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JAMA Online—New Features, New Functions
Margaret A. Winker, MD
JAMA. 2003;290:108-110.
Eight years ago, few individuals could conceive how quickly and irreversibly the face of biomedical publishing would be transformed by the World Wide Web. At that time, JAMA and the Archives Journals had been available electronically by various means for several years, but in 1995 the tentative beginnings of a JAMA and Archives Web site first appeared as part of the AMA's Web site, offering portions of the journals online.1 By September 1999, the full text of JAMA and the Archives Journals were available from January 1998 forward, fully searchable in a new design with links from references to MEDLINE abstracts or citations and other then-innovative ways to build the Web of biomedical information. As is the rule with the Web, however, what initially is novel and intriguing quickly becomes standard. Thus, soon after launching the new site, we began exploring ways to better embrace the potential of the Web to address the need of physicians and others for relevant, immediately accessible, easily discovered high-quality peer-reviewed content.
In March 2003, we launched the new JAMA & Archives Web site (http://pubs.ama-assn.org), umbrella site of JAMA (http://jama.com) and the 9 Archives Journals. The new site offers many new ways to search, find, and track the medical literature, with links to the latest free articles from the 10 journals and links to information and resources. Here we will familiarize our readers with some of the features we think are most useful.
The site has undergone a complete redesign, with a cleaner, more open look to facilitate reading on screen and improved navigation to help readers find the many new features and functions. The JAMA home page includes more use of images and short summaries of articles that highlight key articles, journal announcements, and calls for papers. The drop-down menu at the upper right hand corner of each page permits easy navigation across journals and other resources on the site, and the search field on each page permits a quick simple search of the journal to be conducted from anywhere on the journal site.
Enabling E-Browsing.
For readers who enjoy browsing an issue, the Table of Contents provides the usual abstract, full text, and links to the PDF printable versions of each article. In addition, the "Get Checked Abstracts" function enables collection of abstracts of interest for easy reading, printing, or downloading to a citation manager for future referencing. The reader can use the "Jump to Section" pull-down menu to quickly find a favorite section within the Table of Contents.
Each article includes several new features to permit easier browsing and navigation. A "Jump to Section" box appears on the right-hand side at the beginning of each major section (ie, "Methods") and permits quick access to the article's main sections.Tables and Figures appear as links where they are cited within the article, and Figures appear as a thumbnail image. Both enlarge to an optimal size for viewing with a single click. Reference linking has expanded significantly. References to articles in the (currently) 363 journals hosted by HighWire Press have an Abstract/Full Text link that permits free full-text access to those articles. If the citation is to a journal not in this group, a MEDLINE link will appear, and, if the journal is included in CrossRef or the Web of Science of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), links to the full text of the article will appear via those databases (access rules follow those of the journal).
The right-hand navigation box at the top of the article page includes several options. First, "Featured Link" highlights a key feature available on the site, such as "E-mail Alerts." "Article Options" includes links to other views of the article including "Abstract"; "PDF"; content related to the article that is available online only; corrections if any; "Send to a Friend," which enables the reader to send the citation and link to the article to a friend and include a message; "Related articles in this issue," such as editorials; and "Similar articles in this journal," which searches for related content in the complete journal collection.
"Literature Track" includes diverse ways to identify relevant articles from the medical literature. The "File Drawer" is available to those with an individual subscription (the information is stored via user name and password). Subscribers can add and remove articles from the File Drawer, create and name new files, and reorganize articles as needed (and the files do not yellow with time!). By using "Download to Citation Manager," article citations can be saved to a personal citation manager for efficient, error-free citing. Links to PubMed include a link to the citation on PubMed and a PubMed search on the last name and first initial of the first and last authors. "Articles that cite this article" lists articles in HighWire-hosted journals that have cited the article being viewed. The "ISI Web of Science" links out to articles in journals in the ISI's Web of Science that have cited the article. Finally, "Contact me when this article is cited" sends an e-mail alert when a journal hosted by HighWire cites the article.
"Topic Collections" group articles on a specific topic. Collections can be viewed for a single journal or across JAMA and all 9 Archives Journals. To stay up-to-date on specific topics, readers can sign up to receive an e-mail alert whenever an article on a specific topic is published in JAMA.
Selective Searching.
A quick search field is available on every page of the main journal site. "Advanced Search" enables the reader to limit the search to article citation, author, words in title or text, section in the journal, topic collection, a specific date range, or figure and table captions. The JAMA & Archives Journals Web site includes full text from January 1998 forward, tables of contents from 1962 forward, and abstracts from 1975 forward. Readers also can search across all 10 journals simultaneously from any journal's Advanced Search, or in any combination by going to Advanced Search from the JAMA & Archives home page.
The screen displaying the results of a search includes the ability to select specific abstracts to read, print, or download displayed citations to a personal citation manager. The reader also can be notified automatically when new articles are published that meet the same search criteria by selecting the feature "Alert me when new articles matching my search are published."
Information That Finds You.
Several forms of e-mail alerting are available free of charge.Tables of Contents alerts list the complete contents of each issue of a specific journal with links back to each article. "New Issue Notice" alerts notify readers when a new issue is posted. Readers can be notified when early release articles are posted online. Importantly, e-mail addresses provided for these or other alerting functions are not shared with third parties,2 except in the case of Citation alerts and Articles that match these search alerts, which require that your e-mail address be provided to other journals.
Unique Online Content.
Along with the many added features available on the Web site, additional content is available to Web site users. Individual and institutional subscribers receive full access to Users' Guides to the Medical Literature: A Manual for Evidence-Based Clinical Practice,3 an online interactive version of the book based on the popular series published in JAMA with numerous additional features and tools. The entire collection of JAMA Patient Pages is available, with many also in Spanish. "For The Media" (http://pubs.ama-assn.org/media) includes news releases for JAMA and Archives Journals and provides embargoed content to approved journalists registered with the site.
Accessing THE JOURNAL.
Tables of contents, abstracts, search functions, e-mail alerts, and several other site-wide features are available free of charge. The full text of THE JOURNAL continues to be available to individual and institutional subscribers and American Medical Association members. Individuals may purchase a single article or site-wide 24-hour access to all 10 journals. In addition, free Guest Registration allows full-text access to Editorials, Letters, Book Reviews, Medical News & Perspectives, and MSJAMA, the Medical Student Section of JAMA, free of charge. Registering as a Guest also permits easy upgrading to online journal subscriptions including immediate full-text access.
JAMA and the Archives Journals participate in the World Health Organization's Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative (HINARI).4 Through HINARI, institutions in countries with a gross national product per capita below $3000 can receive full-text access to JAMA and the Archives Journals free of charge. As of May 1, 2003, HINARI had registered 894 institutions in the 113 eligible countries. This initiative also has programs to assist these countries in obtaining hardware to access free journal content.
Continuing Medical Education.
With this issue of THE JOURNAL, we are pleased to introduce a new online-only continuing medical education (CME) program. With each week's Clinician's Corner article or pair of articles will appear a link to the JAMA & Archives CME Web site (http://cmejama-archives.ama-assn.org), where physician subscribers can establish a "My CME" account and take courses to earn category 1 CME credit. The quiz questions reinforce the clinically important points made in the article(s). Readers are required to complete the quiz with a 60% score or better and can view links back to the article that highlight relevant text. Quizzes also can be saved for later completion if the reader is interrupted while taking the quiz. Physicians who pass the quiz receive 1 hour of category 1 CME credit per issue and are able to view and print a CME certificate. "My CME" enables readers to view completed quizzes and credits as an ongoing record of their CME achievement in JAMA and the Archives Journals.
Join us at http://jama.com and evaluate our new features for yourself. Subscribers who have not yet activated their online subscription to access full text can do so quickly and easily using their customer number at https://subs.ama-assn.org/ama/exec/activate. E-mail alerts provide diverse ways to ensure that relevant new information will find you, including early releases available only online. Tell us what you like and what you would like to see on the site using our "Contact Us" form. We look forward to your feedback so that we can continue to make the site more useful and inviting, while always providing JAMA's high-quality peer-reviewed original research articles and other scholarly works in an easily accessible and searchable format.
AUTHOR INFORMATION
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Corresponding Author and Reprints: Margaret A. Winker, MD, JAMA, 515 N State St, Chicago, IL 60610 (e-mail: Margaret_Winker{at}jama-archives.org).
Author Affiliation: Dr Winker is Deputy Editor, JAMA.
REFERENCES
1. Lundberg GD, for the JAMA Review Group. One multimedia medical world. JAMA. 1995;274:655.
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2. Winker MA, Flanagin A, Chi-Lum B, et al. Guidelines for medical and health information sites on the Internet: principles governing AMA Web sites. JAMA. 2000;283:1600-1606.
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3. Guyatt G, ed, Rennie D, ed. Users' Guides to the Medical Literature: A Manual for Evidence-Based Clinical Practice. Chicago, Ill: AMA Press; 2002.
4. World Health Organization. Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative Web site. Available at: http://www.healthinternetwork.net. Accessibility verified June 10, 2003.
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