Finding ourselves in the future
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MJA 1999; 171: 572
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| At the MJA, 1999 has been a year of evaluation and expectation. Like everyone else in Australia, we are in the grip of millennium fever (not to mention a little Y2K overhaul), and we are working hard to continue to be relevant and accessible to our readers. The biggest challenge is the push for the early electronic publishing of research on such sites as the proposed US National Institutes of Health site, E Biomed. We are currently in the process of working out our place in all this and pondering the shape of the MJA of the future. |
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Meanwhile, it has been a frenetic year. As well as our regular print issues and the eMJA, we produced two special theme issues (General Practice in July and the Impact of New Technologies in Medicine in November), as well as Gastroenterology, the fourth monograph in the MJA Practice Essentials series. Other projects included collaboration with the NSW Health Department to produce Detoxification and Methadone Maintenance and Treatment Clinical Guidelines and the inaugural issue of the journal of the Defence Health Service, ADF Health. Our Editor, Martin Van Der Weyden, took to the road this year, speaking on peer review, research and publishing all over Australia and in the far flung corners of the globe. Both he and Communications Development Manager, Craig Bingham, were invited speakers at the Council of Biology Editors meeting, Montreal, Canada, in May. Other highlights were major contributions to the Drug Information Association's workshop on medical writing and the NHMRC International Trials Symposium, both held in Sydney in September. Between 1 July 1998 and 30 June 1999 we received 729 manuscripts and 456 letters. For manuscripts, 40% were accepted (after an average of 94 days), 55% were rejected (after an average of 62 days) and 4% are yet to have decisions made. Popular topics are listed in the box. Although we have continued our quest for innovative peer-review with our "peer-review on the Internet" trial, there have been some teething problems. So far 14 papers have been reviewed on the Web, and we are looking forward to using our experience to refine the trial next year. As always, we are extremely grateful to our reviewers and to the long-suffering members of the Content Review Committee (listed below) for their vital part in the quality medical publishing process.
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1999 has also been a year of changing faces in the editorial office. In January we farewelled (and have since sorely missed the talents of) our Assistant Editor, Ann Gregory; in March and April we enjoyed an exchange of ideas with Professor Godfrey Muguti, Associate Editor of the Central African Journal of Medicine; and currently we are without the steadying hand of our Senior Assistant Editor, Bronwyn Gaut, whose second son was born in September. The Journal you are reading today will probably look very different in the future. Predictions that the print version will cease to exist are met with dismay by some and satisfaction by others. I have an editor friend whose favourite saying is "There's more technology in a piece of paper than in a mobile phone". Last month his journal went fully electronic. Whatever the future holds, we are confident that the MJA can continue to bring you quality information in a friendly, digestible format. We hope you enjoy this special Christmas issue and that you too are eager to meet the challenges of the new millennium.
Ruth M Armstrong
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©MJA 1999
Readers may print a single copy for personal use. No further reproduction or distribution of the articles should proceed without the permission of the publisher. For permission, contact the Australasian Medical Publishing Company. Journalists are welcome to write news stories based on what they read here, but should acknowledge their source as "an article published on the Internet by The Medical Journal of Australia <http://www.mja.com.au>". <URL: http://www.mja.com.au/> © ; 1999 Medical Journal of Australia. We appreciate your comments. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||