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July 30, 2004

BMJ on campaign for academic medicine

Letters in the latest BMJ from, among others Dave Sackett, on the campaign for academic medicine. There's also a valedictory editorial from the editor, Richard Smith, in which he reflects on 25 years at the BMJ as he leaves for the Public Library of Science .

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July 26, 2004

BMJ reports Inquiry findings: "Impending crisis" in journals provision

requires radical solutions The BMJ reports the findings of the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee Inquiry into Scientific Journals. They summarise the findings as:
1. supporting institutional repositories in higher education
2. supporting further work on the author pays publication model
For a more detailed summary of the report, see the synopsis provided by Peter Suber on the SPARCOA forum list.
The report itself can be found on the Committee's publications pages

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National Library for Health discussed on lismedical

There's some lively discussion on the lismedical jiscmail list about the National Library for Health.
Look in the July archives

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July 23, 2004

THES on male medical students

Today's Times Higher reports that Carol Black, President of the Royal College of Physicians, has supported a move towards the US system of taking medical students at postgraduate level. One consequence of this might be to attract more male students into medicine.
Full text is only available to subscribers. but the paper reference is:
Fazackerley, Anna
Call for late start to help men into medicine
Tiumes Higher 2004 1650:8

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July 20, 2004

House Of Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology Tenth Report

Scientific Publications: Free for all? Select Committee on Science and Technology Tenth Report Session 200304
Scientific Publications: Free for all?
PDF of main report
PDF of oral & written evidence
The report is 118 pages and the evidence 487 pages long.
I can't improve on the Open Access News summary of the recommendations and Peter Suber's version on the SPARC OA Forum

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July 15, 2004

HOST&C Inquiry to report

Sunday's Observer suggests that the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee Inquiry is about to report. And so it is: there's a press notice here
This says that copies will be available from 1 am on the morning of Tuesday 20th July and there'll be a press conference at the British Library that morning at 10.
The Observer report seems to think that the Committee will support open access and recommend legislation to make it effective.

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July 09, 2004

Journal prices: new survey in JMLA

Update on inflation of journal prices : Brandon/Hill list journals and the scientific, technical, and medical publishing market in the JMLA

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Presentation on the current awareness service to UMSLG

Here's my presentation at last week's UMSLG summer residential. It's a big file, I'm afraid: 8.5 MB
sussexsongumslg2july04.pdf

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Undergraduate medical teaching reform in BMJ

Williams and Lau argue that "educational reform is being driven by enthusiasm for change rather than by rational responses to the shortcomings of traditional curriculums"
Reform of undergraduate medical teaching in the United Kingdom: a triumph of evangelism over common sense
Gareth Williams, Alice Lau
BMJ 2004;329:9294, doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7457.92

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Open access to clinical data

Andrew Herzheimer writes a BMJ editorial on access to clinical data:
Open access to industry's clinically relevant dataAndrew Herxheimer
BMJ 2004;329:6465, doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7457.64

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Plagiarism

The BMJ carries a report on the UK Plagiarism Advisory Service report suggesting that 25% of UK undergraduates may be guilty of plagiarism.:
BMJ 2004;329:70 (10 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7457.70c
Eaton, L.
A quarter of UK students are guilty of plagiarism, survey shows
A summary of the report by Freshminds is here .

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