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The British Society for Gynecological Endoscopy's Internet Journal
The Journal's Technical Editor, Nick Tyrrell, PhD, shared these insights with us.
OBGYN.net: What is the mission of your association?
Dr. Tyrrell The BSGE - Internet Journal is an electronic forum for the exchange of ideas relating to endoscopic surgery of the upper female genital tract. Although the Journal is fully recognised by the British Society for Gynecological Endoscopy, it is independently edited, produced and funded. Authorship is open to all contributors, subject only, to our editorial control and open peer review.
OBGYN.net: How are you better serving your membership with Internet Technology?
Dr. Tyrrell We believe that the journal can offer our colleagues a much faster and dynamic forum than the more conventional 'official' bi-monthly paper journal.
OBGYN.net: Why did you decide to build a web site?
Dr. Tyrrell Principally because of frustration with our official print based journal which has all the inherent problems of closed peer review, editing and proofing. This process so often causes important research to be delayed for months before publication. Now there is a medium which means that clinical papers can be disseminated to a world-wide audience in hours rather than months.
OBGYN.net: Who manages your web site?
Dr. Tyrrell Jeremy Wright, FRCOG is the clinical editor, Miriam Grunberger produces the graphics and Nick Tyrrell is web master and Technical Editor.
OBGYN.net: When was your site launched?
Dr. Tyrrell Conceived during June/July'95 by Jeremy Wright and Nick Tyrrell, ante-natal support was given by the BSGE Annual Meeting inOctober '95. The site was safely delivered, as a '7 page' infant after an intense labour at 03.30 hrs on 28th October '95.
OBGYN.net: What has been the greatest advantage in using the Internet?
Dr. Tyrrell In a word, exposure. We have published authors from as far apart as Russia, Israel and South America whose work would otherwise not have been published so quickly. Space in the prestigious Western printed journals is heavily contested and authors from other countries can find it difficult to get published in a reasonable time regardless of the merit of their work.
OBGYN.net: What are the future goals of your organization on the Internet?
Dr. Tyrrell Next we would like to include, subject to the appropriate legal and ethical considerations, video clips and images of endoscopic surgery. However images of sufficient quality are very hungry for server space and this has a significant economic impact on a privately funded journal. Finally, the site is not a substitute for our official paper journal but an independant reference source. Eventually we want to develop our own clinical identity and attract the same recognition as the more established printed journals.
Nick Tyrrell, PhD
Technical Editor - BSGE - Internet Journal.
URL: www.cix.co.uk/~narnia/bsge/
E mail: aslan@cix.compulink.co.uk
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