Scholarly publishing is where academic professionals cultivate ideas and pursue truths. Those in the health sciences accomplish this through both quantitative and qualitative research that is then evaluated, disseminated, and preserved for future reference. The below web sources give a succinct overview of scholarly publishing's traditional operation:
Traditional Scholarly Publishing Definitions and Evolutions
ICMJE Notes on the Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals
The traditional scholarly publication model is a cycle involving researchers, medical institutions, publishers, peer reviewers, editors, and even libraries. The steps of this cycle generally follow the same procedure:
Within the traditional model, publishers make a profit three ways:
The first two methods are the most common as most traditional publishers do not operate by charging authors. With institutional memberships, revenue is generated through user-based subscription fees to libraries or other repositories for various degrees of access. Certain publishers may also charge by article to those wishing to access the material without a subscription. In the health sciences, specialized journals can even offer discounts to individual subscribers.
To compensate for the quick turnaround time in contemporary publishing, access to a certain journal may be temporarily prevented because of an embargo. A journal publisher may set up an embargo for a designated period of time (generally between six months and two years) to preserve the content of the article while collecting needed revenue. An embargo may also occur because institutional subscriptions do not cover the cost of access under their current contract. See this article for further information on journal embargoes:
The Logic Behind Journal Embargoes
Look for current embargoes with Elsevier's Journal Embargo Finder
Scholarly publishing is currently a changing mechanism. As the traditional model shifts to accommodate a more flexible role, publishing within the medical sciences has taken on several different forms and formats. These still include traditional books or journal articles, many with peer-reviewed editorial processes and usually available through fee-based subscriptions. Yet publishing now encompasses other mediums and means of access. Things like committee or conference proceedings, ongoing studies, and even web-based interactions now constitute platforms for promoting scholarly information. Traditional journals and publishers have also worked to establish better document delivery methods. This essentially means a more streamlined effort to provide professionals with relevant information through updated methods of licensing and distribution. With the increase in digital communication, the Open Access movement has made both peer-reviewed and other resources available with fewer restrictions. Scholarly publishing has even reinvented its terminology as "scholarly communication" to highlight the ways which modern research can bypass modes of the traditional, subscription-based publishing.
Currently, the TTUHSC library has an institutional fellowship with the British Medical Journal's Case Reports. BMJ Case Reports is an award winning journal that delivers a focused, peer-reviewed, valuable collection of cases in all disciplines so that healthcare professionals, researchers and others can easily find clinically important information on common and rare conditions. This is the largest single collection of case reports online with more than 15,000 articles from over 70 countries. TTUHSC's fellowship with this journal means that resident faculty, staff, and students can publish through it on a cost-free basis. See this research guide for further information.
