The Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE), the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) are some of the main journal accrediting bodies especially in the field of nursing practice. They offer access to a plethora of standards and other important documents listing quality practice guidelines on dissemination of medical information in an equitable, efficient, effective and fair way. On the other hand, it is complex since global competition for journal quality has put overwhelming pressure on editors. As a result, Journals that do not maintain punctuation, fail to do publications regularly, have low standard and quality are thrown out of the database. This essay compares Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) with the British journal of cardiac nursing.
Canadian Medical Association Journal
Canadian Medical Association Journal, like any other public health journal is peer reviewed and deliberates on health care, biostatistics and epidemiology. It was established in 1913, and since then it has been covering editorials, offering practice updates, news, reviews analysis and clinical research (Lee et al., 2009). The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) publishes CMAJ twice every week and offers free online access to its archives. Besides, CMAJ has an Open Medicine journal which it recently launched. This journal, being open-access, aims at ensuring equitable distribution of medical information and stimulating research on scientific matters.
CMAJ also showcases ways of improving health through new ideas, innovative research and creates awareness on euthanasia, abortion, contraception, smoking and its impacts, cancer and other medico-socio issues (Lee et al., 2009). CMAJ’s 100 years of publishing medical issues has been characterized by a team of editors who are international and medically qualified, peer review that is timely and of high quality, sufficient online content of CMAJ print issue, editorial contents, a 7.3 impact factor and a partnership with PubMed central (Lee et al., 2009).
British Journal of Cardiac Nursing
The British Journal of Cardiac Nursing deals with cardiac nursing practice, research and other relevant clinical issues. It also explores health care matters, biostatistics and epidemiology as found in the field of public health. It is published once in a month. Major explanations in the journal include the cardiovascular system and its impacts on patients, and the work of nursing specialty under a cardiologist’s direction in treatment of cardiac dysrhythmia, myocardial infraction, congestive heart failure, coronary artery disease, cardiomyopathy and unstable angina (Child, 2004).
Since its inception in 2006, British Journal of Cardiac Nursing has produced writings on professional focus and clinical coverage which nurses find essential for their specialty that is so demanding. Additionally, it provides professional articles, original research and clinical reviews which are pertinent.
Comparisons
- Both CMAJ and the British Journal of Cardiac nursing frequently accessed and used by practitioners such as nurses and doctors.
- They are both peer-reviewed. These two journals went through a review process. In peer review, published journals are scrutinized at different levels depending on the categories the fall into. The processes can either be blind peer, peer or editorial review.
- Both journals cover topics of a diverse range. For instance, CMAJ talks about medico-socio issues such as euthanasia, abortion, contraception and so on while the British journal of Cardiac Nursing cardiovascular diseases, professional focus, research, pertinent clinical reviews and so on.
- Both offer access to credible information. This is either through archives, libraries, open-access or the internet. Through online publication, the accessibility and dissemination of information by both journals has increased.
References
Child, A. (2004). Cardiac rehabilitation: goals, interventions and action plans. British Journal of Nursing, 13(12), 734-738.
Lee, D. et al. (2009). Trends in risk factors for cardiovascular disease in Canada: temporal, socio-demographic and geographic factors. Canadian Medical Association. Journal, 181(3/4), E55-66.