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CMAJ
CMAJ - July 27, 1999JAMC - le 27 juillet 1999

eCMAJ: evolving at your suggestion

Ann Bolster

CMAJ 1999;161:180

| On_the_Net@cma.ca  /  Sur_le_Net@cma.ca |
Like most Web sites, the CMAJ site — eCMAJ — is evolving continually in response to input from users. In our case, the input is from CMA members and other subscribers. This month the online edition of CMAJ is evolving into a daily service.

The open-ended questions in last fall's survey of visitors to CMA Online generated many suggestions. The most frequent requests were for:

  • More CMAJ articles in full text.
  • Full text of CMAJ in PDF (portable document format, a file format available from the print-production process that allows the online user to view and print out the article to look exactly as it does in the paper edition).
  • More news, in brief format, from across the country, and especially news of medicopolitical interest.

We have tried to act on these suggestions. This month we are giving you a chance to test out different formats for eCMAJ, and we're also launching a daily online news service. Please give us your feedback and further suggestions.

You will see that all articles in both July issues are available in PDF and in HTML (HyperText Markup Language, the standard Web display format).

Please tell us which format you prefer. There are advantages and disadvantages with each of them, and you may find that you prefer one format for one purpose and another for a different purpose; it's important that you pass this information on to us. We are committed to publishing all CMAJ articles in full in eCMAJ after this trial, but your feedback will guide our decision about the format.

A bonus in the July issues of eCMAJ involves links from the articles' reference lists directly to the MEDLINE abstracts. These electronic links will let you dive instantly below the surface of an article. Reading a MEDLINE abstract may give you the additional information you need and will help you decide whether you should obtain the referenced article from a library or other document delivery service.

If ordinarily you would consult the references in the course of reading, please try the links, which are available in HTML format only. Let us know how likely you would be to use this service. Whether we implement the service routinely will depend on your feedback.

eCMAJ's daily online news service, CMAJ Today, was launched July 14. Operated and updated by the news editors at CMAJ, its goal is to provide brief articles on timely medicopolitical and clinical issues across the country. Assistant Editor Steven Wharry, who will coordinate the new service, says it will be updated several times each weekday. "The big benefit is obvious. We can post a story within hours, and we're pretty sure the immediacy will appeal to a lot of CMAJ readers. This will be a new benefit for them and it will allow the journal to better capitalize on the Web's advantages."

The articles that appear will be written by staff at CMAJ, with some contributions by CMA specialists and by writers across the country. These articles will seldom appear in the paper edition of CMAJ, although sometimes they may form the kernel of a longer, more analytic article.

Thus, your only access to this additional reporting will be through CMA Online. Let us know what you think of this service and how you'd like to see it evolve.

Several results from our fall 1998 survey surprised us. One was the proportion of physicians who said they were using online journals daily: 12% of general practitioners/family physicians and 17% of specialists. Without probing, however, we don't know why you are using online journals so often or how you are using them. Understanding usage habits and preferences would help us design online journals to better meet your needs, so we've created a survey that we hope you will take a few minutes to answer.

Please fill out the form (English) / (French) to provide feedback on the July trial and the news service, and to tell us about your online reading habits and preferences. Be assured that your answers will be kept strictly confidential. We will publish the aggregate survey results in a future issue of CMAJ — but the long version will appear only in eCMAJ ! — Ann Bolster, Associate Director (Online Services), CMA (bolsta@cma.ca)

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© 1999 Canadian Medical Association