West Indian Medical Journal is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that has been in publication since 1951, initially under the journal title Jamaica Medical Review, shortly after the commissioning of The University of the West Indies (UWI) as a College of the University of London in 1948. The UWI achieved full university status and became independent in 1962. The purpose of the Journal is to provide information of relevance to the Caribbean in a wide range of disciplines in or related to the health sciences, thereby facilitating communication among workers in these fields and contributing to improved healthcare.
West Indian Medical Journal also publishes several annual supplements that include proceedings of the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), Faculty of Medical Sciences’ Annual Research Day Conference, Annual Research Day of The University of the West Indies School of Clinical Medicine and Research, The Bahamas. The Journal’s abbreviated title is West Indian Med J, which should be used in bibliographies, footnotes and bibliographical references and strips.
West Indian Medical Journal is now an open access journal (2018), through the use of a Creative Commons licence. Publishing your manuscript through an open access medium puts more power in your hands and gives your article more visibility. Open access articles are freely available via the Internet to end users worldwide who can copy, share, and even adapt and build upon your work, as long as the work is correctly credited.
Publishing in an open access journal will also allow more citations for your work, as it is available to a wider cross-section of people who do not have to pay to access and use it, as is the case in subscription-based journals. All articles submitted to the Journal undergo a vigorous peer-review process.
The Journal is international in scope, with author and editorial contributions from across the globe. The focus is on clinical and epidemiological aspects of tropical and infectious diseases, new and re-emerging infections, chronic non-communicable diseases, and medical conditions prevalent in the Latin America-Caribbean region, and of significance to global health, especially in developing countries. The Journal covers all medical disciplines, as well as basic and translational research elucidating the pathophysiologic basis of diseases or focussing on new therapeutic approaches, and publishes original scientific research, reviews, case reports, brief communications, letters, commentaries and medical images. The Journal publishes four to six issues and four supplements annually. English is the language of publication but Abstracts are also duplicated in Spanish. Most of the articles are submitted at the authors’ initiative, but some are solicited by the Editor-in-Chief. Unless expressly stated, the Editorial Board does not accept responsibility for authors’ opinions.
All papers on submission are reviewed by a subcommittee. Those deemed worthy for review are sent to two or three reviewers (one of the three might be a statistician if necessary). The returned papers with reviewer comments are reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief. Papers may be rejected, accepted or sent back to authors for revision. Resubmitted papers from authors are reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief and may be sent back to reviewers or a final decision made by Editor-in-Chief. The decision of the Editorial Board is final with regards to rejected articles. Rejected articles will not be returned to the authors. The editorial subcommittee has the right to return sub-standard manuscripts to the authors, rather than passing them on to the reviewers. This implies outright rejection of the manuscript.
Faculties of Medical Sciences, The University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Kingston, Jamaica, St. Augustine Campus, Trinidad and Tobago and Cave Hill Campus, Barbados.
Authors of papers accepted for publication in West Indian Medical Journal retain copyright for their work. On submission of a manuscript to West Indian Medical Journal, authors implicitly grant exclusive publication rights for accepted articles to the Journal. For manuscripts that contain third party copyright material, authors are responsible for acquiring permission from the copyright holder for their work to be made available in an open access publication.
The Journal also produces on request special issues and supplements (conference proceedings eg Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), Faculty of Medical Sciences’ Annual Research Day Conference, Annual Research Day of The University of the West Indies School of Clinical Medicine and Research, The Bahamas). Others are welcomed.
The Journal is currently included in major abstracting and indexing services, including SciELO, Elsevier (Embase and Scopus), EBSCO (Biography Reference Center, Biomedical Reference Collection: Corporate, Caribbean Search) and Clarivate Analytics, formerly the Intellectual Property and Science business of Thomson Reuters (Web of Science/Science Citation Index Expanded, Journal Citation Reports/Science, Current Contents/Clinical Medicine, Biological Abstracts (BIOSIS), BIOSIS Previews, Essential Science Indicators). The Journal is also available on microform from Bell and Howell Information and Learning. ISSNs: 0043-3144 (print) and 2309-5830 (online).