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Health economics
Research
The process and costs of publishing medical journals in Sri Lanka: an economic evaluation
  1. P Ranasinghe1,
  2. Y S Perera2,
  3. A M Abeygunasekara1
  1. 1Colombo South Teaching Hospital, Kalubowila, Sri Lanka
  2. 2The National Hospital of Sri Lanka, Colombo, Sri Lanka
  1. Correspondence to Dr Priyanga Ranasinghe; rana90210{at}yahoo.com

Abstract

Objectives Medical journals have contributed to the advancement of medicine by helping to disseminate scientific knowledge and providing a forum for medical communities to debate issues in depth. To the authors' knowledge, there are no studies examining the process of medical journal publication in developing Asian countries. The authors analysed the process and costs of publishing medical journals in Sri Lanka, a developing country in South Asia.

Methods Data were collected by interviewing the editors and perusing the records at the editorial offices of the respective medical journals. Articles published in 2009 (or 2008 for journals not published in 2009) were analysed by perusing the respective journals.

Results A total of 44 medical journals were published in Sri Lanka's history, of which only 28 journals remained in publication after 2007. A majority (54%) of the journals published after 2007 were published once per year. Seventeen journals in publication after 2007 were published in paper version only, and 11 journals were also available online. The mean cost of printing one issue was Sri Lankan Rupees (LKR) 97 720 (US$888) (range LKR 28 000–270 000). The cost of distribution ranged from LKR 2000 to 140 000 (US$18–1273). The mean cost of publishing one article was LKR 6646 (US$60). A total of 456 articles were published in 2009 (/2008). The total number of pages published was 1723.

Conclusion The infrastructure for medical journal publishing in Sri Lanka has many good qualities such as free access, minimum charges for authors and potential for online availability. The journals are solely academic (non-profit), but the costs remain high.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial License, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non commercial and is otherwise in compliance with the license. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/ and http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/legalcode.

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2011-000057

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    Footnotes

    • To cite: Ranasinghe P, Perera YS, Abeygunasekara AM. The process and costs of publishing medical journals in Sri Lanka: an economic evaluation. BMJ Open 2011;1:e000057. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2011-000057

    • Funding This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Correction notice This article has been corrected since it was published Online First. The received date has been amended.

    • Competing interests None.

    • Contributors All authors were involved in study design, data collection and analysis. PR drafted the initial manuscript. The manuscript was critically reviewed by YSP and AMA. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data sharing statement No additional data available.