The
Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) is a general medical journal that is published biweekly by the
Canadian Medical Association (CMA). It showcases innovative research and ideas aimed at improving health for people in Canada and globally. CMAJ publishes original clinical research, analyses and reviews, news, practice updates and thought-provoking editorials.
It is considered to be one of the top six general medical journals ; the others being the
New England Journal of Medicine, the
Journal of the American Medical Association,
The Lancet, the
British Medical Journal, and the
Annals of Internal Medicine. The journal has an
impact factor of 7.1 and its website receives over 25 million requests a year.
Dr. Paul Hebert, a medical researcher and senior scientist with the Ottawa Health Research Institute, is the editor-in-chief.
Notable publications
The
CMAJ published Banting and Best's 1922 report, "Pancreatic extracts in the treatment of diabetes mellitus".
Free access
CMAJ is the only one of the six major general medical journals to have the entire electronic version of the journal free online from date of publication since 1911. The historical archives are also free online. The other major journals allow free access to limited content or to content of a specified age.
CMAJ does not have authorship or page charges.
Public policy impact
CMAJ impacts public policy in Canada, recently in the case of
Jordan’s principle In a lead editorial which cited the example of a 5-year-old First Nations child Jordan River Anderson who died alone and away from his family while governments squabbled over who should pay for his care, the journal called on governments to put the medical needs of First Nations children first. In the wake of national media attention, in December 2007 Canada’s Parliament unanimously adopted “Jordan’s Principle,” a “child first” approach to resolving jurisdictional disputes involving the care of child.
Controversy about editorial independence
On
February 20 2006,
John Hoey, the last long-standing editor, was fired over an
editorial independence dispute with the then owners of the
CMAJ, CMA Media.
The
CMAJ sent 13 women to buy the emergency contraceptive levonorgestrel (Plan B) over-the-counter in pharmacies across Canada, and report their experiences. The pharmacists asked them for personal data, including the woman's name, address, date of last menstrual period, when she had unprotected sex, customary method of birth control, and reason for dispensing the medication. This was at the recommendation of the Canadian Pharmacists Association, which also advised members to store the information permanently in their computers. The Canadian Women's Health Network said that collecting this information was unnecessary and a violation of privacy. The Canadian Pharmacists Association complained to the Canadian Medical Association, demanding that the names of the pharmacists be removed from the article. The Canadian Medical Association ordered the
CMAJ to comply. The Canadian Medical Association then fired Hoey, without giving a reason.
On
February 28 2006, the acting-editor,
Stephen Choi and editorial fellow
Sally Murray, resigned from journal over the same reason leaving it without any full-time editorial staff, which raised questions about the future of the publication.
In January 2007, Dr. Paul Hebert became editor-in-chief.
In April 2007, the former staff at CMAJ launched a new open-access journal,
Open Medicine.
Editorial fellowship
CMAJ hires young "editorial interns" every year, for one year. These interns help to write and edit articles, among other duties. The editorial intern program has proven popular.
History
The
CMAJ was established in 1911.
See also
