Editorial.

The impact of MEDLINE

Facts, Views and Vision in ObGyn (FV&V) brings together online knowledge and wisdom, elicits debates and offers a platform for experts to express their opinion across the domains of science, medical ethics, social governance, and art of and within science.

FV&V being in its sixth volume and twenty-first edition has obtained the status of MEDLINE indexing, with 5 653 journals currently listed the largest online bibliographic database of life sciences and biomedical information (U.S. Library of Medicine, 2013). To be selected and registered as a new journal is subordinate to the recommendations of a panel, the Literature Selection Technical Review Committee, based on scientific scope and quality of a journal including the quality of content and the quality of editorial work. Scientific merit of a journal’s content is the primary consideration in selecting journals for indexing.

The validity, objectivity, credibility, importance, originality, and contribution to the coverage of the field of the overall contents of each title are the key factors considered in recommending a title for indexing. These features may include information about the methods of selecting articles, especially on the explicit process of external peer review; statements indicating adherence to ethical guidelines; evidence that authors have disclosed financial conflicts of interest; timely correction of errata; explicit responsible retractions as appropriate; and opportunity for comments and dissenting opinion. Additional factors that are considered include the publisher and/or sponsoring organization’s history and corporate structure, longevity, and record of performance regarding such issues as: quality of publications; experience in scholarly publishing; involvement with the scientific community; disclosure of and adherence to print and online publication standards and business ­practices (e.g., advertising standards, ethical guidelines, and conflict of interest disclosures); and promotion of editorial integrity and independence (U.S. Library of Medicine, 2009).

To comply with these selection criteria was the result of the combined efforts of the editor in chief, its ­editorial board and the publisher Universa Press. Obtaining MEDLINE citation within such a short period of time since the first edition in 2009 is a confirmation of their vision, enthusiasm, and decisiveness.

MEDLINE is the single most important citation file for the health care professions that is consulted on a wide scale regarding decision making in daily clinical practice. Physicians report that in situations involving individual patients, rapid access to the biomedical literature via MEDLINE is at times critical to sound patient care and favourably influences patient outcomes (Lindberg et al., 1993; McKibbon and Walker-Dilks, 1995). Evaluating the extent of its impact it was shown that MEDLINE is used to satisfy a diversity of medical needs concerning patient care, the progress of biomedical research, the quality of education received by health ­professionals in training, the safety and effectiveness of health care institutions, the operation of the system of third-party reimbursement, for legal decisions and for the knowledge of the public at large (Siegel et al., 1991).

Studies are conducted to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of information seeking via MEDLINE as information overload is a significant problem in modern medicine and ‘must read’ articles are poorly defined concepts (Bernstam et al., 2006; Mirel et al., 2013).

Readership has free access to full text articles via the Journal’s website (www.fvvog.be) or via the US ­National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health also known as Pubmed Central (PMC) (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) or via the alternative link www.journals4free.com.

MEDLINE indexing really opens new perspectives for our journal. The fact that FV&V will be displayed to a more diverse readership is pivotal to its main objective namely its pursuit to facilitate the cross breeding between scientific, political and artistic communities approaching common issues in obstetrics and ­gynaecology from a different perspective. We have no doubt that this will have a positive effect on the Journal’s citation count as this is still the gold standard of measuring quality and importance of an article within the scientific community (Lee et al., 2002). At the same time the manuscript submission rate will increase and the editorial board will be faced with the important task to foster their uniqueness, i.e. to maintain the diversity in their topics. We all wish the journal a bright future.