Is The Student Doctor indexed in PubMed?

A question we hear a lot is "is the Student Doctor indexed in PubMed?" This question makes a lot of sense, given that two points are available on the UK Foundation Programme application for academic publications - providing, that these publications have a PubMed ID. The reason for this requirement, is that indexing in PubMed is a sign of quality - that the journal's editorial process is credible, objective and transparent, and that the research and discussion published within that journal has the rigour and originality necessary to impact on the field of research, and in turn, clinical practice.

These criteria for indexing in PubMed (also known as Medline®) are the same as the ethos and objectives of The Student Doctor. We aspire to be an accessible platform for medical students to join the medical research community, facilitating them to develop their research and critical appraisal skills and experience. In turn, we hope that this will enable them to become clinicians who base their clinical practice on evidence-based medicine. Despite the accessibility of our journal, we will not compromise on quality - neither of the work that we publish nor of our editorial processes and policies. We also believe that transparency in the scientific process is crucial, and for this reason, all of our policies are available to read on our website.

Given that our goals are aligned with those of Medline®, we will be applying to be indexed in the near future. Unfortunately, they normally require two years of published issues before considering applications. This application is part of our roadmap, so that we can increase the readership of the journal, and to help medical students to achieve their career goals. In the meantime, authors who publish in The Student Doctor before we achieve PubMed indexing will not miss out, as indexing would be applied retrospectively to all articles published in the journal.

If you have an article that you think would suit The Student Doctor, we would encourage you to read our author guidelines, and to submit your work for consideration for publication - submissions are now open, and we are waiting to hear from you.

James M. Kilgour & Shivali Fulchand

Editors-in-Chief