June 19
,
2012
by: ASRM Office of Public Affairs
Published in ASRM Press Release
Washington DC (June 19, 2012) – Fertility and Sterility, the flagship journal of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) and its publisher Elsevier, announce the first-ever publication of a new multimedia article format that integrates video and traditional print research.
Online video and traditional print were previously two separate and unrelated worlds in scientific research. The new mechanism allows videos to be cited the same way as a written article in a traditional print medical journal and seamlessly unifies online multimedia content and print journals. Researchers can watch footage of innovations and techniques and learn previously inaccessible information in new non-written formats while still being able to find this information through traditional medical print sources.
"For the last 200 years, medical publishing remained unchanged. Our solution accommodates non-print work through fully integrated multimedia, opens up a whole new form of learning, and allows readers to become part of an ongoing interactive discussion," says Dr. Steven Palter, the Video and New Media Editor of Fertility and Sterility. Dr. Palter, who developed the concept and spearheaded the project, says "With this effort, we have bridged the gap separating the digital and traditional medical literature. This integration will lead to exciting new directions in research."
The new media initiative is unique in several ways. It allows an article to exist simultaneously online and in the traditional medical journal and it enables videos to be citable publications for all traditional journals. Fertility and Sterility embeds an open access link in the article that appears both in PubMed and the Journal's electronic tables of contents, and also in the print journal. QR codes associated with each article seamlessly bring readers from print journal to online video. Authors can create review articles, experimental techniques, anatomic overviews, case reports, and more. Videos, which are peer reviewed as part of the mainstream submission process are served open source through Google’s YouTube.
Craig Niederberger MD, Co-Editor-in-Chief of Fertility and Sterility said, “We are committed to using modern communication methods, from online video to social media to enhance Fertility and Sterility. Medical journals are about conveying new information and new discoveries to others in the field. We simply cannot rely on print alone to do that anymore.”
Antonio Pellicer, MD, Co- Editor-in-Chief of the journal, said, “Medicine has always been an international pursuit. Now with online distribution of multimedia articles the sharing of knowledge can occur even faster, indeed simultaneously around the globe, thus improving patient care more quickly and without regard to geography.”
The first article “Single port laparoscopy” is authored by L. Carvalho et al from the Cleveland Clinic, and appears in the May 2012 issue of Fertility and Sterility and shows a new surgical principle. The abstract both on-line and in the print publication leads to an online video showing the technique: http://fertstertforum.com/2012974caravalho. The article is currently indexed in PubMed at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22542145.
The second article, “Chromosome transfer in mature oocytes,” is authored by M. Tachibana et al. From the Oregon National Primate Research Center and also appears in the May 2012 issue of Fertility and Sterility. The video which demonstrates the innovative laboratory technique is at http://fertstertforum.com/2012974tachibana. The article is currently indexed in PubMed at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22542144.
With this innovation, ASRM and Elsevier have embraced the digital revolution that has rapidly transformed traditional publishing. Just as the Amazon Kindle brought epublishing to the masses, the new video article initiative of Fertility and Sterility bridges the gap between online multimedia and traditional medical research publishing.
The American Society for Reproductive Medicine, founded in 1944, is an organization of 8,000 physicians, researchers, nurses, technicians and other professionals dedicated to advancing knowledge and expertise in reproductive biology. Affiliated societies include the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology, the Society for Male Reproduction and Urology, the Society for Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, the Society of Reproductive Surgeons, and the Society of Reproductive Biologists and Technologists.
Also see Elsevier’s release at www.fertstert.org.