Newswise — A Professor and Chief of Plastic Surgery at University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-New Jersey Medical School has embarked on a mission to provide open access to vital information on plastic surgery via the internet.
ePlasty, created by Mark Granick, MD, Professor and Chief of Plastic Surgery, in conjunction with two of his associates, Dr. Stephen Milner, professor of Plastic Surgery at Johns Hopkins University and Dr. John Kucan, professor of Plastic Surgery at the University of Illinois is the first open access journal of plastic surgery that will promote the free exchange of information at an international level.
Information on plastic surgery has typically been limited to books and subscription-only medical journals, making access to updated and timely literature limited for physicians in Third World countries. The online journal can be viewed at http://www.eplasty.com.
Granick believes ePlasty will revolutionize how his colleagues, particularly those in countries with minimal resources will obtain current information about plastic surgery.
"This publishing and delivery structure will serve as an invaluable educational asset to all plastic surgeons, no matter how remote and isolated they may be," said Granick who was inspired by his missionary work in Mauritius, a small island nation in the Indian Ocean that has a population of 1.2 million and only one plastic surgeon.
Drs. Milner and Kucan previously developed the open access electronic Journal of Burns and Wounds, www.journalofburnsandwounds.com. Dr. Granick envisioned a web based journal, ePlasty, which could provide free peer-reviewed literature and general educational materials regarding all aspects of plastic surgery and related specialties to a worldwide audience. Together these three professors from distinguished universities spent a year developing ePlasty which launched this month. ePlasty is Pub Med and Pub Central indexed by the National Library of Medicine.
In addition to the peer-reviewed journal, the site includes a forum to allow international dialogue on a variety of subjects, an education section to facilitate resident education in plastic surgery, an exhibit hall where industry can display technical as well as testimonial multimedia productions, and a presentation area where experts can place multimedia items that include lectures, operating techniques, ward rounds and a variety of other explanatory recordings.
The construction and maintenance cost of the site will be offset by advertising. ePlasty will be free for authors and free for viewers. The majority of other open access journals charge publishing fees of $2,000 to $3,000 per article. Authors to ePlasty will retain all copyrights for their work. The journal has no publication deadlines, no space constraints, and can accept and publish in a variety of media that include digital photos, video and narration. The publication time will be reduced to approximately three months, whereas major print journals require 12 to 24 months lead time. All scientific articles submitted to ePlasty will be peer reviewed. The journal will consist of multiple sections: Research/Basic Science, Burns/Wounds, Cosmetic, Pediatric/Cranio-Maxillofacial, Hand, Reconstruction/Microsurgery, Oncology, Resident/Trainee, Clinical Trials and case reports and sections for allied specialties, including orthopaedics, dermatology, ophthalmology and vascular surgery. In addition to the peer-reviewed section, ePlasty will also have an edited, non-peer reviewed educational section of work solicited from experts in their respective fields.
The Editors and Chief of ePlasty are Drs. Milner and Granick. The Managing Editor is Dr. Kucan.
"ePlasty will provide a unique platform for the dissemination of information to a global audience and will serve as a marked alternative to traditional printed journals," said Kucan.
Contributing editors include renowned board certified specialists representing all areas of the world. Among the international experts are Drs. Peter Pappas, W. Clark Lambert, Melissa Davidson and Paul Langer all of UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School. Among the many international scholars and clinicians on the editorial staff are Dr. Sadanori Akita, PhD, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, Japan, Ardy Bayat, PhD, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK, and Dr. Karl Breuing, of Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
UMDNJ is the nation's largest free-standing public health sciences university with more than 5,500 students attending the state's three medical schools, its only dental school, a graduate school of biomedical sciences, a school of health related professions, a school of nursing and its only school of public health, on five campuses. Last year, there were more than two million patient visits to UMDNJ facilities and faculty at campuses in Newark, New Brunswick/Piscataway, Scotch Plains, Camden and Stratford. UMDNJ operates University Hospital, a Level I Trauma Center in Newark, and University Behavioral HealthCare, a mental health and addiction services network.
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