{"id":256,"date":"2010-03-01T21:39:31","date_gmt":"2010-03-01T20:39:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?p=256"},"modified":"2010-03-01T21:39:31","modified_gmt":"2010-03-01T20:39:31","slug":"journal-ism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/03\/01\/journal-ism\/","title":{"rendered":"Journal-ism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I got an email today from one of our current batch of students, who will &#8211; all being well &#8211; be collecting his MA in the next few months.*<\/p>\n<p>The essence of the email is this: over the course of his time with us, he&#8217;s found that his interest in medical ethics and law has been sufficiently tickled that he&#8217;d like to keep his hand in.** \u00a0The problem is that he&#8217;ll lose access to the journals that he currently gets through the library. <!--more--> Now, it would appear that certain other universities around the country offer their alumni a subscription service whereby they can still get access to the library and some of its resources. \u00a0And I know, too, that there&#8217;s a certain university in the midlands that has an open-door policy in its library: members of the public don&#8217;t, I suppose, have a <em>right<\/em> to use it, but they&#8217;re allowed to. \u00a0(I did a good chunk of my A-levels there; during my brief stint as a schoolteacher, so did a number of my students.) \u00a0That means no borrowing, but the opportunity to browse the shelves and photocopy.<\/p>\n<p>A subscription service offered to alumni so that they can make use of their <em>alma mater<\/em>&#8216;s electronic resources strikes me as a good idea &#8211; but\u00a0I don&#8217;t actually see why a paid subscription is necessary. \u00a0It&#8217;d be lovely if universities made a habit of giving their graduands, alongside the certificate and the silly costume, a login that&#8217;d give them access to electronic resources.<\/p>\n<p>It wouldn&#8217;t cost libraries anything &#8211; unless they currently sell a subscription to electronic journals &#8211; because at the moment, alumni just vanish in the main. \u00a0Even those that sell subscriptions already wouldn&#8217;t lose much: my correspondent cites figures of around 40 quid a year, which really isn&#8217;t a lot. \u00a0Nor can I see that there&#8217;d be much worry about copyright: once again, the publishers wouldn&#8217;t lose out on an existing market, and worries about people sharing their password are no more serious than worries about people lending out their library cards. \u00a0Academic journals &#8211; even the <em>JME<\/em> &#8211; aren&#8217;t exactly high on PirateBay&#8217;s*** list of targets.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">I can think of only one group of losers: the societies that sponsor or publish the journals. \u00a0For example, I&#8217;m a member of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.royalinstitutephilosophy.org\/\">Royal Institute of Philosophy<\/a> and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.appliedphil.org\/\">Society for Applied Philosophy<\/a>. \u00a0Partly, this is fuelled by nostalgia &#8211; the SAP was closely related to Hull, whence I graduated first time round. \u00a0Mainly, though, it&#8217;s simply because I like their journals, and they&#8217;re a LOT cheaper to members. \u00a0Had I free &#8211; or next-to-free &#8211; access to those journals, I&#8217;d&#8217;ve been less inclined to join the societies; and while I don&#8217;t kid myself that the marginal value of one member is vast, the value of us all is.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">But I still like the idea of free access. \u00a0All we&#8217;d need is a couple of millionaires whom we could kill and whose estates we could distribute to various learned organisations.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">I<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">I<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">I<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">It&#8217;s been suggested in the past that I&#8217;m just a big old utopian. \u00a0Well, <em>DUH<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">I<\/span><\/p>\n<p>*OK: I&#8217;ve not gone to the effort of de-anonymising his marks and second-guessing the markers, second markers, external examiners, and exam board &#8211; so he oughtn&#8217;t to take this post as any indication of his actual results, I&#8217;m just being nice; no, really, legal disclaimer, blah, blah, blah&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>** (cough)PhD(cough)<\/p>\n<p>*** Other illegal downloading sites are available. \u00a0Apparently.<!--TrendMD v2.4.8--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I got an email today from one of our current batch of students, who will &#8211; all being well &#8211; be collecting his MA in the next few months.* The essence of the email is this: over the course of his time with us, he&#8217;s found that his interest in medical ethics and law has [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/03\/01\/journal-ism\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1273,1542,1543,472],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ethics-education","category-in-the-journals","category-the-academy","category-thinking-aloud"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Journal-ism - Journal of Medical Ethics blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/03\/01\/journal-ism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Journal-ism - Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I got an email today from one of our current batch of students, who will &#8211; all being well &#8211; be collecting his MA in the next few months.* The essence of the email is this: over the course of his time with us, he&#8217;s found that his interest in medical ethics and law has [...]Read More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/03\/01\/journal-ism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-03-01T20:39:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/03\\\/01\\\/journal-ism\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/03\\\/01\\\/journal-ism\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"BMJ\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe\"},\"headline\":\"Journal-ism\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-03-01T20:39:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/03\\\/01\\\/journal-ism\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":605,\"commentCount\":16,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Ethics education\",\"In the Journals\",\"The Academy\",\"Thinking Aloud\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/03\\\/01\\\/journal-ism\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/03\\\/01\\\/journal-ism\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/03\\\/01\\\/journal-ism\\\/\",\"name\":\"Journal-ism - Journal of Medical Ethics blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-03-01T20:39:31+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/03\\\/01\\\/journal-ism\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/03\\\/01\\\/journal-ism\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/03\\\/01\\\/journal-ism\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Journal-ism\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/\",\"name\":\"Journal of Medical Ethics blog\",\"description\":\"A blog to discuss the ethics of medicine in its many guises and formats.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Journal of Medical Ethics blog\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/files\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/jme-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/files\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/jme-logo.png\",\"width\":200,\"height\":50,\"caption\":\"Journal of Medical Ethics blog\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe\",\"name\":\"BMJ\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"BMJ\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/author\\\/admin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Journal-ism - Journal of Medical Ethics blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/03\/01\/journal-ism\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Journal-ism - Journal of Medical Ethics blog","og_description":"I got an email today from one of our current batch of students, who will &#8211; all being well &#8211; be collecting his MA in the next few months.* The essence of the email is this: over the course of his time with us, he&#8217;s found that his interest in medical ethics and law has [...]Read More...","og_url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/03\/01\/journal-ism\/","og_site_name":"Journal of Medical Ethics blog","article_published_time":"2010-03-01T20:39:31+00:00","author":"BMJ","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"BMJ","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/03\/01\/journal-ism\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/03\/01\/journal-ism\/"},"author":{"name":"BMJ","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#\/schema\/person\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe"},"headline":"Journal-ism","datePublished":"2010-03-01T20:39:31+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/03\/01\/journal-ism\/"},"wordCount":605,"commentCount":16,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Ethics education","In the Journals","The Academy","Thinking Aloud"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/03\/01\/journal-ism\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/03\/01\/journal-ism\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/03\/01\/journal-ism\/","name":"Journal-ism - Journal of Medical Ethics blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-03-01T20:39:31+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/03\/01\/journal-ism\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/03\/01\/journal-ism\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/03\/01\/journal-ism\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Journal-ism"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/","name":"Journal of Medical Ethics blog","description":"A blog to discuss the ethics of medicine in its many guises and formats.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#organization","name":"Journal of Medical Ethics blog","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/files\/2026\/04\/jme-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/files\/2026\/04\/jme-logo.png","width":200,"height":50,"caption":"Journal of Medical Ethics blog"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#\/schema\/person\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe","name":"BMJ","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"BMJ"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}