When Smaller Is Bigger
At first, this title may seem to be an oxymoron—but it’s not in the case of The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. Yes, the printed version of JCP has been reduced in size; however, our electronic offerings at PSYCHIATRIST.COM have increased in number, allowing for more peer-reviewed articles, letters, book reviews, and other features than ever before.
As our print and online worlds evolve, the quality of JCP remains consistently strong. We continue to offer you, our readers, essential information to increase your armamentarium of knowledge to better diagnose and treat your patients.
The partnership between print and digital places JCP and linked, related resources at your disposal. You can log on from your computer, tablet, or smart phone or scan QR codes with your digital device to gain immediate access to specific information or launch an online search. You can find thumbnail summaries of important articles on Facebook and Twitter, you can listen to Podcast summaries of articles and monthly issues, and you can share insights with your colleagues more easily than ever. Our PsychsTalk blog is the first in a series of blogs and articles that allow you to join the discussion. Special features such as Practical Psychopharmacology are included only in the online edition. And, our multimedia CME activities continue to be available exclusively online. Examine the print table of contents to find out which articles and special features have been added to JCP this month. Subscribe to JCP for full access to all Online Exclusives and to the growing array of dynamic enhancements provided in our Web environment.
The ease of publishing on the Web has allowed us to bring you more content. Yet, ironically, the basics of the writing, editing, and reviewing process have changed very little. Yes, we now correspond electronically and publishing software makes our editorial process more efficient, but the ultimate quality of our product still comes down to careful research, the presentation of results, and the sharing of information. Throughout the process, the constant key gatekeeping element—peer review—remains the hallmark of scientific discourse. A peer-reviewed journal provides you with a tool to filter through the seemingly endless amount of information that comes to you daily and to separate the valuable from the trivial or worthless.
In the end, the most important element of publishing is still the quality of the content. Whether you read the print journal or use your computer, tablet, or smart phone (and soon your glasses, if Google has its way!), the information must be accurate and useful. The integrity of the content remains more important than the allure of the presentation.
So while some cry that publishing is "dead," I am here to say that The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry is very much alive, and its publisher and editors are working hard to keep up with the changing demands of our readers to access JCP 24/7 from anywhere around the globe.
