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Free Canadian Open Access Journal "Open Medicine" Launches

The peer reviewed, open access, independent medical journal, Open Medicine, has just launched and is now available for free online. The mission of the journal "is to facilitate the equitable global dissemination of high-quality health research; to promote international dialogue and collaboration on health issues; to improve clinical practice; and to expand and deepen the understanding of health and health care."

Gavin Yamey, who recently joined us for a Berkman Center and Harvard Free Culture event on open access journals (see MediaBerkman), has published an article on "The joys and challenges of being an open access medical journal." Launched by a group of doctors who left the Canadian Medical Association Journal last year, and published under a Creative Commons license, Open Medicine has been called "Canada's First Peer to Peer Medical Journal."

In his inaugural editorial for the issue, editor James Maskalyk declares that "Medical knowledge should be public and free from undeclared influence" because "there is clear evidence of publication bias in medical journals predicated on financial conflicts, geography and poverty."

One article, "A systematic review of studies comparing health outcomes in Canada and the United States," used data from over 38 studies comparing populations of patients in the US and Canada and found "that health outcomes may be superior in patients cared for in Canada versus the United States, but differences are not consistent."