Re: Press Release: NHS ENGLAND EXTEND BIOMED CENTRAL MEMBERSHIP TO 2008

[Matthew Cockerill <matt@biomedcentral.com>]

Anthony,

The figures about accessibility of NHS research within the NHS are taken
from research that BioMed Central did in collaboration with the NHS last
year and submitted to the House of Commons Science & Technology committee
inquiry on science publishing:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmsctech/ 
399/399we53.htm

The annex lists the raw data:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmsctech/ 
399/399we54.htm

The exact number of articles being published by BioMed Central is open for
all to see - for example, all our open access articles, once published in
final form, are made available for download here:  
http://www.biomedcentral.com/info/about/datamining/

There are currently more than 11,700 open access articles.  (2 years  
ago it was only 3500)

Similarly, NHS England has a "member page" on BioMed Central, which lists
all the articles published by its researchers in BioMed Central journals:
http://www.biomedcentral.com/inst/37456

The press release listed increases, rather than absolute figures, just
because that was the simplest and most direct way to make our point -
which was that the NHS's use of BioMed Central has grown rapidly since it
became a BioMed Central member.

Matt Cockerill
Publisher
BioMed Central (http://www.biomedcentral.com)
Email: matt@biomedcentral.com


On 14 Nov 2005, at 0:22, Anthony Watkinson wrote:

> The recent spate of BMC press releases are remarkably opaque.  
> Percentages in this case are pointless if we do not know the numbers
> involved.  Can we see these numbers? Come back Jan Velterop.
>
> Anthony Watkinson