British Columbia Medical Journal

The British Columbia Medical Journal is a peer-reviewed general medical journal covering scientific research, review articles, and updates on contemporary clinical practices written by British Columbian physicians or focused on topics likely to be of interest to them, such as columns from the BC Centre for Disease Control and the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia. Although it is published by the British Columbia Medical Association (BCMA), it maintains distance from the BCMA in order to encourage open debate. It hosts an online database of all issues from 2000. The current editor-in-chief is David R. Richardson.

Frequency of publication

The journal publishes 10 issues per year, with combined issues in January/February and July/August.

History

The journal was originally known as the Vancouver Medical Association Bulletin and was published by the Vancouver Medical Association (VMA) for 34 years, from October 1924 until January 1959.

In its early years, the journal relied heavily on advertiser supporting. In 1957, as this income had begun to decline, the VMA and the BCMA entered into an agreement to restructure the publication, including its retitling, with BCMA paying to sustain the financially troubled journal. The first issue under the British Columbia Medical Journal title was released in January 1959. In January 1963, in response to continued decreasing advertiser support, the BCMA took over the journal completely.