| Canadian Medical Association Journal/Journal de l'Association medicale canadienne | |
|---|---|
| Abbreviated title (ISO) | Can. Med. Assoc. J. |
| Discipline | Medicine |
| Language | English with some French |
| Edited by | Rajendra Kale |
| Publication details | |
| Publisher | Canadian Medical Association (Canada) |
| Publication history | 1911-present |
| Frequency | 18/year |
| Open access | Delayed, after 12 months |
| Impact factor (2010) |
9.020 |
| Indexing | |
| ISSN | 0820-3946 (print) 1488-2329 (web) |
| LCCN | 87039047 |
| OCLC number | 12748813 |
| Links | |
The Canadian Medical Association Journal is a peer-reviewed general medical journal published by the Canadian Medical Association (CMA). It publishes original clinical research, analyses and reviews, news, practice updates, and editorials.
Contents |
The journal published Banting and Best's 1922 report, "Pancreatic extracts in the treatment of diabetes mellitus".[1]
On February 20, 2006, the editor-in-chief John Hoey, was fired over an editorial independence dispute with the then owners of the journal, CMA Media. The journal sent 13 women to buy the emergency contraceptive levonorgestrel (Plan B) over-the-counter in pharmacies across Canada, and report their experiences. The pharmacists asked them for personal data, including the women's names, addresses, dates of last menstrual period, when they had unprotected sex, customary method of birth control, and reason for dispensing the medication. This was at the recommendation of the Canadian Pharmacists Association, which also advised members to store the information permanently in their computers. The Canadian Women's Health Network said that collecting this information was unnecessary and a violation of privacy.[2] The Canadian Pharmacists Association complained to the Canadian Medical Association, demanding that the names of the pharmacists be removed from the article. The Canadian Medical Association ordered the journal to comply.[3] The Canadian Medical Association then fired Hoey, without giving a reason.
On February 28, 2006, the acting-editor, Stephen Choi and editorial fellow Sally Murray, resigned from journal over the same reason leaving it without any full-time editorial staff, which raised questions about the future of the publication.[4][5] In January 2007, Paul Hebert became editor-in-chief.
In April 2007, the former staff launched a new open-access journal, Open Medicine.[6]
A prime mover behind establishment of the Canadian Medical Association Journal was Andrew Macphail, chair of the history of medicine at McGill University and editor of the Montreal Medical Journal. At the Canadian Medical Association's 1907 annual meeting held in Montreal, "Macphail argued that without a journal to express its views and record its proceedings the association would have little impact," and was successful in getting a clause urging the founding of a journal put into the CMA constitution. At the 1910 meeting an executive report was adopted urging immediate immediate steps to found a journal. Macphail was appointed the first editor.[7]
The Montreal Medical Journal was acquired, and the Maritime Medical News agreed to suspend publication. The first issue of the new Canadian Medical Association Journal was published in January 1911. In 1913, for the first time, the journal showed a profit, which was sufficient to liquidate the previous deficit. Subscriptions had increased 60% over the 1911 level and were being purchased by 20% of Canadian doctors.[7]