1. Impact of PubMed Central on bmj.com
Tony Delamothe
web editor, bmj.com
Normally, I raid Yogi Berra for quotations for my web talks because of they seem most apt. But because I'm giving this talk in Boston I thought I would have to lift my game to a higher, more cerebral plain..
Having visited Walden pond on my last visit here I scoured the works of Henry Thoreau, to not much avail. (although “Simplify, simplify” isn’t a bad mantra to adopt) As I was thinking about what perspective made the most sense of where we are Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, and his popularisation of the word "paradigm" came to mind. Although published 40 years ago out of Berkeley California, it's clear from the author's preface that much of the intellectual work was done within a few miles of this building.

2. What we are
General medical journal - about one third original research articles
Published weekly
(nearest US analog: JAMA)
Looking back ( ):
Sept 1994: Ron La Porte, legal pad, ideas, convinced my colleagues, did so
Message: will finally have worked our way through that list when we introduce online submission of articles and peer review.
Sept 1994-Sept years.
>>Gap between idea and robust implementation takes as long or longer than it does in the world of bricks and mortar. The internet may have been the death of distance but it hasn't resulted in the death of time, or even concertina-ed it. Internet time is a chimera. Even Paul Ginsparg, the free-est of free spirits in the e-journal space, doesn't believe that.
So what did we do?
TOCs, Abstracts, full text of occasional articles - market said full text

3. Our PMC history First original articles posted January 2001
“Old” model (delay = zero)
Archive back to February 1998
Looking back ( ):
Sept 1994: Ron La Porte, legal pad, ideas, convinced my colleagues, did so
Message: will finally have worked our way through that list when we introduce online submission of articles and peer review.
Sept 1994-Sept years.
>>Gap between idea and robust implementation takes as long or longer than it does in the world of bricks and mortar. The internet may have been the death of distance but it hasn't resulted in the death of time, or even concertina-ed it. Internet time is a chimera. Even Paul Ginsparg, the free-est of free spirits in the e-journal space, doesn't believe that.
So what did we do?
TOCs, Abstracts, full text of occasional articles - market said full text

4. Links back to bmj.com

5. Segue into email a friend

6. PMC traffic: unique users, Nov 2002
Via PubMed
52%
Not via
PubMed
48%
Looking back ( ):
Sept 1994: Ron La Porte, legal pad, ideas, convinced my colleagues, did so
Message: will finally have worked our way through that list when we introduce online submission of articles and peer review.
Sept 1994-Sept years.
>>Gap between idea and robust implementation takes as long or longer than it does in the world of bricks and mortar. The internet may have been the death of distance but it hasn't resulted in the death of time, or even concertina-ed it. Internet time is a chimera. Even Paul Ginsparg, the free-est of free spirits in the e-journal space, doesn't believe that.
So what did we do?
TOCs, Abstracts, full text of occasional articles - market said full text
(total unique users =100%)

7. PMC traffic: articles, Nov 2002
Elsewhere
bmj.com
Looking back ( ):
Sept 1994: Ron La Porte, legal pad, ideas, convinced my colleagues, did so
Message: will finally have worked our way through that list when we introduce online submission of articles and peer review.
Sept 1994-Sept years.
>>Gap between idea and robust implementation takes as long or longer than it does in the world of bricks and mortar. The internet may have been the death of distance but it hasn't resulted in the death of time, or even concertina-ed it. Internet time is a chimera. Even Paul Ginsparg, the free-est of free spirits in the e-journal space, doesn't believe that.
So what did we do?
TOCs, Abstracts, full text of occasional articles - market said full text
48%
52%
(PMC’s total number of full text articles =100%)

8. Unique users “lost” to bmj.com/month = 3640
Elsewhere
Looking back ( ):
Sept 1994: Ron La Porte, legal pad, ideas, convinced my colleagues, did so
Message: will finally have worked our way through that list when we introduce online submission of articles and peer review.
Sept 1994-Sept years.
>>Gap between idea and robust implementation takes as long or longer than it does in the world of bricks and mortar. The internet may have been the death of distance but it hasn't resulted in the death of time, or even concertina-ed it. Internet time is a chimera. Even Paul Ginsparg, the free-est of free spirits in the e-journal space, doesn't believe that.
So what did we do?
TOCs, Abstracts, full text of occasional articles - market said full text
Total number of unique users of bmj.com /month =
Unique users “lost” to bmj.com/month = 3640

9. ?
Segue into a friend
Which option do people choose when a PubMed abstract links to full text on both bmj.com and PMC?

10. Top referring sites Search engines (various) Other BMJ PG sites
HighWire portal
freemedicaljournals.com
www2.kumc.ed
PubMed
NEJM
PubMed Central
Looking back ( ):
Sept 1994: Ron La Porte, legal pad, ideas, convinced my colleagues, did so
Message: will finally have worked our way through that list when we introduce online submission of articles and peer review.
Sept 1994-Sept years.
>>Gap between idea and robust implementation takes as long or longer than it does in the world of bricks and mortar. The internet may have been the death of distance but it hasn't resulted in the death of time, or even concertina-ed it. Internet time is a chimera. Even Paul Ginsparg, the free-est of free spirits in the e-journal space, doesn't believe that.
So what did we do?
TOCs, Abstracts, full text of occasional articles - market said full text

11. Where users of BMJ material on PMC come from
20000
18000
16000
14000
Direct
12000
10000
8000
6000
PubMed
4000
2000
Jul- 01
Aug- 01
Sep- 01
Oct- 01
Nov- 01
Dec- 01
Jan- 02
Feb- 02
Mar- 02
Apr- 02
May- 02
Jun- 02
Jul- 02
Aug- 02
Sep- 02
Oct- 02
Nov- 02

12. Full text BMJ articles retrieved from PMC
35000
30000
25000
20000
15000
10000
5000
Jul- 01
Aug- 01
Sep- 01
Oct- 01
Nov- 01
Dec- 01
Jan- 02
Feb- 02
Mar- 02
Apr- 02
May- 02
Jun- 02
Jul- 02
Aug- 02
Sep- 02
Oct- 02
Nov- 02
Dec- 02

13. Articles retrieved/month end total20 18 16 14 12
Direct 10 8 6 4 2
PubMed
Jul- 01
Aug- 01
Sep- 01
Oct- 01
Nov- 01
Dec- 01
Jan- 02
Feb- 02
Mar- 02
Apr- 02
May- 02
Jun- 02
Jul- 02
Aug- 02
Sep- 02
Oct- 02
Nov- 02
Dec- 02

14. Conclusions
Half the people who access full text BMJ articles on PMC come to bmj.com
PMC “diverts” <1% of bmj.com’s potential users
Use of BMJ material on PMC is falling
Looking back ( ):
Sept 1994: Ron La Porte, legal pad, ideas, convinced my colleagues, did so
Message: will finally have worked our way through that list when we introduce online submission of articles and peer review.
Sept 1994-Sept years.
>>Gap between idea and robust implementation takes as long or longer than it does in the world of bricks and mortar. The internet may have been the death of distance but it hasn't resulted in the death of time, or even concertina-ed it. Internet time is a chimera. Even Paul Ginsparg, the free-est of free spirits in the e-journal space, doesn't believe that.
So what did we do?
TOCs, Abstracts, full text of occasional articles - market said full text