*Apologies for cross-posting*



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Press release: for immediate release
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Asia Pacific Family Medicine Moves to BioMed Central's Open Access
Platform 
 - Partnership Will Expand Journal's Reach -


LONDON - July 25, 2007-BioMed Central, the world's largest publisher of
online open access scientific journals, today announced that the journal
Asia Pacific Family Medicine (APFM) will join BioMed Central's family of
independent, open access journals.  The partnership between APFM and
BioMed Central continues the expansion of the worldwide scope of BioMed
Central's peer-reviewed journal publishing activity.

APFM, the regional journal for the World Organization of National
Colleges, Academies and Academic Associations of General
Practitioners/Family Physicians (Wonca), is an academic society journal
which publishes high quality, regionally-focused research aimed to
enhance the standards of family medicine by focusing on best practices. 

Family medicine is one of the fastest growing medical fields in the Asia
Pacific region.  By moving to BioMed Central's open access publishing
platform, APFM will widen the exposure of its family medicine research.
While APFM's articles were already freely available online, they were
not widely indexed or available through open access archives. Under the
agreement between APFM and BioMed Central, the society journal's entire
archive of back-issues will be archived in PubMed Central and other key
global repositories. In addition, all new research published in APFM
will be immediately indexed through BioMed Central's partnerships with
major indexing services. 

The move to a fully open access platform will also help to integrate
APFM's excellent regional family medicine research into the worldwide
body of medical knowledge. Editors at APFM expect to see more
international submissions to their journal as a result of the increased
exposure, leading to the greater globalization of the publication.
Additionally, APFM expects the move to help increase awareness of the
practice of family medicine in the region's developing countries.   

"We believe open access represents the future of academic publishing and
BioMed Central provides the best platform," said Dr. Tai-Pong LAM,
co-editor of APFM. "The open access platform provided by BioMed Central
will help to expose APFM to an international readership and authorship
which will enhance the quality of publication in APFM.  A better
standard of research will help bring improved patient care which all
APFM society members strive to achieve." 
 
The journal's joint Editors-in-Chief, appointed by Wonca Asia Pacific,
are Dr. LAM (Hong Kong), Dr. Lyn Clearihan (Australia), and Dr. Zorayda
Leopando (Philippines).

"Wonca's decision demonstrates that the proven success of the open
access publishing model offers benefits for academic society journals.
Moving to BioMed Central's open access platform will allow APFM to raise
the profile and visibility of the research it publishes," said Dr.
Matthew Cockerill, BioMed Central's Publisher. "We are honored that
Wonca has selected us to publish APFM, and we look forward to delivering
a top quality open access publication service to its authors and
editors. Thanks to BioMed Central's open access publishing platform,
APFM will be able to break down barriers to the latest research in
family medicine, and increase access to regional knowledge and best
practices." 

APFM is part of a growing stable of society journals now published by
BioMed Central. The Journal of the International Society of Sports
Nutrition, the only nonprofit academic society journal dedicated to
sports nutrition and growing the science of applied nutrition, has also
recently moved to the publisher's open access platform. Others include
Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica, the official journal of the Veterinary
Associations of the Nordic Countries, and Geochemical Transactions, the
official journal of the Geochemistry Division of the American Chemical
Society.


###

About Asia Pacific Family Medicine
APFM is dedicated to promoting the discipline of family medicine within
the region. The Journal aims to provide a forum for the dissemination of
high quality regional research and to enhance the standards of family
medicine by focusing on best practice. The Journal welcomes practical,
relevant articles covering the broad range of interests within the field
of family medicine. All original manuscripts are reviewed by at least
two appropriate reviewers in the field of the submitted paper.
Acceptance of manuscripts is based on scientific content and
presentation of material and at the discretion of the editors.

About World Organization of National Colleges, Academies and Academic
Associations of General Practitioners/Family Physicians (Wonca) Wonca is
made up of national colleges, academies or organizations concerned with
the academic aspects of general family practice. Beginning with 18
members in 1972, there are now 97 member organizations in 79 countries.
This includes eight organizations in collaborative relations with Wonca.
In all, the total membership of the member organizations of Wonca is
over 200,000 general practitioners/family physicians. Wonca represents
and acts as an advocate for its constituent members at an international
level where it interacts with world bodies such as the World Health
Organization.

About BioMed Central
BioMed Central (http://www.biomedcentral.com) is an independent online
publishing house committed to providing immediate access without charge
to the peer-reviewed biological and medical research it publishes. This
commitment is based on the view that open access to research is
essential to the rapid and efficient communication of science. In
addition to open access original research, BioMed Central also publishes
reviews and other subscription-based content.


For more information, please contact Charlotte Webber at BioMed Central 
phone: +44 (0)20 7631 9980 
email: [log in to unmask] 

OR

Robert Brumfield at Fusion PR
phone: 202.898.2000 
email: [log in to unmask]



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