OncologySTAT is a new website aimed at oncologists, internal medicine docs and others, that has just been launched by Reed Elsevier. For signing up, and revealing some of your professional info, Reed Elsevier will allow you to browse through scientific articles from more than 100 of the company’s scientific journals. The OncologySTAT site will feature ads to a targeted audience of medical professionals, and that will be the main source of revenue. According to the New York Times, the company also plans to capitalize “the site’s list of registered professionals, which it can sell to advertisers.” In other words, you might as well get ready for a flood of unsolicited emails.
We checked out the site, and found it to be well structured, and full of the latest scientific content. The ‘blogs and forums” section is still almost empty.
From the announcement:
“OncologySTAT is a first for getting a broad range of the latest evidence-based oncology information and news into the hands of health professionals in a manner that fits the practitioner’s workflow and time-constraints, so they can spend more time treating patients,” said Brian Nairn, CEO, Elsevier Health Sciences. “OncologySTAT matches the user’s need for rapid integrated access to the latest trusted oncology information with the pharmaceutical industry’s growing need and desire to communicate directly with oncology practitioners via credible online channels.”
The New York Times believes that a subscription-free site is a new business model for large scientific publishers such as Elsevier. While we agree that this is a step in the right direction, we still believe that the science–especially the tax-payer supported science, like most of it is–has to be open to all to be learned, taught, and reviewed, and it has to be free from registrations and constraints. One can only wonder when AMA’s (American Medical Association) journals will become free and open.
The New York Times: A Medical Publisher’s Unusual Prescription: Online Ads …
Press release: Elsevier’s OncologySTAT Delivers Unprecedented Free Portal for Integrated Professional Cancer Information and Clinical Resources …
OncologySTAT…