BMC titles indexing in NLM PubMed

[Alexei Koudinov <koudinov@inbox.ru>]

10 February 2005

Dear Liblicense Board members,

I have a question that perhaps could be answered by BioMedCentral and/or
National Library of Medicine.

I am puzzled how new journals by BioMedCentral get immediate indexing in
PubMed? NIH NLM Rules for PubMed indexing were/are straight forward
(current version is available
<http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/j_sel_faq.html>at this link) and
request(ed) the publication of at least 20 (twenty!) articles for an
electronic journal evaluation.

The NLM specifically states that "once an electronic journal has been
accessible for at least six months, an editor or publisher may request
that the journal be reviewed for possible indexing if at least 20 articles
have been published and made available online." (Source: Fact Sheet:
<http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/j_sel_faq.html>Response to
Inquiries about Journal Selection for Indexing at
<http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/j_sel_faq.html>NLM, last viewed 11
February 2004, 00:43 Jerusalem time).

This is apparently not a case for a great number of BioMed Central (BMC)
titles. The screening of first twenty journals listed at
<http://www.biomedcentral.com/independent/launched>The Launched
BioMed<http://www.biomedcentral.com/independent/launched> Central
Independent Journals shows that more then half titles (12 of first twenty
on the
<http://www.biomedcentral.com/independent/launched>BMC<http://www.biomedcentral.com/independent/launched>
list) are indexed in PubMed without satisfying the National Library of
Medicine minimum article sample size for a journal quality assessment.

These twelve BMC journals are: 

<http://www.immunityageing.com/>Immunity and Ageing (9 articles published
to date),

<http://www.anzhealthpolicy.com/>Australia and New Zealand Health Policy
(10 articles to date),

<http://www.biomagres.com/>BioMagnetic<http://www.biomagres.com/> Research
and Technology (11 articles),

<http://www.cellandchromosome.com/>Cell & Chromosome (6 articles to date),

<http://www.bio-diglib.com/>Biomedical Digital Libraries (3 articles to
date: 1 research paper, 1 Editorial, and 1 methodology paper),

<http://www.cerebrospinalfluidresearch.com/>Cerebrospinal Fluid Research
(6 articles and 1 supplement),

<http://www.biosignaling.com/>Cell Communication and Signaling (18 
articles), 

<http://www.clinicalmolecularallergy.com/>Clinical and Molecular Allergy
(15 articles),

<http://www.resource-allocation.com/>Cost Effectiveness and Resource
Allocation (14 articles),

<http://www.cytojournal.com/>CytoJournal (9 articles),

<http://www.ete-online.com/>Emerging Themes in Epidemiology (6 articles),

<http://www.dynamic-med.com/>Dynamic Medicine (13 articles),

Another NLM requirement (that "an electronic journal has been accessible
for at least six months" for a review for PubMed indexing) is apparently
also in breach by BMC's <http://www.ete-online.com/>Emerging Themes in
Epidemiology, <http://www.cerebrospinalfluidresearch.com/>Cerebrospinal
Fluid Research, <http://www.bio-diglib.com/>Biomedical Digital Libraries,
<http://www.anzhealthpolicy.com/>Australia and New Zealand Health Policy,
and <http://www.immunityageing.com/>Immunity and Ageing .

One may wonder what is this? A quality compromise by NIH evaluation, a
sort of special arrangement employed by BMC? Developed by NLM special
mechanism for a commercial publisher? Discrimination of certain scholar
journals or something else?

I am particularly interested to know the answer, because an independent
journal that I lead (Neurobiology of Lipids, ISSN 1683-5506) has 20+
publications but was discouraged (few months ago) to apply for PubMed
indexing until twenty peer-reviewed articles are published in the journal,
and despite the fact that 10 editors of the journal (of 40+ international
board members) serve as PIs on NIH research grants.

I look forward to have this issue clarified in a public forum.

Sincerely,

Alexei Koudinov, MD, PhD
Neurobiology of Lipids
<http://neurobiologyoflipids.org>