MJMS: Online First Fact Sheet
What is Online First?
Online First is a feature offered through MJMS electronic journal platform, MJMS Online. It allows final revision articles (completed articles in queue for assignment to an upcoming issue) to be hosted online prior to their inclusion in a final print and online journal issue. This feature is commonly referred to as “publish ahead of print,” “publish before print,” “continuous publishing,” and “P>P.” Access to full-text OnlineFirst articles are free of charge (MJMS is open access journal).
Benefits of Online First
Online First provides clear benefits to all researchers and users of the journal’s online content. The feature allows subscribers and members the ability to access the very latest papers in the field. Authors also benefit from greatly reduced lead times between submission and publication of articles. Without Online First, an author's work would only appear online once a finalized issue was sent to print. However, with Online First, manuscripts can appear online while other articles are being completed for an upcoming issue. An author’s research will therefore reach its audience more quickly, enabling an article to receive greater usage and exposure, including earlier citation opportunities by related work.
Citations to Online First articles
Each Online First manuscript is citable using the date of the manuscript's first online posting and the DOI. Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) are assigned to all MJMS content for use on digital networks and the metadata associated with that content is registered with the DOI Foundation (www.doi.org). DOIs provide a persistent, permanent way to identify manuscripts published in the online environment, even after they are assigned to a print issue. Information such as volume, issue, and page numbers are not allocated to OnlineFirst articles (as that information is not known until the issue is completed), therefore these manuscripts should be cited as follows:
Gogusev J, Chretien Y, Droz D. Aberrant Expression of Polycystin-1 in Renal Cell Tumors. Maced J Med Sci. Prepublished August, 18, 2008. doi:10.3889/MJMS.1857-5773.2008.0004.
After the article is assigned to a specific issue, new citations can be made using volume and page number information, while still using the DOI:
Gogusev J, Chretien Y, Droz D. Aberrant Expression of Polycystin-1 in Renal Cell Tumors. Maced J Med Sci. 2008;1(1):11-16. doi:10.3889/MJMS.1857-5773.2008.0004.
Each article DOI is registered with CrossRef (www.crossref.org), allowing permanent resolution to each article and giving publishers the ability to link their references to articles whenever they are cited.
Transition to a final issue
Once an Online First article is assigned to its final issue and given its bibliographic data, such as volume, issue, and first page number, the hosting of the article online transitions from the Online First listing to that of the completed issue. In other words, users will be able to locate the article via the journal’s main archive page rather than the Online First page. Citations using either the DOI or the bibliographic data will both resolve to the final article. The Online First version of the article will remain available but as a version to the final article(*v.pdf). The primary, completed article will be the prominent article found when linking into the DOI or article URL.
To view the list of Online First article postings, visit the journal’s homepage and click on the Online First link at the top of the page.
Do citations to Online First articles get counted in the calculation of Impact Factors?
Yes; however, according to Thomson Scientific, a citation to an article is not counted until an article is published in its final issue. For example, if an article becomes available in 2007 through Online First and is cited in 2007, but isn’t published in its final issue until 2008, the citation will count for the year 2008 rather than 2007.
Is the Online First article considered final and definitive?
Yes – the article will not change from this version (except by the addition of pagination and volume/issue data). If errors are identified in this version then they will only be corrected by use of an erratum (as is the case for any published article).
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