q&A.) PDFs of the print issue will be posted on to the site, together with a table of contents to the print issue.

How can I access archived articles?
Archives will exist of both tables of contents—the online 7 day tables of contents and the print tables of contents.

What will happen to my email alerts?
The weekly Table of Contents alert and the Online First alert will be merged into a electronic table of contents alert, which will be issued daily or weekly (depending on your preference).

Will I still be able to receive a print issue of the BMJ?
If you are a member of the BMA or a subscriber to the print issue, you will still receive a print issue of the BMJ—and of course will have free access to bmj.com

How do I cite articles?
The BMJ’s citation format is [author(s)].[title of article] [year];[volume]:[elocator]—BMJ 2008;337:a134

The last identifier (a134) is an elocator, which performs the same function for an online article as a page number does in print.

Authors who want to cite a BMJ article—even if they are reading it in print—should use the form BMJ 2008;337:a134.

The proper citation for every article appears on the article wherever it is published:

BMJ 2008;337:a134

What is an elocator?
The elocator is a unique identifier for an article. It performs the same function for an online article as a page number does in print and in the citation it appears instead of the page number (a134): BMJ 2008;337:a134.

How is Pubmed indexing content?
The National Library of Medicine will include BMJ articles in PubMed when they are published online.

The citation for a BMJ article in PubMed will take the form: BMJ 2008;337:a134. This will be the definitive citation and will not be labelled "Epub ahead of print."

What will this mean for citation counts and impact factor?
We have consulted extensively with both the National Library of Medicine and ISI in deciding on our citation format. The change to continuous publishing and the new citation format should have no effect on citation counts or impact factor.

How do I subscribe to BMJ?
Currently BMJ offer subscriptions on a personal user, single institution and consortia institutional basis. You can subscribe to both print and online, or online only.

• For IMMEDIATE access, take up our special ONLINE ONLY OFFER here!
• Review purchasing options for personal and institutional subscriptions
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• A discounted price is available to institutions on purchases of print and online made at the same time.
• As a BMA Member, register for FREE access at the BMA website.
• If you belong to an institution, please contact your librarian for details of your institution's access to BMJ.
• Certain countries are entitled to free access as part of HINARI.
  Check our list of eligible countries.
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