Abstract
The Scottish Medical Journal (SMJ) celebrated its half century in the March issue 2006. It first appeared in 1956 from a merger of two long established journals – the Edinburgh Medical Journal founded in 1805 and the Glasgow Medical Journal founded in 1828. Over the past 5 years its circulation has increased to 9500 mainly made up of Fellows and Members of the Glasgow Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons and the 12 Scottish specialist societies that sponsor it.
The SMJ is pleased to announce an exciting change to the publication of the journal. As from March 2011, the SMJ will be published by the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) Press, a well established organisation with an international reputation for medical publishing. The SMJ affirms its commitment to continue representing the best interests of academics, researchers and medical writers including historians at home in Scotland and worldwide. In order to ensure the most effective circulation of papers in press, the SMJ confirms that manuscripts accepted for publication will be processed during the transitional period between November 2010 and February 2011, while its administration is transferred to the RSM Press. Accepted papers will then be given the opportunity to be published in a reorganised, redesigned and remarketed new journal which, while retaining its Scottish foundations, will increase its reach to include a greater international readership. This new contract that the Scottish Medical Journal is entering into with the RSM will allow the RSM to develop a fully electronic journal.
The Journal has been printed in the past decade in Edinburgh and until last year in Glasgow by Parex Limited who did an excellent job for the Journal. They gave a new image to the cover of the Journal which no doubt increased its international stance and its circulation. We also owe a great deal to Mrs. Carol Parry from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow who copy edited the issues.
It was clear that the journal needed a new image to cope with the pressures of a new medical age and it needed a secure electronic platform for the future. After two years of searching and negotiating we are happy that the future of the SMJ looks secure with the RSM Press.