How do you define a "small medical journal"? Is this definition based on the number of copies of the journal disseminated, its distribution, number of pages/original articles it publishes annually, its frequency of publication, its impact factor, etc?

Farrokh Habibzadeh
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In many instances it may be all of the characteristics you have outlined. In many situations, the local scientific community that is the primary source of authors and target is small. I will be waiting so see what Ana Marusic, Croatian Medical Journal says about this as she has written considerably on small medical journals. 

Adamson Muula
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To define this, we'd better find what makes a medical journal "BIG". A "big medical journal" has various characteristics, the most important one is that it can affect different aspects of medicine in different parts of the world by the articles published. It needs in turn to publish articles with such an impact to be cited repeatedly. To receive such articles, a medical journal must have at least: 

1- A full-time professional team

2- Editorial independence (regardless of financial support from any University or medical industry).

3- Rapid interval (to publish novel articles as soon as possible. Quarterly journals belong to the past.)

4- Sufficient budget (to buy valuable ROA, commentaries...from famous authorities. To make a professional atmosphere for its staff. To publicise.).

5- Active, rapidly updated, user friendly, and informative Web site.

6- And the combination of some other factors mentioned by Farrokh.

In other words, a "big medical journal" has straight impact on the medicine and health fields. And it can direct the politicians in making the decisions about health issues.  

Let’s get back to the main question: What is a "small medical journal"? It is not a "BIG" one, I suppose. 

Behrooz Astaneh
Deputy Editor, Iranian Journal Of Medical Sciences

http://ijms.sums.ac.ir
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If you consider the quantity of articles published by a journal, we will be able to consider such a classification, but if you think about the nature of the articles, their qualities or even the gauge of authors etc….There is no small or big medical journal. 

Circulation Research is a small journal of much greater importance  than Nature (large journal) for a cardiologist.

Hnid