Publishing Proceedings of Conferences As Supplements

I have a question for the group and would be very grateful for advice.

We are considering including the proceedings of meetings, conferences, and workshops conducted locally as supplements to the journal. My query relates to the need for peer review of the included talks/abstracts. By publishing them, is the journal endorsing, and therefore responsible, for the contents or views expressed in the meetings?

Anuradha Ganesh
Co-Editor, Oman Journal of Ophthalmology
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You raise an important issue here. My suspicion is that a journal ordinarily does not endorse anything on its pages that is published (by it). Perhaps an editorial written by the board may be a journal’s responsibility content-wise. Other than that, the authors are the ones who should be held responsible for contents. Legal experts may have different views. Of course, in the newspaper business, it is not uncommon to sue an author, the magazine, the publisher, the association that owns it, the distributor, etc.

Adamson Muula
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Many international journals publish the proceedings and abstracts of a particular conference. The abstract should be the same as that of the presented one. In that case, the organizing committee of the conference has already done their homework in accepting such an edited abstract, so there is no need to edit it further. I think it can be published in the same format as it was submitted for the conference. The moment the abstract is edited or tampered with, it loses its originality and one can easily question whether it was the same abstract which was presented in the conference.

A journal never endorses any product or conference. It is only the mutual tie up with eminent journals that the organizers of the conferences manage to get their proceedings/abstract published.

Srijit Das
External Editor, Mc Gill Journal of Medicine
Asian Editor, New Iraqi Journal of Medicine
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NLM has a specific policy for indexing supplements in MEDLINE database, including those containing the proceedings of a conference, congress, or other type of meeting sponsored or financed by an outside group. See: Fact Sheet: Conflict of Interest Disclosure and Journal Supplements in MEDLINE (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/supplements.html).

Regina CF Castro
Coordinator, Health Scientific Communication