“The National Library of Medicine refuses to index the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, though it is peer-reviewed and seems to meet their criteria.” (Psychology Today, Nov-Dec 2006)
How to Fool All of the People All of the Time:
US Taxpayers Fund Library Censorship
(OMNS, Jan 21, 2010) At
a recent emergency meeting of the World Headquarters Of Pharmaceutical
Politicians, Educators, and Reporters (WHOPPER):
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have a slight
problem. The public is beginning to
complain about how the US National Library of Medicine censors nutritional
research. This is embarrassing, as the last thing we want is for taxpayers to
question how their tax money is spent. It is none of their damn business. But
it is definitely a matter of business, big business, for WHOPPER.
"Up until now, when people write to complain
about journal censorship ( custserv@nlm.nih.gov ) , we've managed to get away with NLM
sending out this form letter reply: 'The National Library of Medicine
(NLM) uses a 15-person advisory committee of health professionals and
librarians to recommend titles to be indexed. This committee uses guidelines,
available to the public on our website, such as scientific merit, importance
of the content to the scientific community, and editorial processes to assist
it in making recommendations. Additional information about journal selection
is available at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/jsel.html
'
"The beauty of this is that we do not have to
follow the published guidelines. We control the National Library of Medicine
so skillfully that we got Medline to index publications that are not medical
journals at all. We are enormously proud to say that Medline indexes Time
magazine, Newsweek,
US
News and World Report, and Consumer Reports. But not the
peer-reviewed Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, continuously
published for more than 40 years, nor the peer-reviewed journal Fluoride,
also published for decades.
"Yes, there are about 2,000 indexed articles on
Medline/PubMed just from Time magazine. Here: see for yourself what a
great job we've done. Go to Medline ( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed
) and do your own two-second search for "time magazine". Then try Newsweek:
over 1,900 Medline responses. US News and World Report: over 2,000
articles indexed by Medline. Medline also indexes several hundred articles
from Consumer Reports. Check and see. It is quickest if you search
Medline/PubMed by putting quotes around the magazine's name.
"Medline even indexes two dozen articles from Reader's
Digest. (search for "read dig.")
"Isn't this terrific?
"While it is embarrassingly obvious that these
are not medical journals, there is nothing the public can do about it.
Medline indexes what its Literature Selection Technical Review Committee
tells it to. The committee's members are all appointed; none are elected.
They meet behind closed doors. No public input is accepted. (1) No taxpayer
can communicate with them or attend hearings, because there aren't any
hearings.
"Quite a system, isn't it? But hey, even Al
Capone knew that a picked jury guarantees the verdict. We have a good little
racket going here, and we are not about to change it for 150 million silly
vitamin-pill-popping voters. They will read what we decide they should read.
"Some WHOPPER members are concerned that, after
this story broke on the internet, a few nutritional crackpots are writing to
their Congressperson and Senators and demanding action. We understand that
questions being asked include, 'Why is there journal censorship in a public
library? Why the secrecy? Why is an unelected 'advisory' committee making
decisions, in private, about what the public has access to on the National
Library of Medicine's tax-funded Medline service? Should a select small
group, an elite, control a public library in the Land of the Free?'
"Now to reassure you: if you are worried about
pressure from the House and the Senate, relax. The people have better things
to do with their time than to really push their elected representatives for
action on something as small potatoes as the First Amendment. It is true that
American patriot Samuel Adams said, 'When arbitrary rulers are put over them,
when government is secret, the people become alarmed.'
"But don't worry. He's dead."
References:
(1) Correspondence received from Medline: "If
the (journal review) meeting were open to the public, word could circulate
about a committee recommendation before a final determination was made . . .
While names of review committee members are public information, NLM never
discloses names of primary and secondary reviewers for specific journals.
Observers could obtain that information and it could affect the openness of
discussion and might result in contact with specific reviewers after the
meeting. It is NLM's policy to prevent unnecessary contact with specific
reviewers."
For free access to over 600 full-text papers from
the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine:
http://orthomolecular.org/library/jom/
For access to Fluoride's free online archive:
http://www.fluorideresearch.org/backissues.pdf
The peer-reviewed Orthomolecular Medicine News
Service is a non-profit and non-commercial informational resource.
Editorial Review Board:
Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D.
Damien Downing, M.D.
Michael Gonzalez, D.Sc., Ph.D.
Steve Hickey, Ph.D.
James A. Jackson, PhD
Bo H. Jonsson, MD, Ph.D
Thomas Levy, M.D., J.D.
Jorge R. Miranda-Massari, Pharm.D.
Erik Paterson, M.D.
Gert E. Shuitemaker, Ph.D.
Andrew W. Saul, Ph.D., Editor and contact person.
Email: omns@orthomolecular.org
To Subscribe at no charge: http://www.orthomolecular.org/subscribe.html
MEDLINE,
to this day (January 2010) still steadfastly refuses to index the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine.
For more on Medline bias, please also look at http://www.doctoryourself.com/medlineup.html NOTE: Forty years of papers from the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine are now online for free access at http://orthomolecular.org/library/jom/ |
