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Canadian Journal of Rural Medicine
CJRM Spring 2000 / printemps 2000

Medical journals on the Internet

Barrie McCombs, MD, CCFP, CCFP(EM)

CJRM 2000;5(2):89-91


I got my education out behind the barn, I ain't a-fooling, no-o-o sir-ee-ee. Passed each examination, out behind the barn, but it almost made a wreck out of me. ­ sung by Little Jimmy Dickens, circa 1950

I first met Mr. Hiram Pochondriac1 while doing a locum in East Overshoe, Alberta.2 Hy is an avid reader, and loves the medical column in Time magazine. A few days after each issue arrives, Hy appears at the office, suffering from the "Disease of the Week." After a few visits, I found the perfect solution to Hy's problem,3 but not before he gave me the following list of his favourite medical journal Web sites.

Who says we can't learn from our patients!

Tables of contents, abstracts, full-text articles

A typical journal Web site provides the table of contents of recent issues. Some will send you the table of contents by email, providing a quick and easy way to browse a favourite journal. Most journals also provide abstracts, and an increasing number provide the full text of articles online. Others provide this service only to paid subscribers, or charge a fee to send a photocopy. This column concentrates on journals that provide full text. A few other journals are included because they are popular, or relevant to rural practice.

Legend:

TOC: Table of contents
EMAIL: Table of contents available by email
ABS: Abstracts
FT-A: Full text of all articles
FT-S: Full text of selected articles
REP$: Reprints available for a fee

Hy's favourites

Canadian Family Physician
www.cfpc.ca/CFP/canadian.htm
Sponsor: College of Family Physicians of Canada
Content: TOC, ABS, FT-S
"Critical Appraisal" column reviews important articles in other journals. "MotherRisk" covers evidence-based prenatal and infant care.

Canadian Medical Association Journal
www.cma.ca/cmaj/
Sponsor: Canadian Medical Association
Content: TOC, EMAIL, ABS, FT-A
"Clinical Resources" link provides useful resources, including an excellent collection of clinical practice guidelines.

British Medical Journal
www.bmj.com/bmj/
Sponsor: British Medical Association
Content: TOC, EMAIL, ABS, FT-A
Web site is indexed by both issue and topic. Read an article, then use "related articles" link to find other articles on the same topic.

Pediatrics (USA)
www.pediatrics.org
Sponsor: American Academy of Pediatrics
Content: TOC, EMAIL, FT-A
Provides links to "related articles" or articles by the same author. If you have a Palm Pilot hand-held computer, you can automatically download abstracts.

Evidence Based Medicine (USA, Great Britain)
www.acponline.org/journals/ebm/ebmmenu.htm
Sponsors: American College of Physicians, BMA
Content: TOC, ABS
This excellent synopsis journal reviews significant papers in other journals.

Honourable mention

Canadian Journal of Rural Medicine (CJRM)
www.cma.ca/cjrm/
Sponsor: Society of Rural Physicians of Canada
Content: TOC, FT-A
Journal highlights include the how-to column "The Practitioner," the "Country Cardiogram" quiz, and this column, which provides direct links to all the Web sites.

American Family Physician
www.aafp.org/afp/
Sponsor: American Academy of Family Practice
Content: TOC, FT-S
Contains patient-oriented information as a regular feature.

Annals of Internal Medicine (USA)
www.acponline.org/journals/annals/
Sponsor: American College of Physicians
Content: TOC, ABS, FT-A
Provides full-text articles as well as non-technical summaries for the public.

Journal of the American Medical Association
jama.ama-assn.org
Sponsor: American Medical Association
Content: TOC, EMAIL, ABS, FT-A (temporary)
At the time of writing, full-text access was free, but in the future it will be limited to subscribers. The "Patient Page Index" link provides information suitable for patients.

Postgraduate Medicine (USA)
www.postgradmed.com/
Content: TOC, ABS, FT-A
Sponsor: McGraw­Hill Publishing
As well as clinical articles, one highlight is the "Digital Doc" column on the medical use of computers.

Other useful journals

Paediatrics & Child Health (Canada)
www.pulsus.com/paeds/
Sponsor: Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS)
Content: TOC, ABS, REP$
Web site provides free access to the full text of guidelines issued by the CPS.

Canadian Journal of Surgery
www.cma.ca/cjs/
Sponsors: Six Canadian specialty societies
Content: TOC, ABS, FT-A
Web site provides an index by both subject and author.

CJEM
www.caep.ca
Sponsor: Canadian Association of Emergency
Physicians (CAEP)
Content: TOC, ABS
Abstracts are under the "CAEP Library" link.

New England Journal of Medicine (USA)
www.nejm.org
Sponsor: Massachusetts Medical Society
Content: TOC, EMAIL, ABS, REP$
This journal has a high readership, but its topics are often not relevant to primary care. Full text of articles available only to subscribers.

Journal of Family Practice (USA)
www.jfampract.com
Sponsor: Dowden Publishing
Content: TOC only
POEMs (Patient Oriented Evidence that Matters) section contains the full text of these brief topic reviews.

Archives of Family Medicine (USA)
archfami.ama-assn.org/
Sponsor: American Medical Association
Content: TOC, EMAIL, ABS, FT-A (temporary)
At the time of writing, full-text access was free, but in the future, it will be limited to subscribers.

Family Practice Management (USA)
www.aafp.org/fpm/
Sponsor: American Academy of Family Practice
Content: TOC, ABS, FT-S
This journal publishes excellent practice management hints. Use "annual index" to browse by topic. It has several articles on "Time management" that are relevant to rural physicians.

British Journal of General Practice
www.rcgp.org.uk
Content: TOC, full text of editorials

The Lancet (Great Britain)
www.thelancet.com
Sponsor: Elsevier SA
Content: TOC, ABS, FT-S
Registration required to read more than TOC.

Journal of Rural Health (USA)
www.nrharural.org/pagefile/rh.html
Content: TOC, ABS, REP$
Sponsor: National Rural Health Association
Web site is indexed by topics, rather than issues. It is the only rural medicine journal I could find, other than CJRM.

Related Web sites

Medical Information Service (MIS)
www.ruralnet.ab.ca/medinfo/journals/
The "journals" section of the MIS Web site contains links to online journals, including those listed in this article. It also contains suggestions on how to make efficient use of your reading time.

Adobe Acrobat Reader (Version 4.0)
www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readermain.html
Some journals provide the full text of their articles in the PDF format to display and print the text and diagrams exactly as they appear in the journal. You can download and install the free "Acrobat Reader" program from the Adobe Web site. The download process is quite easy. If you are "technically challenged," hire a teenager to show you how.

PubMed (USA)
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
As well as providing a free and easy way to use MEDLINE search engine, the PubMed section of the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Web site contains a powerful "Journal Browser" feature that displays the latest articles in a particular journal.

OSLER (Canada)
www.cma.ca/osler/
The Canadian Medical Association Web site provides access to OSLER (OVID Search: Link to Electronic Resources), a powerful MEDLINE search engine. Service is free to CMA members, but registration is required.

WebDoctor (Canada)
www.gretmar.com/webdoctor/
This useful Web site includes an index of medical journals that publish the full-text of their articles online. Index is organized by medical specialty.

Medical Matrix (USA)
www.medmatrix.org
A medical index Web site with an extensive list of medical journals. It is designed for, and managed by, family physicians. Usage is free, but registration is required.

Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC)
sogc.medical.org
The SOGC Web site provides full text of many of their guidelines, which are published in their Journal.

Footnotes

  1. The name has been changed to protect the author!
  2. Located just across the border from Crocus, Saskatchewan.
  3. I secretly cancelled his subscription to Time.

Barrie McCombs, MD, Director, University of Calgary Medical Information Service, Calgary, Alta.

Correspondence to: Dr. Barrie McCombs, Director, University of Calgary Medical Information Service, 3330 Hospital Dr. NW, Calgary AB T2N 3Z0; bmccombs@ucalgary.ca; www.ruralnet.ab.ca/medinfo/

© 2000 Society of Rural Physicians of Canada