Journals on-line

The British Journal of Psychiatry (BJP), Psychiatric Bulletin and Advances in Psychiatric Treatment have been available at www.rcpsych.org since May 2000 (Fig. 1). During the initial free trial period all users of the internet had access to the full content of these journals on-line. This period ended on 31 January 2001. Access to full text is now limited to subscribers only; but access to electronic tables of contents (eTOCs), abstracts and the ability to search full text will continue to be available. Individuals or institutions who subscribe to BJP in print or are Members of the College are now able to activate an on-line subscription and select a username and password by entering a subscriber number. The eTOC service allows anyone who registers his or her e-mail address to be notified via e-mail when new content goes on-line. Users may choose to receive any or all of the following: notification that a new issue of BJP is on-line; a complete eTOC for new issues; and special announcements from the College.

Fig. 1. Royal College of Psychiatrists journals homepage

Each journal has a ‘view current and future titles’ facility and an issue can be selected from the archive. BJP has an archive of all on-line issues from September 1965 to the present. There is an archive containing eTOCs only from September 1965 to September 1975, while abstracts are available from March 1975 to December 1999. Full texts and abstracts are available for all three journals from January 2000 to the present. Older issues of BJP can be ordered from services such as LoansomeDoc (www.nlm.nih.gov/loansomedoc/loansome_home.html ).

All three journals have a ‘search’ facility and ‘browse by topic’ function. On-line archives can be searched by citation, author or keywords. To search BJP on-line the search terms are entered in the spaces provided. Search by citation will always take precedence over the search by authors or keywords and if the exact citation is known then no other information need be entered. Full titles or fragments thereof, should be entered in “quotation marks”. This results in a phrase search rather than each word being searched for separately. Titles of articles retrieved as a result of searching are returned in relevance ranked order. Further advice with searching is contained within the BJP ‘help’ facility. After performing a search you can perform the same search in other journals by using the ‘pulldown menu’ at the top of the search page entitled ‘Try this search in…’. Selecting a journal title and clicking the search button will start a search using the previously specified criteria in the selected journal. Alternatively you can return to the search page and click the ‘search multiple journals’ link.

Topics that can be browsed include highlights of each issue, editorials, review articles, original papers and preliminary reports. Supplements can be viewed via the BJP site from July 2000 and for example, include Supplement 39 — Reliable Outcome Measures for Mental Health Service Research in Five European Countries: The EPSILON Study.

Other useful facilities are the comprehensive instructions for authors as well as the help with BJP on-line function. Frequently asked questions and BJP on-line tips for better web browsing are included in the latter. Nice touches to the site are the electronic guestbook and feedback forms.

There are a number of other on-line journals available in full text for free. A list of participating journals can be obtained from HighWire Press at highwire. org. This site has been based at Stanford University since 1995 and now produces 213 sites on-line, providing access to 175 217 free full text articles. Its approach is not simply to mount electronic images of printed pages but rather, by adding links among authors, articles and citations, it allows advanced searching capabilities, high resolution images and multimedia. The electronic versions provide interaction with the information provided in the printed journals. Another easy way to access all of these journals is via the links to psychiatry resources provided at doctorsnet (www1.doctors.net.uk ). Some of the free full text on-line journals are listed below.

The British Medical Journal's (www.bmj.com ) full text website was launched in April 1998 and contains the full text of all articles published in the weekly BMJ since January 1994. This is probably the best on-line general medical journal to date. Access to the entire site is free and the BMJ will give at least 6 months' notice of any change in policy. The site is similar to the College's journals on-line site in that it provides for searching and also has some extra features such as customised alerts that allow users to select the topics on which they want to be kept informed, rather than to receive a full eTOC via e-mail. There is also a website called Netprints (clinmed.netprints.org ), which was launched in December 1999 and provides a place for authors to archive their completed studies — before, during or after peer review by other agencies. Its scope is original research into clinical medicine and health. The BMJ website provides additional links to PubMed/Medline and to classified jobs, courses and career adverts.

Current Opinion in Psychiatry (www.copsychiatry.com ) is published as a full electronic version from the BioMedNet service. Abstracts and eTOCs are available free of charge to any registered BioMedNet user and full text (in pdf format, which requires Adobe Acrobat Reader) of articles for a fee. Current Opinion in Psychiatry updates readers on clinical and research advances in psychiatry and includes a yearly review of the field. The site is comprehensive and part of the larger current opinion series covering other areas of medicine.

Evidence-Based Mental Health (www.ebmentalhealth.com ) publishes abstracts, reviews and original articles on evidence-based practice. It is allied to the journal Evidence-Based Medicine. Abstracts and eTOCs are available with some full text articles from February 1998. You can also browse articles by topic, including therapeutics, diagnosis, prognosis, aetiology, economics and quality improvement. Users can choose to have e-mail notification of the eTOCs. Subscription information and a glossary are also available. It is produced by the BMJ Publishing Group and copyright is held by the Centre for Evidence-Based Mental Health.

International Review of Psychiatry (www.tandf.-co.uk ) is published from the Institute of Psychiatry, University of London and the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, by Taylor & Francis. The eTOCs from March 1996 to present are available. The full text electronic format of this journal is available free to subscribers of the print version. Subscription details are provided on this site. Each article “provides a comprehensive, topical account of a particular subject and is edited by a distinguished guest editor, recognised as an international authority in the speciality under review”.

Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry (jnnp.bmjjournals.com ) covers the field of clinical neurological practice. Articles are included on common diseases such as cerebrovascular disease, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, epilepsy and peripheral neuropathy. From January 1996 to the present eTOCs are provided. It is published by the BMJ Publishing Group.

The site of the Journal of Psychiatry (www.ccspublishing.com ) provides contents for the current issue of the Journal of Psychiatry, a peer-reviewed digest of current psychiatric management. Some full text articles are available free of charge; some are only available to subscribers. Previous issues are available only to subscribers. Review articles are listed on psychotic and affective disorders, anxiety disorders, personality disorders, as well as original contributions and information on continuing medical education. It is published by The National Medical Society.

Psychiatry Online (priory.co.uk/psych.htm) is a peer reviewed on-line journal of psychiatry, which appears monthly. It contains articles, opinion, letters, reports and a situations vacant section. An archive of peer-reviewed articles is being maintained. A page of links to psychiatry resources worldwide is available, although no description of the resources included is given.

Psychopathology (www.karger.com/journals/psp/psp_jh.htm) is a full electronic version of recent issues of this journal and is provided by the BioMedNet service. It is published six times a year and is a record of research centred on the concepts, models and diagnostic categories of clinical psychiatry. Abstracts and eTOCs are available free of charge to registered BioMedNet users and full text (in pdf format) of articles for a fee.